Author: Cheryl Benton
Publisher: The Three Tomatoes
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source:  Cheryl at The Three Tomatoes

Goodreads:  Three best friends rebel against unsolicited AARP cards, hot flashes, bosses, becoming invisible, and the perceptions of what’s old.

Suzy, Trish, and Madge, best friends since their early twenties, seemed to have it all. Beautiful, smart, and successful, they’d made it to the top in the most demanding city of them all, New York. Then they turned 50 and found that the world which once was their oyster started closing up faster than a New York minute. Bartenders ignore them, bosses marginalize them, and they’ve aged out of the prized 25-49-year-old demographic that marketers woo. They had suddenly become invisible.

Inspired by their friendships with a supportive and thriving group of New York City women, who call themselves the “Ripe Tomatoes,” Suzy, Trish, and Madge start to realize the power of saying, “YES,” and that living your dreams has nothing to do with age. And since no one else was celebrating women over 50, Suzy, Trish, and Madge started a business to do just that.

A funny and moving insider’s story about New York City’s not-so-invisible women over 50 and beyond, who are living their lives to the fullest, achieving dreams, dating, having sex, and sometimes even falling in love again. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll root them on, and you’ll never think about age the same way again.

Suzy, a top ad agency executive with a wonderful supportive husband and two great kids, had propelled little known brands into household names. Then she looked around one day and realized she was the oldest person in the conference room and her “12-year old” boss dismisses most of her ideas as appealing only to women with “dried up vaginas.”

Trish owns an art gallery, is married to a wealthy hedge fund guy, has a fabulous apartment overlooking Central Park, a summer home in the Hamptons, and a closet full of couture clothes…until her life is turned upside down by those dreaded words, “We have to talk.”

Madge, is a highly regarded TV journalist who has traveled the world on assignments and knows celebrities, presidents and kings by their first names, but has been too busy pursuing a career to have a life – until she’s pushed out of her TV morning show and replaced by a 30-something former beauty queen and Harvard graduate.

Ope’s Opinion:   As I am over 50, I thought I would relate to these women – that is part of the reason I wanted to read this book.  Although, it was a cute, fun story to read, I did not relate to the  privileged life these women were living. 

This story showed the importance of the support these women were for each other.  t Support needed no matter the age – that part of the story was easy to relate to.   I would hope that as women age, they would be appreciated for their knowledge and  experience – I think that is part of what this story was trying to say.

And on my soap box again! – why is the “f” word necessary?  Does it really add anything to the character? Do professional women really use that vocabulary?