Prime Time by Jane Wenham-Jones
Rated 3.5 out of 5 White Roses.
Content rated with the Pale Pink Rose.
All Laura Meredith wants to do is raise her son, Stanley, with the least amount of WIT (when-in-therapy) points as possible. Her awful, dirt bag of an ex-husband and his less hormonal, much skinnier, and much younger, girlfriend, who constantly reminds her son of the calories he’s consuming don’t help matters at all. To make it all worse, Laura willingly admits she suffers from horrible pre-menstrual tension that makes her act like a total witch during certain times of the month. Yes, she can see it now. Her son is doomed to a life of therapy.
Of course, things took a dramatic change for Laura when her best friend Charlotte convinced her to go on national TV as a spokeswoman for those who suffer from PMT. As if Stanley, didn’t have enough WIT points from also going to a brand new school, his mother ends up on reality TV. To traumatize him further, she even gets caught up in the glitz and glamour of it, too. She has even started fancying a much younger man as well.
Can Laura handle her newly found stardom and still provide Stanley the stability he needs while hopefully not scaring him for life?
Now here’s my humble opinion…
Prime Time gave the most realistic characters in any romance novel I have ever read. I must say though, I wouldn’t classify Prime Time as a romance per se but while it does have romance elements in it, it still is a novel fit for women of most ages. Laura, still reeling from the fact that her husband left her, is as genuine as can be. The fact that she just wants to feel human with someone who doesn’t just see her for all her faults is entirely something all women can relate with.
Now to the point I had to contend with: while Laura is someone all women at least one point in their lives can empathize with, the fact that she is so realistic, in mind and attitude makes it so she can also get on one’s nerves. Humans get on each others nerves very easily which is probably why the fantasy of a novel is so desirable. As a woman, PMT, PMS and all the like, are something I know and understand very well. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy hearing another woman complaining about it -all the time.
Prime Time is still a good read and an intelligent one, too. It is nice reading about a woman who knows a word with more than two syllables and doesn’t sound pretentious at the same time. The plot twists, while a tad predictable were well written. And while the PMT is a bit distracting, it’s Laura’s humor, heartbreak, and zeal for what’s right, that make this story a good one.
Don’t Forget To Smell The Flowers,
The Rose Courtesan
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Prime Time
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