The Big 5-0h! the review

This is a guest post by Tina L. Scott (formerly Miller). Tina is a freelance photographer from Merrill, Wisconsin with a passion for writing. She can be reached at PhotographyByTina.com

Book
The Big 5-0h!

Author
Sandra D. Bricker

The Review
Olivia Wallace is on the verge of her 50th birthday and not looking forward to it at all. She is convinced that her birthdays are cursed and merely one more opportunity to be struck down by doom and gloom or tragedy. She cites a list of calamities from getting dumped by a boyfriend on her sweet sixteenth birthday to illnesses, falls, blizzards, and other problems or occurrences on subsequent birthdays to support her case.

So when her best friend and neighbor Hallie insists she take a mini vacation in her mother’s vacant home in Florida to break free from her slump, Olivia finds herself convinced and on a flight to the sunshine state. And her trip really does seem to be changing her outlook, right from the very first. In fact, she meets a handsome gentleman named Jared Hunt on the flight south before she even steps foot off the plane and begins to feel the very first stirrings of interest and attraction she’s experienced since her husband, Robert, died several years earlier from a heart attack. Alas, it is only a momentary encounter, since Olivia loses sight of
him upon disembarking when she has to use the ladies room like something fierce immediately after landing. But that’s pretty much par for the course with Olivia, since she isn’t really expecting anything magical or miraculous at this point in her life—rather, the doom and gloom seems to be her expectation and what she attracts by default. But could this be the beginning of a new outlook for Olivia? One never knows.

Then Olivia arrives at her friend’s home in Florida to find her flatulent dog, Missy Boofer, ready to attack when she enters the home. But Boofer’s gas and her bark are a lot more threatening than her bite, and soon she finds herself drawn to the dog and talking to her as if she is her personal companion. They develop a certain fondness for one another.

As Olivia might have expected, mishaps and strange occurrences do find her even in Florida—from a run-in with an alligator in her pool to tropical storms and trees crashing onto cars. But she also finds a few pleasant surprises she didn’t expect—like a younger man and next-door neighbor who wants to welcome her to the neighborhood and his father, too—and a couple of very unlikely friendships that don’t start off too friendly at all. Don’t worry. I won’t give away any of the good stuff. But let’s just say that Olivia is quite happy with all that Florida has to offer and becomes very reluctant to leave when her vacation time and her leave of absence from work are over and she is supposed to return to the cold weather in snowy Ohio.

This is a time of enlightenment for Olivia in many ways and it could be that her outlook on birthdays will change, as well, by the time this story is through. The Big 5-0h! is a light-hearted read any woman approaching a significant birthday will enjoy! It’s a great reminder that change can be just around the corner for all of us—if we will only open our minds to the possibilities.

Order The Big 5-0h! Today!

Disclosure: The reviewer received a complimentary copy of the book to review.

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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.

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