Mrs. Perfect – Jane Porter
Odd Mom Out Author Returns with Engaging Mom Lit Book
Taylor Young’s life looks perfect from the outside. She’s always well put together, fashionably dressed in designer clothes perfect for the occasion. Her three daughters with husband Nathan are equally well groomed – four year old Tori, seven year old Brooke and ten year old Jemma.
Taylor is the quintessential alpha mom, organizing class activities, fund-raising, and chairing the auction at the elementary school her girls attend. But life suddenly takes a turn Nathan reveals a secret that’s been eating him up inside for the past six months.
A New Reality
The expensive designer rug is pulled from underneath Taylor’s feet when Nathan reveals that he lost his well-paying job and has been unemployed for six months. The family had been living on credit cards, and in the process racked up thousands of dollars in debt.
Suddenly they can no longer afford to keep the nanny, gardener and other hired help who have cleared Taylor’s schedule enough to allow her to spend her days volunteering at the girls’ elementary school. Instead, she must swallow her pride and find a way to pay for their everyday expenses – without to use of credit cards.
A New Persona
When Nathan takes a job in Omaha and temporarily relocates, Taylor takes on a new persona, as a self-sufficient mom who suddenly must take charge and do well for her family. She looks for a job, and after several disappointments, lands an interview with Z Design, a company headed by her archrival, a bohemian mom whom she has had difficulty seeing eye to eye with. Marta Zinsser is her polar opposite: laid back, relaxed and oblivious to what others think of her. Marta kindly offers her a job, and Taylor must decide what’s most important to her.
Taylor also learns whom she can trust after good friend Kate reveals that she’s been ousted from the auction committee after news of her personal finances leaked out. Friends stop calling, and she and the girls find themselves home on the weekends instead of attending pool parties and shopping like they used to. Even Taylor’s best friend Patti’s going-away party invitation gets mysteriously lost in the mail.
Taylor learns a hard lesson – that life is more than status and possession – and becomes a better mom in the process.
About the Author
A UCLA grad with an MA in Writing, Jane Porter wrote her first story in first grade, her first picture book in second grade and her first novel in fourth grade. She is the author of The Frog Prince and Flirting with Forty. Mom of two boys, she lives in Bellevue, Washington.
Porter, Jane
Mrs. Perfect
New York, 5 Spot Press/Hachette, May 5, 2008
