Prom Mom

A Novel

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back to the city of her youth and the prom date who destroyed everything she was reaching for.

Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as “Prom Mom”—the girl who allegedly killed her baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance—as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted.

The problem is, Amber can’t stay away from Joe. And Joe finds that it’s increasingly hard for him to ignore Amber, if only because she remembers the boy he was and the man he said he was going to be. Against the surreal backdrop of 2020 and early 2021, the two are slowly drawn to each other and eventually cross the line they’ve been trying not to cross.

And then Joe asks Amber to help him do the unthinkable . . . and she must decide if she is willing to let their toxic and dangerous past repeat itself.

©2023 Laura Lippman (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Like Liberal Rants? You‘lol love this novel…

I’ve been a Laura Lippman fan for years, but she’s such a seething Trump hater that she couldn’t resist infusing her most mediocre story to date with snide asides about the former president.
She slathered on a bunch of white privilege guilt for good measure. Ugh. Lippman’s slipping.

Bummer

I was really enjoying the story even though it was starting to drag a little bit. But the ending was awful or
maybe i’m just stupid? Whatever I thought the ending was so bad.

A bit Cringe

I've really enjoyed a lot of Laura Lippman books in the past, but this felt contrived and a bit like a plot from a 'Lifetime Movie'.

Disappointing

The story seemed to hold some promise but it just slogged along. The last chapter had a slight twist but just not enough. The cover made you think the story would be much better than it was.

Not worth the time

This is a slow, meandering story featuring characters with few redeeming qualities. And their occupations — real estate, plastic surgery, outsider-art gallerist— lack drama in the exposition. I hope Laura Lipman isn’t losing her touch. Narration was good, though.

Mild spoilers

I really hate when Goodreads eats my well thought out reviews because I have zero interest in rewriting.

After giving birth and convicted of killing her 28 week fetus, Amber is nicknamed PROM MOM and her date Joe, Cad Dad. Over 20 years later in 2020, Joe proves that he hasn’t given up his caddish ways. He’s having an affair with Jordan, who’s blackmailing him. Married to Meredith, a plastic surgeon whom he doesn’t deserve he also begins an affair with Amber whom Joe feels he can truly be himself. Amber is a hot mess, from coercing Joe to ask her to prom with sex as a teenager to sleeping with Joe as an adult and trying to help him when he’s giving her nothing emotionally. While Jordan is an off-her-rocker stalker, she also blindly loves Joe. Why, I cannot determine.

Other reviewers have called PROM MOM a slow burn. For me it was a lot of nothing much happening to Joe, Meredith and Amber, the three points of view. In the backdrop of the pandemic, I was glad Laura Lippman didn’t focus much on COVID other than as a small part of the environment of the story. PROM MOM is not a pandemic book, thankfully.

Last two books by an amazing author

Have really bummed me out. me
thinks they might be a little autobiographical what ever the reason I liked it when the good girl won in the end

Unbelievable politics and ending

We see another book here that the author uses to throw in left wing politics and does a poor job of it. Her political remarks have absolutely nothing to do with the story. Neither does setting part of it during the pandemic. The ending makes no sense at all. I want my money back. Put this in the description if you are going to insert your far fetched political ideas, also based on nothing, and see how many audible formats of this book you sell. I cannot believe the overall rating numbers.

Great.... except for the politics

Excellent potential, I was pulled in from the first chapter (very unusual for me), and I was excited for a new novel by this author. The insertion of the author's politics were cringe- I wished she had just issued a piece on her political agenda instead of forcing it in this medium. If you want a read regarding equity & wokeness, you will love this. I am perfectly fine with the views of the author, I just would have not preferred them forced in a fiction novel, to which I was looking forward, Great story ruined by the author's agenda. The storyline was quite intriguing, as was the character development.

Not that good.

It took all I had to finish this book. It was not good at all.