Friday, March 13, 2026

Book Review: Moms Love Boy Bands

By Melissa Amster

Four best friends. A dream vacation. Then one vanishes without a trace.

Celebrating their forty-fifth birthdays, four best friends escape to a tropical island for "Boy Bands at the Beach." What could be better than basking in the sun, devouring beach reads, and being serenaded by the bands they idolized as teenagers?

But when the story opens, we learn that each woman is at a crossroads. Nicole is at a boudoir photo shoot, desperate to recapture when she was the life of every party and not just a boring stay at home mom. Liliana, the overworked COO of a tech company, has missed dinner with her family again and must face her disappointed husband. Angie, the misfit of the group, is wrestling with a secret from the past. And Carly, a trendsetting influencer, is on social media promoting her beach trip must-haves, even though she just caught her husband cheating.

Enter Luca-a gorgeous, charismatic twenty-something year-old. When he befriends Angie, the others question why he's at an event for women who get Botox injections and need sensible shoes. Suspicion escalates when someone steals Angie's passport. Then, the unthinkable happens when one friend vanishes. Will the others find her, or will a vacation to see the best nineties boy bands of all time end in disaster? (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

Moms Love Boy Bands is all sorts of nostalgic fun! It reminded me of when my best friend and I met up in Nashville to see New Kids on the Block in concert. We were both obsessed in middle school and still screaming for our NKOTB crushes in our forties! 🤣

The story has a bit of a White Lotus feel. (Think of the girlfriend group in season three.) There's also an element of danger in the story when one of the friends disappears and no one knows what happened or why. 

I loved all the nostalgia in the story and it made me want to listen to nineties music even more than I already do. Aside from NKOTB, I also enjoy listening to NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. The parts about the mental load mothers experience was so relatable and honest. Things did get real quite a few times (aside from all the vacation shenanigans) and I felt bad for the women for different reasons. I also liked that one of the friends was Jewish and that there were mentions of Shabbat, Hebrew school, etc.

My main concern was that some parts felt a bit disjointed, like the motivation was off. Certain situations could have been resolved if people just talked and listened instead of jumping to conclusions. Things weren't always what they seemed and even I assumed the worst sometimes!

If you need a virtual vacation filled with nineties memories and boy band music, look no further! I enjoy Jenifer's mom-coms and look forward to reading more from her.

(Trigger warnings below.)

Movie casting suggestions:

Thanks to Jenifer Goldin for the book in exchange for an honest review. 

More by Jenifer Goldin:

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TW: Death of mother (cancer). Kidnapping. Infidelity. Career pressure. Marriage difficulties. Being scammed.

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