From Booklist
In Manhattan's world of competitive mothering, Claire Marsh becomes seriously handicapped when her 15-years-senior husband leaves her for an older woman. Without a well-to-do husband and Hilda the housekeeper, how is Claire supposed to stay in the game of birthday parties that cost more than some weddings and a full roster of baby bikram (yoga) and kinder karate? Having married her husband when she was only 18, Claire finds herself a 26-year-old mother who has never had a job. Now she must find work, care for her daughter, and try not to let the sniping comments of other moms get to her. Fans of Carroll's lighthearted comedies--Reality Check (2002), Temporary Insanity (2004)--will find more of the same here. The story is engaging, and Carroll's mockery of the snobbishness that pervades some urban parenting circles is spot-on. Beth Leistensnider
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Entertainment Weekly
"Claire navigate(s) motherhood sans nanny, housekeeper and six-figure income..: ...priceless send-ups of Park Avenue soccer moms. Grade: B+"
Book Description
Sex and the single mother ... doesn't exist!
And I, Claire Marsh, should certainly know, because these days my to-do list looks like this: Bring daughter Zoë to a birthday party, where twenty second-graders will be encouraged to play ice hockey.
Help Zoë with impossible school projects -- just how is she supposed to create a complete ancient Irish village?
Bring Zoë on a series of play dates with obnoxious kids. Hope that their nannies are actually paying attention, because their Upper East Side mothers and Wall Street fathers sure aren't.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my daughter. She was the best thing that came out of my marriage. (What can I say about a guy who dumped me for an older woman?) But there's something seriously wrong when my daughter -- and my thirty-year-old sister -- have better social lives than I do. After all, I'm in my twenties; I'm still cute! When do I get my very own play date?
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