The Botox Diaries

In this illuminating character study, two women, best friends and polar opposites, are "looking at 40 in the rearview mirror." Narrator Susan Denaker sounds believably horrified when hearing Madonna on the "oldies" station, flabbergasted when tantric sex is suggested, and nearly speechless when asked to welcome the needle at a B&C (Botox & collagen) party. Her timing with non sequiturs could cause new laugh lines to erupt. This book is lighter than cotton candy, and just as sticky in places, but tart enough to observe that "no amount of lasering could possibly peel off the years more effectively than seeing yourself through an old lover's eyes." K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

May 31, 2004
Moneyed suburban moms are the belles of this midlife romantic comedy. Divorced Jess Taylor saw the back side of 40 a few years ago, but doesn't much care. She's got her bubbly 10-year-old daughter, Jen, a house in New York City suburb Pine Hills and a fulfilling job at the Arts Council for Kids. She's also got a similarly equipped best friend—except Lucy has a glamorous TV producer gig, loving husband Dan, and now, suddenly, a famous TV show host lover. Jess is appalled, but secretly she wonders if she's not missing out. Enter Jacques, long-ago ex-husband, who's just as unsuitable—and sexy—as ever. Sprightly Jen is determined to get her mom hitched, up to and including booking her on a reality dating show. Meanwhile, Jess has to get New York City's wealthy and aptly named Alpha Moms together to cast their children alongside project kids in a small-scale benefit production of My Fair Lady
, which somehow ends up taking place at Lincoln Center. This amiable, good-natured comedy will put the reader in mind of her favorite flannel pajamas—not sexy, exactly, but comfortable and fun. Agent, Jane Gelfman.
(June)

Forecast:
The novel mines the same tired territory as a host of
Nanny Diaries imitators, but will fit the bill for those still mourning the end of
Sex and the City.