For all of us who thought the wonderfully funny Class Mom series by Laurie Gelman had ended with book 3, oh boy were we happily wrong! In the latest installment, Smells Like Tween Spirit, Jen Dixon is back and as hysterical as ever!
In book 4 we find Jen has left her Class Mom days behind as her young son Max heads off to Middle School, only to find out he has decided to join the wrestling team! Jen decides to join the Mat Moms, a group of women whose sons are on the team and do fundraisers and their stinky laundry. So, as she becomes acquainted with the Pioneer Middle School wrestling moms, (PMS for short) and yes, they DO have t-shirts! she must begin the old get to know their personalities routine feeling out the other moms to find out who the fun ones are and who are the villains.
As if she needs anymore to do now that she is teaching spin classes with a cult following, babysitting her granddaughter, taking care of her aging parents, with her father sinking deeper into dementia, trying to mediate her two daughters’ drama with each other as they try and open a business together and a low libido which has her making excuses to her kind of understanding husband. She even develops a stalker! Well, sort of.
Jen takes us through her holiday seasons which begins with a Halloween party at their house for the wrestlers. Nothing could go wrong there! And a quiet Christmas as her two daughters go elsewhere. It’s then that Jen realizes her life might begin to get much quieter than she really wants!
But Jen is also faced with a sadness she and her readers hoped would never come. But in the real world, this sub-plot is all too painful and is written with perfection causing the reader perhaps a few tears.
With that said, all I can say is Jen Dixon is alive and well and continues to make the readers who love her laugh through her emails and snarky foot in mouth dialogue! Welcome back Jen and thank you Laurie Gelman!
Thank you #NetGalley #HenryHolt&Co. #LaurieGelman #SmellsLikeTweenSpirit for the advanced copy.
Lisa's Cubby 