Fiction

Handyman

Name: Handyman
Author: Linda Nichols
ISBN: 9780440235422

by Linda Nichols

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Overview

An accidental therapy session is the catalyst for change in Linda Nichols's winsome, witty, irresistible debut novel--a love story about two people who don't realize they're made for each other until it's almost too late.

Sweet, struggling Maggie Ivey is a twenty-six-year-old single mom trying to keep it all together, burdened by a lecherous boss, a dead-end job, and a worried mother who just wants her to move back home to Georgia. Maggie's prospects look dim, until her friend Gina signs her up for the famous Dr. Jason Golding's 21-Day Overhaul.

Maggie's first session seems to go perfectly. Dr. Golding is warm, sensitive, and a terrific listener. There's only one problem: The handsome man in Dr. Golding's chair isn't Dr. Golding. In fact, he's not even a therapist; he's Jake Cooper, a contractor hired to remodel the office. But all Maggie knows is that talking to him helps her feel better. And Jake doesn't quite know how to let Maggie in on the secret. Will he eventually confess to his ruse? Will she discover the truth on her own? And the most important question of all: Can a handyman fix a broken heart?

Set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and featuring a cast of characters impossible to resist, Handyman is a fresh new look at the oldest story of all and just what the doctor ordered for anyone with a case of the blues.

Maggie's first session seems to go perfectly. Dr. Golding is warm, sensitive, and a terrific listener. There's only one problem: the handsome man in Dr. Golding's chair isn't Dr. Golding. In fact, he's not even a therapist; he's Jake Cooper, a contractor hired to remodel the office. Will Jake eventually confess? Will Maggie discover the truth on her own? And the real question: Can a handyman fix a broken heart?

Set in the San Francisco Bay area, and featuring a cast of characters impossible to resist, Handyman is a fresh new look at the oldest story of all and just what the doctor ordered for the mid-winter blues.

About the Author, Linda Nichols

Linda Nichols lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her family. Handyman is her first novel.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Nichols's contemporary romance debut is built around an engaging comedy of mistaken identity. When a weeping Maggie Ivey enters the San Francisco therapy office of Dr. Jason Golding, hoping to have her life magically transformed by his famous 21-Day Overhaul, she has no idea what she's letting herself in for. The real doctor has been hospitalized with a heart attack and the man behind his desk is his carpenter, Jake Cooper. Before he can clear up the misunderstanding, Jake is swept along by Maggie's account of her not-so-small problems, which include a sick child for whom she is the sole caregiver and a boss who is both sexually harassing and underpaying her. Missing several chances to correct Maggie's error, Jake instead finds himself scheduling her next appointment. Maggie, meanwhile, is pleasantly surprised to find that her therapist is more like a kindly genie than Sigmund Freud. Jake's unconventional approach to Maggie's problems involves practical assistance--he strong-arms her boss, fixes the locks on her doors and reads to her son--but he encourages her to develop her own backbone, too. As it becomes clear that the two are attracted to each other, however, complications arise. What will they do when Maggie's three weeks of therapy end? And how will Maggie react if and when Jake finally confesses that the man she's come to trust so much has been harboring one fairly big whopper of a lie? Nichols has a fine sense of irony and her lampoon of the expensive self-help industry is often droll. There's even a madcap climax la the Marx Brothers, and the denouement will satisfy the sensibilities of romantics and justice seekers alike. Major ad/promo. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Pretty, sweet Maggie Ivey is struggling with the familiar problems that weigh down many twentysomethings: a small son with ear infections, a harassing boss, a hopeless temporary job, and far too little money. When a friend gives her the gift of a life-makeover from a San Francisco yuppie psychiatrist, she decides to go for it. The shrink, though, has huge problems of his own and is out of town. A contractor named Jake handsome and charming, of course, measuring the office for remodeling, decides on the spur of the moment to pretend he is the doctor. From that moment on, there are many more "of courses." Both are disentangling from awful relationships she with a jerk and he with a preening snob. Tales of love triumphing over mistaken identity are probably even older than Shakespeare and a staple of light romances. Still, the crazies surrounding the protagonists are boldly drawn and save the story from drowning in clich s. Reader Katherine Borowitz does a great job with the voices. Recommended for public libraries with an audience for easy listening romantic fluff. Barbara Valle, El Paso P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.