Nancy Thayer

I enjoy Nancy Thayer's stories - they are light, escapist, beach reads. This one should have had all the right notes - a wonderfully depicted Nantucket setting, a successful protagonist going home to mend fences and take care of her mom, a story about forgiveness. It was fine, but honestly, by the end I couldn't figure out WHY Keely wanted to patch things up with Isabelle because she wasn't really a likable character.

I don't feel like the supporting characters were as fleshed out as I'd show more like them to be, either, and maybe if I knew a little more about Isabelle's thinking I could have sympathy for her, but part of me was rooting for Keely to say "bye, bish."

HOWEVER - Thayer did keep me turning the pages, and it was a nice escape, so for that, I'll give the book 3-1/2 stars. (rounding to 4 for review purposes) show less

Four older women form an unlikely friendship and end up helping each other work through divorce, career setbacks, troublesome adult kids, and the inevitability of vanished youth.

It's not great literature, but it's an easy read with likable characters and a final scene that veers toward French Farce.

This novel sets up a series that one might want to stash for future need, the way one would stash a luxury box of chocolates for a time when decadent self-indulgence is called for.

I got the chance to read this early from Netgalley and I'm thrilled that I was selected.
I have my favorite beach book authors and Nancy Thayer is one of the best.

I don't give 5 stars easily but this is everything you could ask for in a beach book.

Darcy is pretty happy with her life. She lives in Nantucket year round, she has her dream job as a librarian, she has the perfect house left to her by her grandmother, there's a sweet and handsome almost boyfriend and a lovable cat named Muffler.

All show more in all, life is sweet and it hasn't always been that way. There was a time in Darcy's life when her parents gave her up to her grandmother. It led to a very content time in her life though. She met a man named Boyz and married, then things fell apart when he left her for another woman.

This led Darcy back to her grandmother's side and when she lost her grandmother she was alone again. But leaving Darcy her home, she felt at peace in the world again.

Darcy never paid too much attention to the vacationers that rent homes around her, but this year is different. To her shock, her ex-husband rents the house next door with his new wife and step daughter.
Another, frantic, vacationer shows up on her doorstep asking to borrow a cup of milk.
And she instantly bonds with sweet elderly Mimi that reminds her if her own grandmother.

As the summer passes, Darcy finds herself drawn into her temporary neighbors' lives. She forms very unexpected connections and she starts to wonder whether she might have met the real love of her life.

Very upbeat, filled with strong, likable characters, including a very lovable cat. I loved how Darcy was content with her life before the summer even started. This isn't a book about a woman devastated over her divorce, she's also not sad to be single. But letting herself form strong relationships with new people was also empowering for her.

Loved this book. I tried to put it down and save it a bit longer, but I couldn't. show less

SOME SPOILERS - BUT NOTHING THAT WILL RUIN THE BOOK ;)

When four women in their 50s-60s meet by chance at a mutual acquaintance’s retirement party and duck out for some real fun (cocktails and chocolate), they find themselves commiserating over their mid-life issues. Deciding each one could play a part in helping the other through their difficulties, they form the HFC - The Hot Flash Club.

We then follow Faye, the recently widowed artist who is tapped to become a live-in housekeeper for an show more uber wealthy family to see if their daughter truly loves the son of HFC member Marilyn. Marilyn in turn, who is a tenured professor at MIT, takes on the role of assistant to Alice, the fierce executive to find out if Alice’s job is at risk. Alice assists Shirley, the flighty, hippie-dippie masseuse create a business plan to open a retreat, and Shirley spies on a young woman having an affair with Faye’s daughter.

While like any book where there are multiple protagonists, it takes a minute to keep the characters straight, but Nancy Thayer does an excellent job with that and with keeping the storyline moving quite cohesively. The downside for me was I really wanted more ‘hot flashishness.’

Written in 2003, The Hot Flash Club just sort of faded off into the reader’s imagination as the ending, which was a typical style of that time. This leaves the reader wondering about, well, everything. Did Faye’s daughter and her philandering husband work things out? Is Alice going to stay with the man whom she just met but confessed to having recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer? Will Shirley get the retreat up and running? And will Marilyn settle down with her co-worker? I’m not a fan of the fade to black ending as it leaves people like me with an innate need for clarity too many sleepless nights.

All-in-all, a fun, well-written, easy-to-read page-turner. (And for those of you who actually read reviews, that was likely the most hyphens I’ve ever used in one sentence!) show less