Mrs. Perfect

I enjoyed Porter's look at the life of type A, perfect Taylor Young. She's not only on, but heads every PTA committee, is always head room mother, throws perfect parties and has a beautiful house in which to entertain. Taylor shops to excess, and is shocked when the strange Marta Zinsser (from Porter's Odd Mom Out)is made head room mother in one of her daughter's classes. Soon, she learns her handsome husband Nathan has been reluctant to tell her (and her expensive habits) that he's been unemployed for months, they're in debt up to their eyeballs and he's heading to Omaha for a new job. Taylor refuses to leave Bellevue. Taylor's life begins to crumble, but she's a great character, and really pulls it together. She and Nathan decide to show more list their beautiful home and it sells quickly, to the bane of Taylor's life, copycat Monica. Taylor finds a part-time job, as a secretary and also a much smaller house to rent, pending any decisions about Omaha. Cleverly, she "tricks" Monica into purchasing almost all of the contents of their former home. The book rushes to a somewhat pat ending, but it was a great summer read. show less

I won a set of Jane Porter books from a fellow book blogger and was excited to check out a new author. This book is very timely in terms of subject matter, but I found it a little too unrealistic that Taylor was so very clueless about her own family's financial situation. The book was fairly well-written, and I did like the parts where Taylor is forging a new life for her daughters by demonstrating how to make the best of a bad situation. Unfortunately, I thought the end was entirely too convenient and that left a bad taste in my mouth. All in all, a decent read that suffered from a rushed ending.

5 ways to know you’re Mrs. Perfect. 1) You volunteer for everything because no one else volunteers. 2) You hate relinquishing control because you can do the job better than anyone else. 3) You wouldn’t dream of showing up late for Back-to-School-Night. 4) You know when your kids’ reports are due, even if they don’t. 5) Your Christmas cards are already addressed and stamped by December 1. So reads the back cover of Mrs. Perfect by Jan Porter. This is the story of Taylor Young. She is beautiful, wealthy and dressed in designer’s clothes. She has a gorgeous wealthy husband and three lovely daughters. Her friends are equally wealthy and look up to her to volunteer the biggest fundraiser at school every year. The year starts off show more with a surprise when Taylor learns one of her friends has been ostracized from the group because the gossip circles suggested she had an affair. Taylor is cold to her friend as are the rest of the group, even though she knows she should be more forgiving. She also finds out the person she likes the least, Marta Zinssner, has been picked to be the homeroom mom. Taylor soon finds out that everything is not what it seems, and she has some big lessons to learn.

When I opened the first pages and realized the first chapter was about how the characters looked, what they wore, and how wealthy and perfect they are, I thought, “There is no way this book is for me”. What I soon discovered was that the author designed Taylor to have a lot more layers to her character than first expected, and as the story went on, the reader gets to peel off each one slowly, until we begin to fully discover a rich, complex woman. I was pleasantly surprised a few times. The author does like to tidy things up a bit in the end, but there’s nothing wrong with that when the storyline keeps you engaged and you have come to care about the main character. The women in the book have a book club that Taylor participates in, but she never reads the books because she finds them dark and depressing. I know that Taylor would pick this one up for her book club because it is just the opposite. Mrs. Perfect is a fun, engaging summer book, so grab this one, and hang out at the beach show less

The Review

I was introduced to Jane Porter’s work when reviewing Flirting With Forty last December. Being a huge fan of the ChickLit genre, I really enjoyed reading the book and watching the Lifetime movie starring Heather Locklear. (BTW: Jane’s got a MEAN recipe for MaiTai’s that is posted on my Flirting with Forty post).

When I received Flirting With Forty for review, I was fortunate enough to get all of Jane Porter’s books including Mrs. Perfect. I’ve just now finally gotten around to reading and reviewing it, I’m really happy that I did. Jane Porter DELIVERS in this novel and I loved it! (Imagine me tearing through this fun 419 page book in less than 24-hours!) I have to admit that I liked it EVEN BETTER than Flirting With show more Forty! (Hope that’s okay… Jane!)

A neat thing that I have discovered is that Mrs. Perfect is tied to Odd Mom Out with Marta as the heroine of that story. Cool Beans! Since I enjoyed her very much in this story, I can’t wait to crack open that book and read Marta’s story. It’s a good thing it’s on the nightstand ready for reviewing within the month.

If you have never read of any of Jane Porter’s books, let me just tell you that so far they’ve all been great for me. They are a fantastic escape from my life and her characters are so relatable! I can completely envision them and I find myself really rooting for their successes. Being a mom, Jane Porter does a great job writing characters who are also moms which makes these books so endearing to me. For example, the way Taylor’s girls are fighting in this book are written so true-to-life that I could hear their little voices in my head, which is not hard considering I can also hear mine at it in the next room!

In Mrs. Perfect, our heroine undergoes a major life change and faces challenges, daughters in tow. How much more perfect could this book be for me? But, then again… you just can’t go wrong with a Jane Porter book!

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

If you’re a fan of ChickLit, Jane Porter is right up there with Jennifer Weiner and Helen Fielding. I think that she does a great job of having “a little bit of this” and “a little bit of that” to each of her books. You get the heartache and the sadness, but you also get the humor! Along with those, you can count on heroines who get in touch with what’s going on inside them and overcoming the obstacles that are holding them down. Another great component of Jane Porter’s books, especially Mrs. Perfect, is the great character development of the heroine’s girlfriends. Jane Porter has really great insight into the female mind and it really shows in her books!

For the genre Fiction:Women’s Fiction/ChickLit, I am going to rate this book a 9 OUT OF 10. show less

This is the sequel to Odd Mom Out, which for those of us who read the first one, already put a pretty solid picture of Taylor Young in our minds. Wealthy, perfect, stay-at-home alpha-mom, with too much time on her hands, including time to judge the working moms for not doing their part at school. The opening chapters of Mrs. Perfect, did not deviate too much from this image we had previously created of Taylor. She was indeed very preoccupied with appearances, having everything money could buy, keeping up with and exceeding the Jones', and undoing her dysfunctional upbringing. However, as time went on and Taylor's family faces what appears to be an unsurmountable dilemna, we find out that there is much more to Taylor than the fascade she show more had created for herself. Taylor's character learns to rely on herself and others, whom she had prejudged or written off in her life. In all, Taylor comes back to earth to deal with real problems in a strong way. Very heartwarming and lovely as the novel goes on. I literally could not put this book down. I highly recommend it to all women who want a quick shot of empowerment and appreciate looking at their own lives and feeling grateful for what they have. I truly hope there is yet another book about Taylor and Marta's families!!!! Maybe from Eva's perspective???? show less

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for more than a year. It was sent to me by the publisher because I was reviewing another title by the author. Although the cover and title tempted me several times to pick it up, I never seemed to have the time. Boy, am I glad that I finally got around to reading this one. What an enjoyable experience!

This is my kind of book. The writing flows. The characters are flawed--just like people I know. Problems and solutions are believable. The plot moves along nicely; there are no sluggish spots. Note: the book does contain profanity.

I liked this one. Because book clubs are mentioned in the novel, this would make a good choice for a book club selection!

A little more than chick-lit, less than a great novel: the story of how a family that seems to have everything goes broke due to excessive-credit lifestyle, and how they deal with outcomes. Many of the scenes are just barely believable and/or verging on saccharine sweetness; however overall it's enough to hold the attention, and she's a good enough story teller to keep one engaged.