Redesigning Happiness

June 1, 2019
A recently engaged interior designer must reassess her life when the father of her child reenters her life with shocking news about their past. Yvonne Cable has "claw[ed] her way through Atlanta's cutthroat interior design community" and just landed a new contract with a local celebrity and a cherished article in a lifestyle magazine, and she's also become engaged to Nathan Lange, a home improvement TV star who wants to launch a show with her. Yvonne is ecstatic, and if she feels a little pushed around by Nathan's publicist and slightly annoyed by the fact that everyone seems more excited about the engagement than her other accolades, she'll get over it. She's reached some major goals and landed the perfect man, so life is good. Enter Richard Barrington, owner of the Weekend Warrior network, who wants to pick up Yvonne and Nathan's show--and is also the father of Yvonne's 6-year-old son, Jacob. Yvonne thinks he abandoned her, and Richard thinks she's been hiding Jacob from him. Realizing they've both been betrayed by Richard's father and ex-wife, they work to get Richard back in Jacob's life, which creates tension with Nathan, especially after it's clear that Richard is still in love with Yvonne. Brooks' smoothly written debut is full of characters at the tops of their professions who face a variety of dramas exacerbated by high-stakes business cultures and deep-seated family tensions. Almost all the major conflicts are external, however, and the final resolutions come from paths being cleared rather than obstacles overcome. An interesting, engaging debut that doesn't ask enough of its characters.

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June 10, 2019
This tale of a woman faced with an old lover in the midst of her new relationship attempts to trade on shock value and ends up simply running on too long. Yvonne Cable is trying to build a stable life for her six-year-old son, Jacob, in present-day Atlanta. She has a successful design business, a great kid, and a loving fiancé; what more could she want? Then Jake’s father, Richard Barrington, comes back into the picture and shakes up everything Yvonne believes she has. The story trades on many familiar romance subplots: past love returned, a need to accept oneself, and the desire for the perfect family. Brooks tries to shake things up by throwing in some new twists, but these introduce additional plot lines that get wrapped up at unnecessary length. Fans of fade-to-black romance with Christian undertones may enjoy this mostly unsexy story, but other readers will be put off by the compensatory drama. Agent: Tricia Skinner, Fuse Literary Agency .

July 1, 2019
Yvonne Cable is a household name. A single mom who worked her way to the top of the Atlanta interior design world, she first gained attention as the designer for a celebrity housewife on a reality show, then she scored a gig designing for a talk-show host. Now, she's all over the media, with articles, interviews, and even a possible TV show for her and her celebrity handyman fianc�e (who proposed via Jumbotron at a Braves game, naturally). But when the show is picked up by a network, it turns out the network head is none other than her former flame?and the father of her child. He wants back in her life, and maybe even wants her back. How can she ever trust him with her son after he abandoned her all those years ago? And will his appearance ruin her relationship and her career? Or were those things even really that great to begin with? Fast-paced and high-intensity, Redesigning Happiness is the perfect book for all those who can't get enough HGTV.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)