You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Allison Bottke

My sister asked me, ‘Why someone your age would read this kind of book?’

True, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing is about older women who are reaching middle age or are already past that age group.

But it is still a fun, light-hearted read and I learnt more about these baby boomers.

This is the first of three novels in the Va Va Va Boom series. From the book:

The “boom” refers to the baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers today, of which approximately 38 million are women, represent 28 percent of the U.S. population. Boomer women are some of the healthiest, wealthiest, and best-educated women ever to hit midlife.

When I hit 50, I’d sure love to look like Susan Anderson. Folks compliment that she looks better than women who are younger than her!

Anyway, Susan works hard to be where she has come to be. She owns a hip and happening salon in Las Vegas called Disco Diva. Customers go there not only for professional haircuts and styling but they are also nurtured and comforted by the boss herself.

Susan believes in God-cidences instead of the usual coincidences. She always looks on the bright side of things and constantly turns to her Creator for guidance and solace. With that, she’s always lending a helping hand or just being there for someone in need.

Initially, her relationship with her husband, Michael was somewhat non-existent. They rarely saw each other as they worked at different times of the day. She works during the day while he works at night. When she leaves for work, he’s only just returning home for his sleep. They only get the chance to spend time with each other during meals and on Mondays but that had to be cancelled at times.

A dilemma occurred when Susan and Michael began to pursue their hopes and dreams at the same time without first discussing everything. Finally, they agreed to go ahead with both their plans and vowed to somehow make everything work out.

Michael was building his dream home while Susan was working on having a bigger place for her salon and creating a museum to showcase her precious disco memorabilia. She had her friend and mentor, Lily to fund the entire project while roping in the help of the young and dashing Ryan Power to manage it. They also have Tina to help out with the inventory of Susan’s entire disco collection. Together, the four of them, excluding Michael, make a wonderful team.

Michael rarely drops in to help Susan with her project. Susan, on the other hand, is doing as much as she can for her husband’s and her own project. She also has to attend to customers at her salon. With so much going on, her close friends and online support group worry for her and urged her to get some rest. Will both projects be completed smoothly? Does Susan have the strength to cope with everything that’s going on?

The novel is 437 pages long but the chapters are kept short. The author also made it 54 chapters, which I suspect was inspired by Studio 54, Susan’s favourite disco in the 70s. It’s a quick and easy read, a chick lit kind of book but it’s also Christian fiction.

To avoid a long, monotonous read, there are also e-mail correspondence between Susan and her online boomer babe friends. They have never met in real life before and only communicated via technology such as the Internet, video camera and of course, the telephone.

For the first half of the book, Susan seems to be a lively and confident mature woman who carries herself well. However, I was surprised when she suddenly broke down and went completely hysterical when something unexpected happened. The sudden transformation of her character was unbelievable. Perhaps I’m not 50 so I wouldn’t know how women that age would act.

But still, it was an enjoyable read from a different perspective. I don’t always read books about middle-aged folks. Among those I remember is A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and that was somewhat hilarious. This book somehow only managed to get one chuckle out of me. The rest of the time was purely a relaxing read. It’s also a great opportunity for me to discover more about the disco era during the 70s and 80s!

***Thanks to Audra Jennings from The B&B Media Group for sending me this book to review.

Other reviews: CeeCee, Nightreader