The Hot Flash Club

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.

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 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 show more 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

Faye, Shirley, Marilyn and Alice seem to have little in common apart from their age but when they meet by coincidence they realize that between them they have the ability to help each other with their problems. A friendship soon develops and by the end of the book they are all feeling stronger and more confident. This is an engaging and often amusing book although some of the plot lines are a little implausible. All of the characters are sympathetic and you find yourself wanting them to succeed in their individual endeavors. Great holiday reading.

A chance meeting at a cocktail party brings four menopausal women together to form the Hot Flash club, in which they share their immediate problems and plot to help one another. Despite their different backgrounds and education levels, they find they have a lot in common.

Contrary to popular belief we mature women are vital, sexual, and outrageous. I found I could really identify with the four main characters and loved the way they worked together and solved their problems - even if the solution was not necessarily the one they first thought of.

This book is one in a series and it is very well written, entertaining and easy to follow. I will be looking up the rest of the series.

As a 54 year old woman I had a lot of laughs with this book. Yes there are some parts that are unbelievable but this is chic lit at it's finest as far as I am concerned. I just picked up the audio book for a light book after reading 2 heavy ones and now I am going back for the sequels! Sometimes we just need to be entertained and these ladies did it for me!

I NEVER give 5 stars so you know it was good!!!! Second read of this in a number of years--so much more relatable now that I am in my menopausal years. I laughed so hard. Wish I had a crue like this!

I feel that this book is a must read for anyone. The ladies will certainly enjoy it as my wife did as well. And men? You will certainly get insight into the way the ladies think.

4 Women. Feeling old, left out, dismissed. They get together and help each other out in the most unusual ways working on their common strengths.

The book starts off easy with introductions into each of the personalities. Then it moves nicely to the plots. There is plenty of surprises and plenty of drama to satisfy this picky reader.

About the only thing I did not like about the book was the men bashing. Yet they couldn't live with 'em and couldn't live without 'em. There were a couple of men in this book that I feel were the extreme. I mean, these guys were real show more assholes. So I took them at face value.

Again, I highly recommend this book. It was enjoyable. It was a good story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did....

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