Lynn Schnurnberger's upcoming novel The Best Laid Plans focuses on a woman whose life comes unstuck through the economic downturn so she turns to an age-old profession with a twist. The summary says: "Tru Newman is one of the Upper East Side "M&Ms" - the wealthy stay-at-home mums who are into personal Maintenance and Mothering. Having been raised by a beauty queen mother who constantly picked on her, Tru loves looking after her investment banker husband, Peter, and their twin teen daughters. But her perfect world spins off its axis the night Tru throws a charity benefit and discovers that Peter's been out of work for three months. Even worse, the family's been living on a house of cards - specifically, Visa and Amex - that's about to collapse. Suze Orman tells Tru to "Get a job!" But doing what? When Tru's best friend, Sienna Post, loses her position as an anchor on the local nightly news, the two hatch a profitable if illegal plan: They'll open an escort service with "working girls" all over the age of 40. Modeling themselves on Carla Bruni ("after she married the president of France, not before, when she was dating Mick Jagger"), their smart, sexy, seasoned escorts become a big hit with a roster of 30-year-old clients. If only Tru's legit life could fall so easily into place: Her husband's new job has him working side by side with a flirtatious neighbour, her 14-year-old twins are competing over a two-timing, Clearasil-using Casanova, and after suffering a heart attack in her bodybuilding class, Tru's hypercritical mother moves in with her. Not to mention that the gossip columns get wind that Tru and Sienna's "temp agency" isn't on the up-and-up - and the DA is on their case." The Best Laid Plans is out in January.

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