Blueprints : a novel

Blueprints A novel

Barbara Delinsky

Book - 2015

"Some women are born with an instinct for knowing how things work -and what to do when they break. Caroline MacAfee is a skilled carpenter, her daughter Jamie, a talented architect. Together they are the faces of Gut It!, a home renovation series on local public television. Caroline takes pride in her work, and in the way she connects with the show's audience. But when she is told the network wants her daughter to replace her as host-the day after Caroline's fifty-sixth birthday-she is devastated. The fallout couldn't come at a worse time. For Jamie, life changes overnight when, soon after learning of the host shift, her father and his new wife die in a car accident that orphans their two-year-old son. Accustomed to orga...nization and planning, she is now grappling with a toddler who misses his parents, a fiance who doesn't want the child, a staggering new attraction, and a work challenge that, if botched, could undermine the future of both MacAfee Homes and Gut It! For Caroline, hosting Gut It! is part of her identity. Facing its loss, she feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world. Her ex-husband's death thrusts her into the role of caregiver to his aging father. And then there's Dean, a long-time friend, whose efforts to seduce her awaken desires that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself. Who am I? Both women ask, as the blueprints they've built their lives around suddenly need revising. While loyalties shift, decisions hover, and new relationships tempt, their challenge comes not only in remaking themselves, but in rebuilding their relationship with each other"--

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Subjects
Mothers and daughters > Fiction.
Parent and adult child > Fiction.
Television personalities > Fiction.
Life change events > Fiction.
Domestic fiction.
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2015.
Language
English
Main Author
Barbara Delinsky (-)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
408 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781250007049
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Best-selling author Delinsky (Chances Are, 2014) offers up a satisfying soaper about the strain placed on the personal and professional relationships between a divorced mother and her daughter when the pair are thrust into an untenable position. Caroline MacAfee, 56, relishes her job as the host of a popular local home-renovation show. So her 29-year-old daughter, Jamie, an architect who hosts segments on the show, is thrown for a loop when she learns that the producers want her to replace Caroline as the primary host. Thinking she can soften the blow, Jamie offers to tell her mother the bad news herself, but when she stalls and a producer beats her to the punch, Caroline feels completely betrayed by her daughter. The family is further fractured when Jamie's father and his much younger wife are killed in a car accident and Jamie becomes the guardian of their two-year-old son, Tad. Caroline and Jamie's relationship remains strained as Caroline embarks on a new romance and Jamie's engagement falters. Delinsky's many fans will find themselves absorbed in the drama of the MacAfees' lives. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The news about best-seller Delinsky's latest novel will be heard far and wide, and an initial 250,000 print run will be ready to go.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2015 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Delinsky, whose bestsellers tackle the crises of family life, offers a story of growth for a woman and her adult daughter and the resulting painful divide. Caroline MacAfee is head carpenter for MacAfee Homes and host of the popular home-improvement show Gut It!, which chronicles the company's building projects. The company is a family affair, run by patriarch Theodore; Caroline's ex-husband, Roy; their architect daughter, Jamie; and her fiance, Brad, the company's lawyer. Caroline avoids Roy and his young third wife, Jess, and their toddler, Tad, preferring the wood shop to the boardroom. But then the producer of Gut It! drops a bombshellCaroline is being replaced as host by Jamie. Caroline is furious, feeling she's the victim of ageism, and irrationally blames Jamie for orchestrating her own promotion. Heartbroken Jamie adores her mother and doesn't want to host the show, at least not like this. But suddenly this conflict becomes much less relevant when Roy and Jess are killed in a car accident and Jamie is given custody of Tad, her half brother. Grieving and overwhelmed, Jamie has just a few days to learn the trick of being a working mother. (Brad is no help, suggesting Tad be given, like an old potato, to someone else.) As her mother is still not speaking to her, Jamie begins to rely on Chip Kobik, a hunky dad and former NHL bad boy she meets at the park. He helps her navigate life with Tad and realize what real love looks like. Meanwhile, as the new CEO, the often unsympathetic Caroline softens while keeping company with her longtime friend Dean, the company's general contractor and a surprisingly romantic tough guy. Delinsky effortlessly brings the components togetherromance, career shifts, changes in parent-child relationshipsand if the novel becomes occasionally clunky detailing an architect at work or a real estate deal in action, then the two charming romances make up for it. A likable beach read with just a touch of gravitas. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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