Blueprints: A Novel

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 shows audience. But when she is told the network wants her daughter to replace her as host-the day after Carolines fifty-sixth birthday-she is devastated. The fallout couldnt 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 organization and planning, she is now grappling with a toddler who misses his parents, a fiancé who doesnt 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.