Saturday, December 26, 2009

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (first in VaVaVa Boom series) by Allison Bottke

Originally posted Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Reviewed for Front Street Reviews

This book did make me feel like dancing! Lively, full of life and living both with a bad past and a sunny future. Allison Bottke is a Christian author who certainly knows how to draw the reader into the story. Her VaVaVa Boom series revolves around the Baby Boomers putting to rest the image of mid-life leading to old age, boredom, and empty nest syndrome. These Boomer Babes live vibrant, fascinating lives, hip and professional, and share their style of living and positive outlook on life with people of all ages. This is not to say life is just a bowl of cherries, there are many secrets in the lives of these characters which are discovered throughout the book and make the characters more real. Some discoveries are very difficult to swallow and return to in order to banish them but the journey is well worth it.

The Disco era is thoroughly researched, and makes for an exciting, throbbing background to the story. The main character, Susan Anderson, just on the verge of turning fifty, owns and operates a hair salon in Las Vegas. This is not at all your everyday type of salon, this is a tribute to one of the bounciest, vibrant and exciting eras of the 20th century. The passion and the history are the theme of her shop “Disco Divas”, and the decor is authentic. No ambient music in this salon, it’s Disco, baby, all the way! The beat comes through the background of the whole book, I felt as though I was listening to it while reading.

As a Christian book, it is not “in your face” but gently demonstrates through the relationships and commitments of the characters the strong faith shared. This is a novel that is rich with music history, the “in” people of the day, and a wealth of priceless memorabilia. I enjoyed this book so much I read it very quickly, mostly due to the continuing action that would not let me put the book down. This novel just flows between past and present. Congratulations Allison Bottke, you have a great sense of today’s new “coming of age” generation, the Baby Boomers! I’m sure this will be a wonderful series and look forward to reading more.

1 comment:

Josette said...

Hi there! I found your blog via Google.

I just finished this book a couple of days ago. I found it a light-hearted read but with cool information about the disco era, which I have never experienced.

Yes, I also thought that the book was well-researched and well-written! :) Here is my review of the book.