My Favorite Midlife Crisis (yet) by Toby Devens

Book Review

My Favorite Midlife Crisis (yet)

By Toby Devens

*****

4 out of 5 Stars

Toby Devens writes a crisply humorous, no punches pulled look at single-yet-again women in their fifties. It's a chick lit novel with the take no prisoners attitude of women who have nothing left to lose and too many hot flashes to count.

Gwyneth Berke is a successful and respected gynecological oncologist who is still reeling from her divorce. Not only did she discover her husband cheating on her in their newly built Rehoboth beach house, but she found him naked in the closet with their decorator, Brad. It's a nasty blow to her self-esteem, which is already below sea level due to a childhood of abuse from her schizophrenic mother. Her father, her only loving parent, has Alzheimer's and while she can afford an attendant for him it's clear that soon he will need a higher degree of care. Even with all of this on her plate she manages to find herself in a highly erotic affair with another Doc. Yet is he the right man for her, or could it be someone else that she's known for a while?

She is also working hard to resurrect the women's clinic she operated for the working class, underinsured women of Baltimore that recently folded due to lack of funding. Devens uses Gwyn to delve into the issues of preventative medicine in women who have no real resources. She is a compassionate and excellent doctor who gives everything she's got to her patients and understands their concerns because she's been through or seen it all.

Like any self-respecting chick-lit novel, she has a couple of best girlfriends she can count on in good times and bad. And like most women, they're all very good about dispensing advice but tend not to listen to it themselves. Fleur is a beautiful, Rubenesque 275 pound Baltimore blue blood tour-de-force who tells it like it is and doesn't care what anyone thinks. After being dumped by her sleazy boyfriend of 14 years she is ready to bring on some real men. She joins up with any online dating service available and also with a Jewish matchmaker.