Author:  Monica B. Morris

Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.

ISBN: 0595384269

Cross-Genre Fiction Targeted to "New Gray" Demographic

The following review was contributed by:  CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON:  CLICK TO VIEW  Carolyn  Howard-Johnson's Reviews

Everyone is doing it. Going silver. Going platinum. Goiing gray. Halle Berry is "do"ing it with her gelled X-Men spikes. Cute Yalie Anderson Cooper may be doing it without half-trying. Boomers all over the country are, too -- proud to show the muscle of the new power-demographic.

Now, along comes Monica B. Morris. She's doing it, too. She's kept her locks dark but there is no doubt that That Ridiculous Blue Sky, a novel about three single women of that age or color, fits with the trend. These heroines are perfect for the time. Excepting for an extra dollop of wisdom, they show us that years don't make that much difference, that generations and demographics cross.

Ideally suited to make a point about trans-generations, this novel, too, refuses to be neatly packaged up and stuffed into a knothole. It's a little bit romance, a little bit mystery, and a little literary, too. It even has a whiff of aging chick-lit.

Three women, introduced in their own separate chapters, come together because they are searching for, well…men. At middle age they find something lacking in their lives and come to trust Magdalena, a flamboyant and charismatic woman who practices the ancient art of matchmaking. Not quite comfortable with the new millennium's pairing services on the Web, the women like that Magdalena vets her gentlemen applicants carefully. She charges exorbitant rates but perhaps security is worth the price. They sign on--each motivated differently -- and find themselves embroiled in a suspense story and in a support group, neither of which they had bargained for.

Ably written, Ridiculous, has several subplots, the mystery/suspense aspect being only one of them. I did wish that some of them had been fleshed out a bit more. One of the protagonists ventures into the Florence's fascinating world of history and art and finds a quixotic love affair in that city. That seemed a thread that could have doubled the size of the book. However, the way Morris managed her stories makes for a fast and entertaining read. One of the things a few decades gives you is the awareness that you can't have it both ways.