In Claire Cook's latest novel, BONUS TIME, three lifelong friends head south to the beautiful St. Simons Island in Georgia to discover how the rest of their lives might unfold. Like her novel-turned-movie, MUST LOVE DOGS, this book includes plenty of humor marching side by side with her perceptive life lessons and a plot that will keep you turning the pages.

Glenda Gardner is the first-person narrator, and it's through her eyes that we get to know her two best friends, Harmony and Jan. Cook provides flashbacks that seamlessly link the past to the present as we hear about their marriages and children. The ladies are now retired and ready to live in their townhomes on the almost-tropical island of St. Simons, where the sunrises and sunsets are magical. They are out to enjoy life to the best of their ability, so they sing when the mood comes over them and even produce their own "Bonus Time" song.

"One of Cook's real talents is creating female characters with whom we can relate, and Glenda is certainly someone we come to admire.... BONUS TIME is like a sequel to the classic movie 9 to 5 and a prequel to the brilliant TV show 'The Golden Girls.'"

One of Cook's real talents is creating female characters with whom we can relate, and Glenda is certainly someone we come to admire. She's witty, charming and funny. But from the very beginning, there's an unspoken undercurrent of sadness and maybe even bitterness in her words and behaviors. We see that subtle contradiction before we even learn about her life story.

Harmony and Jan also combine humor with the tragedies that all people face over the course of their long lives. But the wittiness in the dialogue and the narrative almost jumps off the page to make us smile. The careful crafting of the plot with "now" and "then" works very well. We are intrigued by these characters, and we get to see how they became the women they are today.

Everyone will laugh at the book’s villain. He's such a perfect parody of everything that might be wrong with a clueless, misogynistic, arrogant, venal male that all one can do is roll one's eyes at his moves. And then cheer at the perfect ending to his gross, Giuliani-like actions.

BONUS TIME is like a sequel to the classic movie 9 to 5 and a prequel to the brilliant TV show "The Golden Girls." The adventures at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) are hysterical but also genuinely fascinating. Cook loves to provide information that her readers will find new and instructive, and it is wonderful to learn how agents from a slew of federal acronyms are trained. These organizations include TSA, NIH, CDC, CIA, NSA, ICE and too many others to list. Along the way, there are helpful hints for women of a certain age about facial creams and healthy eating and living.

As always, Cook demonstrates that aging is absolutely no excuse to stop living your best life. Making the world a better place, day by day, is something important that you should live for and love.