The Botox Diaries

Rating:
Summary: fun and insightful
Review: Delightful! Rare that you can find a novel that makes you laugh out loud-but that also has intelligence and wisdom behind it. The main characters-Lucy and Jess-are such very real people that by the end of the book, they feel like your best friends. The writing is quick and clever-but never obvious. Constant surprises in the story keep you turning the pages. I loved the ending. Recommended it to all my friends. Highest recommendation!!

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite This Summer!!
Review: Everything about this book is terrific--it's funny and fast and filled with loveable characters. I laughed out loud and was also moved by the very real emotions and situations. The behind-the-scenes TV stories are the best and obviously written by authors who know what they're talking about. The reality TV show date had me laughing until tears rolled down my cheeks. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Summer read
Review: Just finished The Botox Diaries! It was one of those books that I couldn't put down. Thank you for delivering a light, humorous read for the start of my summer!

The Botox Diaries was perfect for a mom on the move like me (and Jess and Lucy!). I could read a chapter, change the baby, read some more while he played in the sandbox,...pick up the mess, grab the girls from school,...read a little as I prepared dinner...bathe the kids, and then relax while reading in bed. I loved the characters and the humor. I found myself chuckling out loud and getting looks from my husband!

As I approach forty, and I look at the wrinkles forming around my eyes and my hands aging, I can't help wondering if I'd ever do botox! I think not. Like Jess, I'm a bit more "au naturelle".

Bravo to the authors! I'm passing the book along to my girlfriend, and telling all about it. I might even get my (60+)Mom to read it! This is a great beach or vacation book. I was very entertained!!!

Rating:
Summary: Letdown
Review: Not that I was expecting "the next biggest thing" but I had hoped for a fun, light summer read. What I got what a dull book that I had to force myself to finish. Every now and then I like reading a "beach read".. something that's fun and flirty like The Devil Wears Prada or anything by Sophie Kinsella. This book is terrible. It drags on and I really didn't find there to be too much of an story to it. Pass on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Best Beach Book Of The Summer
Review: The Botox Diaries is a fabulous book about two women in their forties, Jess and Lucy, which is breezy, fun and more. Lucy goes through a mid-life crisis and ends up in an affair with a famous TV star -whose name I just loved!- Hunter Green. Jess' French ex-husband, Jacques, has come back to New York and is chasing her again. The plot is fast paced and funny and you really end up caring about Jess and Lucy and their friendship. This is a fabulous book which is perfect for all of us who loved "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Sex and the City". LOVED IT.

Rating:
Summary: Wrinkle-Free and Thoroughly Enjoyable
Review: 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