You Dropped a Blonde on Me

Launching the Ex Trophy Wives series, Cassidy aims for slapstick comedy but misses the mark. After Maxine Cambridge's husband trades her in for a younger model, Maxine is reduced to working at a fast-food restaurant. Even worse, she and her son are stuck living with her mother in a senior citizens' retirement village. Enter Campbell Barker, a former high school classmate of Maxine's who's morphed from geeky to sexy. Campbell remembers the sassy prom queen that Maxine used to be and urges her to stand up to her soon-to-be ex-husband. Even though Maxine has sworn off men, she finds herself attracted to Campbell. Straddling the line between romance and women's fiction, Maxine's journey to empowerment is meant to get readers cheering, but her irritating antics and constant overreactions make it hard, as do the abundant clichés. (Dec.)