Best Staged Plans

Middle-aged Sandy Sullivan works as a home stager in the suburbs of Boston. But Sandy is frustrated. She desperately wants to sell the huge home she and her husband, Greg, bought many years ago. Greg needs to be constantly prodded into making the necessary updates and repairs before their home can be presentable to buyers. And their grown son, Luke, appears to be a permanent fixture, living in the basement in what he calls his “man cave.”

Sandy’s best friend, Denise, discloses the fact that her boyfriend wants to offer her a job in Atlanta updating a rundown boutique hotel he just purchased. Sandy jumps at the chance to get away, not only to perform a different and exciting assignment, but also to spend time with her married daughter, Shannon, and new husband Chance, who happen to live there.

Depressed and frustrated, Sandy wonders where the next phase in her life will turn, so she takes advantage of the job offer for a change of scenery. As she leaves home, she informs Greg and Luke not to contact her until the house is ready to be put on the market.

When Sandy meets Josh, Denise’s younger boyfriend, she experiences serious doubts about him, both as a mate for Denise and as the owner of the hotel he purchased and hired Sandy to renovate and stage.

Not long after Sandy arrives in Atlanta, Shannon receives a promotion and must go to Boston for training, leaving her alone with her well-mannered Southern son-in-law . . . a young man that seems to set her teeth on edge.

Struggling through doubts about her marriage and her future, Sandy meets Naomi, a woman who teaches her a few things about life, proving the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Ms. Cook relates Sandy’s story in the first person, making the reader privy to all her inner thoughts and expressed needs. Infused with humor and middle-aged angst are some very valuable tips on home staging, showing Ms. Cook’s writing only gets better with each new book.