Mrs. Perfect

Jane Porter
5 Spot (2008)
ISBN 9780446699242
Reviewed by Tracy Kokemuller for Reader Views (5/08)


Five 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 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.

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