The Botox Diaries

by Janice Kaplan and Lynn Edelman Schnurnberger

Book Overview

In a world where plastic surgery is as popular as a pair of sexy Manolo Blahniks, suburban single mom Jessica Taylor is trying to make it past forty with nothing more than moisturizer and a swipe of mascara. Her glamorous best friend, TV producer Lucy Baldor, has a different idea of aging gracefully. "My body is a temple," Lucy explains. "I just don't want it to crumble like St. John the Divine."
Jess and Lucy's friendship has weathered the trials...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345468589
• ISBN13: 9780345468581
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Dom Perignon, Botox and a Lotta Laughs

This is a light hearted and wonderful novel that focuses on two forty-something women in suburban New York. Lucy Baldor and Jess Taylor are best friends and complete opposites. Lucy is married to a great man, has a glamorous job as a television producer, and has a television game show host boyfriend on the side. Jess on the other hand has been divorced for ten years, has a pre-teen daughter, Lily, and has realized that her love life is nearly non-existent. In fact, her love life has become so pathetic that Lily has entered her in a contest out of Cosmo Magazine to win a date with a famous surfer. Has it really come to this? As Jess tries to understand how Lucy can tempt fate by cheating on her husband, Lucy goes into full mid-life crisis mode. Before you know it, we delve into the world of botox, breast enlargement consultations, and buying outrageous amounts of jewelry and expensive lingerie in order to keep men interested. I absolutely loved every minute of this book. In fact, I have already loaned it out to a few friends who have raved about it as well. It is a fun and witty story that will definitely make you chuckle out loud.

Great Summer read

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!!!

Wrinkle-Free and Thoroughly Enjoyable

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

Best Beach Book Of The Summer

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.

More Than Chick Lit

The Botox Diaries is a cut above even the best chick lit.When I think of chick lit I think of improbable people in improbable situations. And the characters are usually too brittle to be believable. These characters, on the other hand, have famlies, homes, jobs --and mishaps. There's an "I Love Lucy" strain to this novel that takes comedy past one-liners. The characters and situations are genuinely funny. At the same time, "The Botox Diaries" is part fairy-tale--which is to say that it's far less cynical than most chick-lit. The characters have hearts and real relationships--not just with men, but with daughters, neighbors, friends. This is what makes it such a good read.