What does every woman need? A perfect man of course. In Adrienne Brodeur's hilarious debut novel, we meet two women who set out to train their male friends to be perfect men - or as close to perfect as humanly possible.
Lucy is a rather plain biologist and authoress. Her best friend, Martha, is an actress and budding businesswoman who forms a business called FirstDate designed to help men know what they do wrong on a first date and how to correct themselves. Martha becomes increasingly disgusted with the boorishness and lack of chivalry in her clients. Lucy goes on a romantic weekend trip with her boyfriend, Adam - a nice enough fellow, if it weren't for his dreadful insecurity and distinct lack of masculine abilities. He isn't even capable of jump-starting a car, and there was that little matter of him being dreadfully scared of the smallest noises emanating from the woods...
Lucy and Martha decide that, for the sake of their shared sanity and the whole of womankind, they must educate the men around them on how to become the quintessential man's man. They enlist the help of the one man they know who has attained this god-like status: Lucy's pal Cooper, who also becomes Martha's main love interest.
The women 'kidnap' several men and begin training them on Cooper's dairy farm. Hilarity ensues, with the men learning how to milk cows, muck out stalls, hunt, fish, and even (!) change tires.
Brodeur has penned a well-written novel that goes above and beyond the normal expectations of the 'chick-lit' genre. This book should be required reading for all women who have fallen in love with and grown addicted to this rapidly expanding genre. Man Camp stands above the rest with its well-written plot. I am very excited to see what Brodeur comes up with for her sophomore novel.