Book Review: Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger
Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: May 18, 2021
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.
Until . . .
Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.
Until . . .
Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity.
Until . . .
One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?
Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty is a ripped from the headlines story about a college admissions scandal very similar to the Varsity Blues scandal from a couple of years ago. Peyton and her husband Isaac really want their daughter Max to go to Princeton, even though she’d rather go to film school. They might have gone a little too far in doing whatever they could to ensure Max’s acceptance. Peyton’s sister, Skye, is a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs. She’s also starting a residence home for underprivileged girls but still feels unsatisfied with her life.
I didn’t like Where the Grass is Green as much as I liked When Life Gives You Lululemons (read my review here). Where the Grass is Green seems a little too much like a Lifetime movie for my taste. I know it’s a beach read so I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece but even still, I was left wanting a little more substance. There are too many clichés and also some continuity errors and a wonky timeline that I had trouble following.
I also had a really hard time feeling any sort of empathy for Peyton even though I was supposed to. Just like I feel zero empathy for Lori Laughlin and her husband. Yes, what she did was partly out of love but we all love our kids and we don’t all do illegal things to help them out. None of the characters seemed very well developed except for Max. I felt a lot of empathy for her. I thought the ending was a little too convenient for some of the characters and left some of the characters hanging. We never find out if Skye told her husband about her secret.
Judging from the other reviews, I’m in the minority of not loving this book so make sure you read other reviews too before you make up your mind about reading it yourself.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
