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With the current flood of Chick Lit books filling the bookstores today, THE BOTOX DIARIES has found a way of riding in on the wave and yet setting itself apart from the pack. Instead of dealing with the sometimes cliché obstacles of being a 20-something woman living in the city, searching for love and a career, we have two 40-something women searching for meaning in their lives while battling the issue of age.
Fans of Chick Lit novels can see what happens ten years later, when the character has become more established in her career and now has a husband, a child, or is divorced. Jessica Taylor, the central character in THE BOTOX DIARIES, has had all three. Jessica has been divorced for more than ten years from an extremely exotic French man who has recently resurfaced in her life. She is also the adoptive mother of a wonderfully precocious daughter, Jen, who is working as a matchmaker for her single mother. Through it all she has the eccentric and carefree best friend, Lucy Balder. Lucy has the perfect husband, the perfect children, the perfect career and the perfect lover.
Jessica and Lucy are polar opposites, and that may be why they work so well as friends. While Jessica is a Target-shopping, Dove soap-using PTA mom, Lucy is the jet-setting TV producer with a standing appointment at her dermatologist for frequent Botox injections. Together they commiserate about the issues of aging, being a good parent, and finding time for passion in their lives. Lucy seems to have found passion, but not with her perfect husband. Instead she is cavorting with a hunky and charismatic television game show host, Hunter Green. Jessica is appalled by her friend's actions and is sympathetic towards the trusting and loving husband.
What THE BOTOX DIARIES shows is that even as women age, their problems of how to handle love, life, relationships and careers remains constant. These women are the SUV-driving, blond-bobbed, wrinkle-free Manhattan women who most females tend to hate. However, Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnurnberger have created very likable and very real characters, and readers will actually find themselves sympathizing with the life struggles of these women.
This is a great novel by two women who prove that there is such a thing as real friendship. It is also a great summer book that allows the reader a glimpse into the lives of Manhattan's upper crust with frequent mentioning of Crème de la Mer, Gucci, Dom Perignon, and of course, Botox treatments. As the title of this novel would suggest, THE BOTOX DIARIES is wrinkle-free and thoroughly enjoyable.
--- Reviewed by Jocelyn Maeve Kelley
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