Best Staged Plans

April 18, 2011
Midlife craziness careens into a happy ending in this crowd-pleaser for empty nesters. Sandy is a suburban Boston home stager with a to-do list to give you nightmares. She's selling the rambling home where she's raised a family, gently booting her slacker son into real life, saving her best friend from a cad, bonding with her inscrutable Southern gentleman son-in-law, and saving a marriage that's lost its way. Cook (Seven Year Switch) knows the territory of secret longing and snappy dialogue, and though she gets this charmer off to a slow start, lovable busybody Sandy more than pulls her weight as she discovers a post-mom identity, settling a goofy score with an officious Post Office worker, and tossing a lifeline to an unlucky woman in dire need of an act of faith. There's a lot going on in this sometimes wacky tale of an ambitious micromanager forced to accept that the whole world cannot be staged, but there's never any doubt Sandy will finally embrace her less than perfect life.

Starred review from May 1, 2011

Sandra is a professional home stager based out of the Boston area. Knowledgeable about home design and full of ideas, she somehow can't manage to get her own house ready for the market, thanks to her slacking-off husband and son. When she gets an offer to stage a boutique hotel in Atlanta, she leaps at the chance to run away and get some distance and perspective. She soon starts to wonder whether her whole life, not just her home, needs a makeover. Fans of HGTV and of Cook's previous charming fiction (Seven Year Switch; Must Love Dogs) will adore this light, funny read.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
Sandra and her husband, Greg, raised their two kids while renovating their Massachusetts Victorian house. Now she's ready for the next stage in her life, but an empty nest is nowhere in sight since her son is still living in the basement. She decides to take her home-staging business to the next level by decorating a boutique hotel in Atlanta. It will allow her to spend time with her newlywed daughter, keep an eye on her best friend's younger boyfriend, who owns the hotel, and hopefully give Greg the push he needs to ready the house for sale. Conflict between happy family memories and the need to move forward is tempered by a great running gag about reading glasses, realistic relationships with friends and children, and much-needed perspective from a stranger in need. Addicts to HGTV marathons will drool over Sandra's tips for paint samples and thrift-store bargains. Cook's likable heroine is charming without being silly, and her story is very well paced all the way to a genuinely delightful conclusion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)