I won the Mother’s Day Giveaway on Jo-Jo Loves to Read blog and received my box of books a couple of weeks ago from Hachette Book Group. It was very exciting! I took the box with me to one of my book clubs and we picked out Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter for our August book club.Odd Mom Out was a very entertaining read that didn’t take me long to finish. Marta Zinsser is a single mother that has moved from New York City to a wealthy suburb of Seattle for her job and to be closer to her parents. Her young daughter Eva had many friends in New York, but finds it hard to be a part of the crowd in Bellevue. All Eva wants is to fit in, and she would like her “odd” Mom to also fit in. Marta is the owner of her own advertising agency, loves to wear combat boots and drive a Harley, is a free spirit and could care less about fitting in or what other people will say. Life changes when she tries to help her daughter and falls for a “Viking giant” named Luke.
I really enjoyed this book and I think it will be a good book to discuss at my Lakeshore Moms’ Book Club meeting. The many themes of the book include fitting in vs. being yourself, working moms vs. stay at home moms, and working moms vs. working dads. It’s all very interesting and will make good discussion points for myself and my fellow moms.
One of my favorite quotes (pg 288 of the Trade Paperback):
“For the stay-at-home moms, where is the respect? How many men really respect their wives? How many men understand the sacrifices their wives are making to keep the house clean, raise the kids well and make sure dinners always on the table, warm and waiting?”
I wish their would have been more to the ending to finish up the Taylor and Jemma Young storyline, but overall it was good. This is my first Jane Porter book and will not be my last!
Comment from myself - I just discovered their are two follow-up novels. One, Mrs. Perfect is a follow up story of Taylor Young and the other, Easy on the Eye's is about Marta's friend Tiana. I'll definitely have to read these!
ReplyDeleteThis is on my list to read!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in my giveaway. If you have a Book Blogs account - this is where I found out about Hachette! http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/hostahachettebookgroupgiveawayonyourblog
I have this in my pile for the Random Reading Challenge. Love the quote and makes me think this is much more than chick lit. Looking forward to having it come up for me to read.
ReplyDeleteThis one looks kind of fun!
ReplyDeleteEEEK! I left you a comment and it blew up!
ReplyDeleteSo... you're in luck! The reason you don't know more about Taylor and Jemma is because Taylor is the heroine of the next book Mrs. Perfect. Here's my review on it: http://anovelmenagerie.com/2009/04/24/book-review-mrs-perfect/. But, you most know that I didn't realize they were tied together and I read them out of order. And, Easy On The Eyes (newest book which was released this month) is tied to Odd Mom Out.
Anyway, I love Jane Porter and have read/reviewed all of her books. She's great!
This does sound like a good book. The quote you chose says a lot! Thanks for your review, Laura.
ReplyDeleteI love to hear about good reads! I'll be putting this one on my list! Thanks
ReplyDelete