Made To Last by Melissa Tagg

I am glad I didn't miss Made To Last, because it was very good. It is not your "run of the mill" fluffy romance. Instead, this is about the life of Miranda, Randi Woodruff. She is the star of her own show, which focuses on wood working and mostly on do-it-yourself house fixing or building projects. To her viewers she is the tomboy darling, but in her real life, Randi has a past. She has secrets eating her alive.

With the threat of the last thing she holds dear, From The Ground Up being canceled, Randi takes steps to save her show and her employee's that she never dreamed she would take. She agrees to present a man who isn't her husband, as her husband on camera to the whole world. Why would she do that? Well back when she started her show she was engaged, and instead of telling the whole wild world where he went, the myth of her husband continued on the show. However, she is totally under the gun. She has a reporter who gets to her like no one else has for a long time who is her constant shadow, and a fake "husband" living in her house with her. The three of them are becoming constant companions and the truth isn't going to stay hidden easily.
Coming forth with her "husband" is the only thing that might save her show, and all those jobs.

Matthew just came because his niece loves Randi's show so much, and he is suppose to do a "tell all" on her. Dig up her secrets and lay them bare to the world in odder to make a come-back from some major past mistakes that wound up hurting people very close to him. He never though he would wind up with the depths of what he has stumbled into with Randi! Not to mention her husband Blaze. And where is her first fiance, Robbie? The chain of events has lots of twists and turns, and moral and ethical factors to it. Melissa Tagg did a great job on this book, and I was quite pleased with the depth of the character's issues, and complexities.

Carol :)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Miranda Woodruff has it all. At least, that's how it looks when she's starring in her home-building television show, From the Ground Up. So when her network begins to talk about making cuts, she'll do anything to boost ratings and save her show--even if it means pretending to be married to a man who's definitely not the fiance who ran out on her three years ago.

When a handsome reporter starts shadowing Miranda's every move, all his digging into her personal life brings him a little too close to the truth--and to her. Can the girl whose entire identity is wrapped up in her on-screen persona finally find the nerve to set the record straight? And if she does, will the life she's built come crashing down just as she's found a love to last?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Word From The Author:

I’m a former reporter turned author who loves all things funny and romancey. My debut novel, a romantic comedy titled Made to Last, releases from Bethany House in September 2013. In addition to my nonprofit day job, I’m also the marketing/events coordinator for My Book Therapy, a craft and coaching community for novelists.

It all started when my dad, at the ripe old age of sixteen, picked up my mom up for their first date. She was thirteen. Thirteen!* Dad drove a cherry red car up the lane to my grandparents big ol’ green house and honked his horn…whereupon Mom jumped out of the apple tree she’d been waiting in and off they went…fishing. True story. (I’d give more details, but I’m saving it for a novella I plan to entitle Two Leaves. Mom, I really hope you read this.)

Four years of college, a few trips abroad and a stint as a reporter later, that dream is soon to be a reality. My debut novel, a romantic comedy titled Made to Last, is now out from Bethany House. Book two, Here to Stay, comes out on May 1, 2014.

In between writing and staring out the window brainstorming, I also work as a grant-writer at one of Iowa’s largest private nonprofits and serve as the marketing/events coordinator for My Book Therapy, a craft and coaching community for novelists founded by Susan May Warren.

And I love, love, love talking about finding our purpose and identity in Christ. (And well, okay, food, old movies, boots and scarves, my awesome nephew Ollie, and, fine, Tim Tebow, too.)

Melissa can be reached through the Contact link on her Website 

If you'd like to read the first chapter of Made to Last, go HERE.

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764211323

My copy of this book was sent for me for free, for me to review by Bethany House Publishers. Thank you!