Orange Cove, Florida, the Present

A restaurant critic for a local paper, Anna Swann is a single mother. Her mother, Margo, helps her out with two-year-old Charlie even when Brad, her irresponsible ex-husband, does not show up for his visits or when Anna needs him to watch Charlie. Anna has trust issues and has put up guards around herself that only she can lower. So what will she do when Noah Springer enters her life?

Grace Weaver is a perfect everything, wife, mother, and friend. She is also an expert organizer, no matter what the occasion or number of people. Her three daughters are her pride, and her successful husband, Louis, loves her very much. But beneath the smooth façade of perfection is an insecure woman who has a potentially deadly secret.

Juliet Cole is a very good lawyer with the firm of Little and Frost where Louis Weaver, Grace's husband, also works. She is a driven workaholic. Her husband, Patrick, has put his own career on hold to be a househusband and care for their twin daughters. But Juliet is not home much, and Patrick's rising resentment is putting strains on their marriage.

Chloe Truman, also a writer, is pregnant when she meets the other three. Chloe strives to be perfect but her husband, James, does not always support her, although later she does get his attention. She also has a problem from her past that rears up to bite her again.

Mommy Time is what Grace calls the get-togethers that she plans for them and other stressed-out mothers who need a little adult woman time.

MOMMY TRACKED is a study in modern, multi-tasking women. Can a woman really have it all? Can she be a wife and mother and still have a job that takes up time and energy? Anna, Juliet, Grace, and Chloe are like so many others who try to take traditional roles, mix in desires that have little or nothing to do with home and hearth, and somewhere along the way have to decide what is most important. Whitney Gaskell does not present stereotypical characters, but each woman has her own voice, and there are no easy solutions to the problems. The writing is bright and crisp, but not all is sweetness and light. There is no trivialization in this story, just a narrative that supports the subject matter with authority and clarity. It is good, and I recommend it.

Vi Janaway