Thomas Mendez

Thomas, a character in  Mother of the Year book, is a lawyer and one of your love interests. He is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Thomas has swept-back brown hair and blue-gray eyes. His normal attire is a white button-up shirt and a dark gray blazer overtop.

Personality
Thomas is a friendly, outgoing man who is said to be a workaholic at his law firm. He feels if he is not passionate about a case, he feels like he's doing his clients a disservice.

Mother of the Year

 * Chapter 1: New Beginnings
 * Chapter 2: Get to Work
 * Chapter 3: Tough Cookie
 * Chapter 4: Out of the Blue
 * Chapter 5: Ancient History
 * Chapter 6: Elephant in the Room
 * Chapter 7: Trouble Brewing
 * Chapter 8: Behind the Mask
 * Chapter 9: Empty Nest
 * Chapter 10: Failure to Launch
 * Chapter 11: Trial and Error
 * Chapter 12: When It Rains...
 * Chapter 13: Candles in the Wind
 * Chapter 14: Face the Music
 * Chapter 15: Trial by Fire
 * Chapter 16: The Aftermath
 * Chapter 17: Liftoff

Your Character
Thomas is one of your love interests. You meet him in Chapter 1 when you go to buy school supplies for your daughter. If you accept his help, he tells you a little about himself and his own daughter. If you decide to flirt with him, he says he is extremely tired and bad at flirting. He also blushes every time you flirt with him.

Soledad Mendez
Soledad was his wife, who died about two years prior to the start of the book. He is still mourning her passing. He is upfront about her death when questioned; however, he firmly believes that she was killed by faulty brakes rather than a simple accident. When asked if he is suing, he answers that there is no standing since a recall notice was issued two weeks before the accident. Thomas credits Soledad with helping him reconnect with his Mexican heritage.

She was an architect who worked on the house that Thomas and Luz now reside in. According to Thomas, the house was her "baby" before Luz was born.

Vanessa Blackwood
Thomas, at one point, had a relationship with Vanessa. It ended at his insistence, and he is rather cold to her afterwards. Although he states that she is a skilled lawyer, they have professional differences.

Luz Mendez
"It's funny. I can argue million-dollar lawsuits in court, but the idea of my kid getting made fun of because I did her hair wrong terrifies me."

- Thomas in Chapter 5

Luz is his daughter. He jokes that of the two of them, he's the easygoing one in the family. He is very sweet and dedicated to his daughter.

Trivia

 * He is shown on the cover of Mother of the Year.
 * He doesn't appear to specialize in one type of law. He says in Chapter 1 that he takes civil cases, family law, contracts, and whatever compels him.
 * He loves hiking.
 * In Chapter 4, he reveals that he’s Mexican-American. People always assume he’s white because of his appearance, but he responds that Latinos don't have to look a certain way.
 * His family came from Mexico in the 1920s. Back then, they were under huge pressure to assimilate to American culture.
 * He shares the same forename as Thomas Waverley from The Haunting of Braidwood Manor, Thomas Hunt from Red Carpet Diaries, Thomas from Nightbound, Thomas Montjoy from A Very Scandalous Proposal, and Thomas Stiles from Queen B.
 * He went to prom with Suzanne Thomas, who ditched him halfway for Dave Anderson.
 * In Chapter 8, it is revealed that he was once arrested for trespassing his former roommate's house to steal the dog. According to the police report, the dog got away but Thomas hints at the dog living with a new owner, a dentist in Cincinnati.
 * In a premium scene in Chapter 11, he reveals that his father was a dentist and a workaholic.

Memorable Quotes
(Thank you to the PLL Wikia for letting us use their template for this memorable quotes section!)