Thayer, Nancy 1943–

PERSONAL: Born December 14, 1943, in Emporia, KS; divorced first husband; married second husband, Charley Walters (a music store owner), 1984; children: (first marriage) Josh, Jessica Sam. Education: Attended the University of Wichita; University of Missouri—Kansas City, B.A., M.A., 1966.

ADDRESSES: Home—Nantucket, MA. Agent—c/o Ballantine Publicity, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Has taught English at various colleges. Cofounder, Friends of the Nantucket Atheneum. Served on the board of trustees of a local library.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellow, Breadloaf Writers Conference, 1981.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Stepping, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1980.

Three Women at the Water's Edge, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1981.

Bodies and Souls, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

Nell, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1985.

Morning, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1987.

Spirit Lost, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1988.

My Dearest Friend, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 1989.

Everlasting, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

Family Secrets, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Belonging, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

An Act of Love, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Between Husbands and Friends, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Custody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

"HOT FLASH CLUB" SERIES; NOVELS

The Hot Flash Club, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2003.

The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Hot Flash Holidays, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2005.

The Hot Flash Club Chills Out, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2006.

OTHER

Also author of a mystery novella, Vanished, serialized in Redbook and Australian News magazines, 1984. Contributor of short stories to periodicals, including Kansas Quarterly, Capilano Review, Nantucket Journal, Branching Out, Pique, Nimrod, and the University of Windsor Review. Contributor of nonfiction and essays to Writer and Parents' Choice. Thayer's work has been translated into German, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Portuguese.

ADAPTATIONS: Stepping was adapted as a thirteen-part series for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); and Spirit Lost was adapted for film and released by United Image Entertainment.

SIDELIGHTS: Although Nancy Thayer was close to forty when she published her first novel and was raising two young children at the time, she has never broken stride since then; balancing the careers of novelist and mother, she has consistently produced novels that blend contemporary social topics with engaging plots and characters.

Thayer began her writing life with Stepping, the story of a couple caught up in the romantic whirlwind of their recent marriage whose time together is interrupted by the husband's two daughters from an earlier marriage when they arrive for their summer visit. "Stepping" (short for stepparenting) is what young Zelda Campbell must learn to do, and do well, if she is going to successfully negotiate her new marriage. The story follows this newly configured family through ten years of living and learning. Zelda learns to accommodate her husband's daughters (and even their neurotic mother), at the same time learning to balance the requirements of her own family and career. Reviewers were impressed with this first effort. Library Journal critic Deirdre R. Murray called it "a likable first novel with a good view of women and life styles in the Seventies." Diana Newell Rowan, reviewing the novel for the Christian Science Monitor, wrote that the family's "erratic pattern of conflict, understanding, and growth over the next decade, through the birth of Zelda and Charlie's two children and their own maturing relationship, makes a story both fresh and personal—and, though the contemporary reasons are lamentable, widely appealing." Susan Isaacs, herself the author of many popular contemporary women's novels, lauded Thayer's effort in the New York Times Book Review; she concluded that "Thayer has created a fine character and written about a difficult social issue with insight and compassion."

Thayer's next book, Three Women at the Water's Edge, tackles the comforts and constrictions of family dynamics across the generations. It focuses on a mother and two daughters whose lives grow and change, though not always with each other's mutual approval. The older daughter, Daisy, lives what she believes is a life of domestic bliss, raising two children and expecting a third; her idyll is shattered when she discovers her husband's plans to leave her for a younger and thinner professional woman. Daisy's years of self-immersion in the pleasures and challenges of rearing young children have weakened her focus on her marriage and her own personal appearance. When she turns for consolation to her mother, Margaret, whose own matronly life she has been emulating, she finds chaos instead.

After thirty years of marriage, Margaret has tired of the constrictions of her relationship with her spouse; she can no longer tolerate a husband who bristles at any attempt she makes to improve her life, from trying to lose weight to attending concerts and art shows instead of the usual bridge club. Both father and daughters are as horrified when Margaret takes off for a new life in Vancouver, where she has a house by the sea and a self-supporting career. While Margaret still wants to show her love and support for her daughters, she is no longer willing to put her own life on hold in order to accommodate them. Dale, Margaret's younger daughter, is a career woman herself who has valued her independence above romantic relationships. When she meets and falls in love with Hank, her long-held self-sufficiency keeps her from pursuing a relationship with him.

Rowan, again writing in the Christian Science Monitor, was much impressed by Thayer's second effort: "[Three Women at the Water's Edge] has the same liveliness and believability of character [as Stepping], and yet it is an even better novel—more complex, more evenly paced, and the language more finely honed." School Library Journal reviewer Priscilla Johnson appreciated how "Thayer vividly conveys women's thoughts and feelings at different stages of life." Suzanne Freeman wrote a complimentary review of Three Women at the Water's Edge for the Washington Post Book World, concluding: "This is a whole and generous book. There is no skimping, no false economy of character. It is a book about big changes, but Nancy Thayer does not neglect the small moments that make it all real."

Bodies and Souls exposes the seamy underside of an upright, prosperous New England town. Nothing is quite what it seems in Londonton: the town's most tireless supporter of good works seethes inwardly with hatred and depends on valium to get through endless charitable functions. Her husband, a prosperous contractor, is a serial womanizer and embezzler. Their son, the town's Golden Boy, plans to run off with the town's rich, widowed bombshell. The minister wants to help his parishioners and his own troubled relationship with his son, but even more than that he wants to carry on an amorous affair with the widowed bombshell, too. Another character, a divorced mother of three, falls in love with her female college professor. All the characters' lives are powered by secret desires, which the novel slowly but inevitably reveals. A Booklist reviewer summed up Bodies and Souls as an "entertaining melodrama." A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "the plot is like a wheel, and the characters, at once separate and connected, fit into it as neatly as spokes." In comparing the novel to Stepping, Library Journal critic Michele Leber called it "a step down, but a probable seller."

Nell concerns the romantic future of the title character. Thirty-eight and divorced, Nell is mostly happy with her life, working in a boutique and raising her two young children, but she worries whether true love is in her future. Her liaisons with sexy young construction-worker types do not meet her ultimate desire for a long-term partner, but an introduction to Andy, a divorced man with a large, handsome house, seems to hold promise. A number of critics were unimpressed by Nell. In her review in the Washington Post Book World, Susan Isaacs commented: "The problem isn't that these characters are not well-described; there is no doubt what they look like. The problem is that they are not in the least engaging. The reader has little sense of what makes them tick, of why they are drawn to Nell, or (except for her children) why Nell is drawn to them." Los Angeles Times Book Review critic Marina Hirsch was more forgiving, noting: "While this novel is relentlessly trite—it is also warmly empathetic."

Spirit Lost met with a similar lack of enthusiasm from reviewers. A departure for Thayer, the novel tells a ghost story set in the present day on the island of Nantucket, in an old house that harbors a beautiful and seductive nineteenth-century ghost. The main characters, John and Willy Constable, chuck their harried Boston life so that John can return to painting and Willy can work on restoring the old house they have bought. But John's studio soon receives a ghostly visitor who threatens his marriage and even his life. Willy must discover the identity of this unwanted guest in order to fight her and reclaim John's life and love. While a review in Kirkus Reviews felt the novel is more proof that "Thayer is a skilled writer," the critic added that "most of her fans will wonder why she's wasting those skills chasing ghosts."

With Morning, Thayer returned to the world of contemporary women's fiction and social issues. In this novel, again set on Nantucket Island, protagonist Sara Kendall has left a hectic job in Boston in order to settle down with her husband and raise children—but first, they have to have some. After failing to conceive for six months, Sara begins to experience awful feelings of inadequacy and desperation about the future of her marriage and her chances at motherhood. One helpful distraction from these woes is her freelance editing work, which produces an intriguing glimpse at the makings of a serious novel buried among the pages of a trashy bodice-ripper in one of the manuscripts she has received. Sara becomes a sort of midwife to author Fanny Anderson, helping her to put aside writing easy-money trash for the harder but more satisfying Jenny's Book, an autobiographical novel about the pain and joys of aging. As Sara works with Fanny, her own fear and desperation about childbearing and aging attain a broader, more helpful perspective.

Assessing Morning for the New York Times Book Review, Robin Bromley reported: "For all her self-consciousness, Sara fails to see the bitter narcissism lurking beneath her obsession. And, unfortunately, Ms. Thayer suffers similar lapses in perception." On the other hand, Joseph McLellan, evaluating the novel for the Washington Post Book World, commented that "her characters are the kind of people you are likely to know or want to know; they engage your attention and sympathy and involve you in the richly observed texture of their lives."

My Dearest Friend explores the intimate territory of friendship and betrayal. The story is told in flashbacks: present-day Daphne Miller is coping with her lover's death and her sixteen-year-old daughter's decision to move out and live with the father she hardly knows. The end of child support payments force Daphne to move to a tiny cottage on a country lane, where her neighbors include Jack Hamilton, a new professor in the English department where Daphne serves as secretary. An attraction quickly develops that makes Daphne wonder whether she will be the one to ruin another woman's marriage, much as hers was wrecked when her reputed friend Laura Kraft had an affair with Daphne's husband many years before. Tension builds as Daphne considers whether to pursue the affair, with the almost certain pain the experience would bring.

The critical response to My Dearest Friend was reminiscent of that to Thayer's earlier novels. Critics appreciated its realism and emotional complexity. A Kirkus Reviews contributor, for one, wrote that "she returns to good stuff here—how women are just as capable of perfidy as men, and how they ought to do their best to protect one another." A Library Journal reviewer commented that "this will entertain readers looking for a modern romance with some insights into human relations." A Publishers Weekly writer observed that the novel "starts out slowly, [but] it turns into a winner."

Everlasting chronicles the life of Catherine Eliot, a young girl who rejects her well-off family's plans for her life and gets cut off from their support. She eventually lands a job in a flower shop that she later buys and turns into a popular New York institution. Her marriage to lawyer Kit Bemish and struggles to balance home life and career fill out the rest of this rags-to-riches story. A Kirkus Reviews critic called this offering "a definite turn-off for old Thayer fans," and a reviewer for Publishers Weekly deemed it a "lightweight, predictable fairy tale."

Family Secrets returns to the theme of women's intergenerational conflicts. Its main character is middle-aged Diane Russell, who has built a career in jewelry design in large part to avoid walking in her mother's conventional child-rearing footsteps. When Diane discovers that her mother, Jean, is wanted by the FBI in connection with activities she was part of in the 1930s, her illusion of her mother's ordinariness is shattered. Meanwhile, Diane's daughter Julia, who resents having a career mother, has run away from boarding school to pursue her relationship with a college-age boyfriend. While Diane, the capable, self-assured career woman, worries at home, her own mother relives the excitement of past adventures in a visit to Paris. Many of Thayer's critics liked Family Secrets. In Tribune Books, Joyce R. Slater wrote that "Thayer develops the mystery with sensitivity and insight, spinning quite a yarn, then wraps it all up with an unusually satisfying ending." A Publishers Weekly reviewer added that "with quiet intensity, Thayer tells an engrossing story of three generations of proud and rebellious women."

In Belonging, Joanna Jones, the creator and host of a cable television show called "Fabulous Homes," is a Martha Stewart manque. Her life seems like every woman's dream, until the reader learns that her romantic relationship is not so happy. Her affair with the married coproducer of the show results in pregnancy, and the father has no interest in the twin children. Joanna's pregnancy forces her off the show; she buys a house in Nantucket so that she can carry her pregnancy to term in relative privacy, but complications at birth result in the death of one of the twins. More troubles ensue before Joanna is able to reclaim her former prominence, now with a beautiful infant son in tow. Several critics offered favorable reviews of Belonging, although some expressed reservations. Janet St. John noted in Booklist that "except for the over attention to material and social superficiality, Thayer's story of a woman's quest for self-identity and self-affirmation does inspire." Library Journal contributor Margaret Hanes observed that Thayer "offers plenty of well-crafted surprises." And a Kirkus Reviews critic wrote that Thayer is "especially marvelous at depicting babies in all their messy charm, and she knows how to create strong, stubborn, memorable characters."

An Act of Love takes on the painful subject of incest, although that term is redefined in this family context. Owen and Linda McFarland have each been married before, and each has a child from their previous marriage. Now they live, happily to all appearances, in a charming farmhouse in Massachusetts. But when Linda's teenage daughter, Emily, attempts suicide, it quickly becomes clear that something is amiss. Linda spends time in a psychiatric unit before she reveals that her stepbrother, Bruce, has raped her. Bruce denies the charge, and Linda and Owen are torn between their commitment to their marriage and family and their loyalty to their biological children. By revealing facts about the rape that the family has not been privy too, Thayer brings about the possibility of reconciliation. Mary Frances Wilkens, a reviewer for Booklist, felt that the author loses track of her story, but she acknowledged that "Thayer's prose is fluid and concise, her characters rich and human." A Publishers Weekly critic complimented Thayer's effort, noting that the book "shows a firm grasp of her craft."

Between Husbands and Friends moves between past and present in the lives of two couples who have long been friends. Lucy West, the novel's narrator, looks back to 1987, when she and Kate Cunningham met at their children's preschool. Since then the families have grown closer, vacationing together at a Nantucket house Lucy inherited. But the discovery that Lucy's son Jeremy has cystic fibrosis brings up a long-buried secret—Lucy's brief affair with Kate's husband at a time when she was recovering emotionally from a stillbirth. The question of Jeremy's paternity arises, engendering awful tension between the families. Although several critics found much to like in the novel, there were still some quibbles. Michelle Kaske maintained in Booklist that "what could have been a solid story of female friendship is a melodrama of marriage and lust," but a reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that "thoughtful chronicles of female friendship … always have appeal, and Thayer's twist on the relationship is sure and steady."

Custody features Kelly MacLeod, a Massachusetts family court judge who befriends a mysterious stranger while visiting her mother's grave, then falls in love with him without knowing his real identity. In her courtroom, a custody battle wages over Tess, the adopted daughter of Randall Madison, a well-known doctor, and his wife, Anne, a high-profile state reformer. Kelly is pulled into the family's personal and legal troubles without realizing that Randall Madison is the mysterious stranger with whom she has fallen in love. "A gripping examination of lives in flux," was the assessment of Melanie Danburg in a Houston Chronicle review. Danburg praised the "riveting and truly complex" storyline and the "thoroughly satisfying" conclusion. "Nancy Thayer's brilliance," wrote Harriet Klausner in a BookBrowser review, "resides in her ability to make interesting tales starring people like you and I."

Following some of her more serious books, Thayer is also the author of a series of more whimsical novels, collectively referred to as the "Hot Flash Club" series. In the first book, The Hot Flash Club, which a Publishers Weekly contributor described as "chick lit for the AARP crowd," Thayer introduces her key players, who are all women in their fifties and sixties. A chance meeting at a Boston-area retirement party brings together career-minded success story Alice, widowed family matriarch and noted painter Faye, spiritual massage therapist and fitness maven Shirley, and brilliant but drab scientist and academic Marilyn. The women band together to form the Hot Flash Club, in a nod to their age and encroaching menopause, but with the goal of helping each other through the travails of life, love, and career. Shirley, who lives with a man many years her junior, longs to create a spa resort, and so she works with business-minded Alice to create a workable business plan. Fay, still grieving over the death of her husband, Jack, attempts to work through a nagging creative malaise that keeps her from painting, all the while helping her daughter deal with a newborn baby and philandering husband. Mousy Marilyn is happy within the rigors of her intellectual career and lifestyle, but she worries that her son is marrying a gold-digger. Finally, Alice, a go-getter and high achiever who fought her way up the corporate ladder, is suffering in silence from the effect of arthritis and warily eyeing an ambitious younger version of herself who is vying for her job. Changes are in store for all the key players as the Hot Flash Club applies its plans and remedies to their various situations. Booklist reviewer Margaret Flanagan commented that this "humorously poignant tribute" to successful, mature women presents the "potential to charm readers of all ages and both sexes." Harriet Klausner, writing for Allreaders.com, commented that "the four key players are solid and fans will enjoy this middle age chorus line chick lit tale."

In The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again the original group of Faye, Alice, Shirley, and Marilyn welcome a new quartet to the club as everyone gathers for some healing services at Shirley's Boston-area health club, the Hot Spot Spa. In-laws are the source of trouble for Polly, Carolyn, Julia, and Beth. Polly finds herself unwillingly in thrall to her late husband's mother, who demands Polly's constant care. Beth has fallen in love with rough-hewn Sonny, but has yet to convince his mother, whose behavior toward Beth exceeds unpleasantness and crosses the line into villainy, that she is sincere. Julia has become stepmother to emotionally troubled Belinda; the child has not spoken since her mother's death when she was five. However, Belinda's grandmother resents what she sees as Julia's intrusion and attempt to take her dead daughter's place in her granddaughter's affections. Carolyn has achieved her goal of finally becoming pregnant at age thirty-seven, but her high blood pressure is exacerbated by her executive position in the family paper mill; she faces additional turmoil when her widowed father marries the much-younger Heather, who Carolyn thinks is after her father's money. With the help of the original Hot Flash members, the new members find ways to overcome their troubles, bring justice where it is deserved, and lay the foundations for improved personal and professional lives. Kristine Huntley, writing in Booklist, called the book a "charming sequel" and "a warm, engaging read."

The holidays bring more troubles, but firm resolution, to the Hot Flash women in Hot Flash Holidays. Marilyn, Faye, Shirley, Alice, and Polly share the good times and the bad as their lives intersect with family and holiday expectations. When Polly tries to cook for her vegetarian daughter-in-law, she has an accident that nearly burns down her house. Faye, in a hurry to get to the airport to pick up her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, takes a tumble and breaks her ankle. Marilyn faces challenges as she becomes caregiver for her aging mother and receives a marriage proposal from her dedicated but impotent boyfriend. Shirley pays to have her younger boyfriend's novel published in hopes that he will be grateful enough to ask her to marry him, but she is disappointed at his reaction. Alice finds herself seized by the holiday blues as her family expands in unexpected ways. "Thayer creates sympathetic sexagenarians with adoring (if sometimes impotent) lovers, untapped talents, and visions of future happiness," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

The Hot Flash Club Chills Out finds the five club members sharing an extended holiday at a summer home in Nantucket that was provided by a client of Shirley's. As they relax from their stressful lives back in Boston, each woman works to find new approaches to life, love, and family. Faye finally is inspired to paint again, even as she finds her affections for her longtime lover fading. Alice looks after her granddaughter, while her son and his wife's marriage appears to crumble. Marilyn fends off family troubles and discovers renewed interest in an old acquaintance. Polly resents her boyfriend, Hugh's willingness to immediately leap to the aid of his ex-wife every time she calls. Shirley thinks she might have found her fourth husband there within the luxurious Nantucket sands. Meanwhile, all five Hot Flashers deal with mysterious goings-on in their vacation home, which is reputed to be haunted. "Thayer gives us matron lit, chick lit thirty years down the road," remarked Carol Deptolla in a JSOnline review. She "doesn't shy from the ups and downs of growing older, thus filling a rather empty niche in fiction," Deptolla noted. Booklist reviewer Carol Haggas observed: "Seemingly insurmountable problems are made manageable with the healing combination of cool Atlantic breezes and warm, trusting friendships." Mlive.com reviewer Helen S. Bas concluded: "Women of all ages will enjoy this most engaging representation—young ones will see what's coming, older ones will remember, and we middle-agers can relate, perhaps more than we're willing to admit even to ourselves."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1983, review of Bodies and Souls, p. 1077; May 1, 1995, Janet St. John, review of Belonging, p. 153; July, 1997, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of An Act of Love, p. 1777; August, 1999, Michelle Kaske, review of Between Husbands and Friends, p. 1989; November 15, 2001, Carolyn Kubisz, review of Custody, p. 549; November 15, 2003, Margaret Flanagan, review of The Hot Flash Club, p. 582; November 15, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, p. 532; September 15, 2005, Kristine Huntley, review of Hot Flash Holidays, p. 7; June 1, 2006, Carol Haggas, review of The Hot Flash Club Chills Out, p. 6.

Christian Science Monitor, April 2, 1980, Diana Newell Rowan, "Detente in the Family Room," review of Stepping, p. 17; November 12, 1981, Diana Newell Rowan, "New Fiction Captures Changing Roles of Three Women," review of Three Women at the Water's Edge, p. 21.

Cosmopolitan, March, 1987, Marilyn Stasio, "Fiction's Fresh New Wave," p. 288.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1988, review of Spirit Lost, pp. 855-856; July 15, 1989, review of My Dearest Friend, p. 1032; December 15, 1990, review of Everlasting, p. 1706; April 1, 1993, review of Family Secrets, p. 407; May 1, 1995, review of Belonging, pp. 585-586; July 1, 1997, review of An Act of Love, p. 982; July 15, 1999, review of Between Husbands and Friends, p. 1078; October 1, 2003, review of The Hot Flash Club, p. 1199; November 15, 2004, review of The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, p. 1068.

Library Journal, February 15, 1980, Deirdre R. Murray, review of Stepping, p. 531; April 15, 1983, Michele Leber, review of Bodies and Souls, p. 842; August, 1985, Michele Leber, review of Nell, p. 119; August, 1989, Nora Rawlinson, review of My Dearest Friend, p. 166; January, 1991, Marylaine Block, review of Everlasting, p. 157; June 1, 1995, Margaret Hanes, review of Belonging, p. 166; October 15, 2005, Rebecca Vnuk, "Deck the Halls: These Thirteen Titles Deliver the Best of the Season," review of Hot Flash Holidays, p. 46.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 3, 1985, Marina Hirsch, review of Nell, p. 8.

New York Times Book Review, February 3, 1980, Susan Isaacs, "Women at Ease," p. 14; February 21, 1988, Robin Bromley, review of Morning, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, February 18, 1983, review of Bodies and Souls, p. 115; July 21, 1989, review of My Dearest Friend, p. 50; January 18, 1991, review of Everlasting, p. 42; April 19, 1993, review of Family Secrets, p. 49; July 21, 1997, review of An Act of Love, p. 183; August 16, 1999, review of Between Husbands and Friends, p. 65; November 24, 2003, review of The Hot Flash Club, p. 43; November 15, 2004, review of The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, p. 42; September 19, 2005, review of Hot Flash Holidays, p. 45.

School Library Journal, May, 1982, Priscilla Johnson, review of Three Women at the Water's Edge, p. 21.

Times Literary Supplement, June 3, 1988, Roz Kaveney, "Problems for the Reading Public," p. 623.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), June 27, 1993, Joyce R. Slater, "A Widow's Unusual Former Life, a Diplomat Whose Love Stirs Strife," p. 4.

Washington Post Book World, October 25, 1981, Suzanne Freeman, "Tides in the Affairs of Women," review of Three Women at the Water's Edge, p. 15; July 14, 1985, Susan Isaacs, "A Woman's Life in the Slow Lane," review of Nell, p. 14; March 6, 1988, Joseph McLellan, review of Morning, p. 8; September 11, 1988, Robert Masello, "The Ghost on the Widow's Walk," p. 10.

ONLINE

Allreaders.com, http://www.allreaders.com/ (September 10, 2006), Harriet Klausner, reviews of The Hot Flash Club, and The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again.

BookBrowser, http://www.bookbrowser.com/ (September 15, 2001), Harriet Klausner, review of Custody.

Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (September 10, 2006), Roz Shea, "Basket of Holiday Cheer," review of Hot Flash Holidays; Jennifer Krieger, review of The Hot Flash Club Chills Out.

Fresh Fiction, http://freshfiction.com/ (September 10, 2006), Meghan Fryett, "Delightful Addition to This Mischievous and Clever Series," review of The Hot Flash Club Chills Out.

Houston Chronicle Online, http://www.chron.com/ (December 14, 2001), Melanie Danburg, "A Heroine Both Laughable and Likable," review of Custody.

Inquirer & Mirror, http://www.ack.net/ (September 10, 1999), Catherine Fahy, "Nantucket Author Nancy Thayer Releases Twelfth Novel."

JSOnline, http://www.jsonline.com/ (July 28, 2006), Carol Deptolla, "Getting Older with Style in Club's Latest Installment," review of The Hot Flash Club Chills Out.

Mlive.com, http://www.mlive.com/ (July 30, 2006), Helen S. Bas, "Women of Hot Flash Club Have Fun, Adventure Again," review of The Hot Flash Club Chills Out.

Nancy Thayer Home Page, http://www.nancythayer.com (September 10, 2006).