Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Made to Last

Made to Last by Melissa Tagg, 2013 Bethany House Publishing

    Miranda Woodruff has been running a home improvement show for three seasons, but the network has mentioned there are no guarantees of a fourth - despite being halfway through filming. Randi's manager and her show's producer suggest they solve a mystery the show has been hinting at since its beginning. Randi is reluctant to provide a face to the husband she mentions because there is no husband.
     She had met the man she nearly married on a mission trip to Brazil. Robbie was a leader in the team working to build houses for locals and the relationship between Randi and Robbie progressed until Robbie proposed as they prepared to return to the United States. Miranda struggles to reconcile their relationship with her faith and eventually her fiancee leaves and Randi throws herself into the show. Randi's manager and the show's producer convince her that a replacement husband to show her fans will be the perfect stunt to convince the network to keep the production running. They find Blaze Hunziker to play her husband.
     Blaze has his own demons but agrees to help the woman and, hopefully, her show. Randi is blind-sided when a national gossip magazine reporter is scheduled to follow her every moment through this tumultuous time. While Miranda can handle the over-the-top personality Blaze brings, it is Matthew's calm and quiet observations which get under her skin.
     Trying to maintain the facade she's built on her show for the last three seasons, Randi allows Matthew to see her commitment to her community and a struggling faith. At pressure from the show's producer and her manager, Randi continues to pretend a relationship with Blaze while getting to know Matthew and show him her high-mountain life. The two develop a friendship which threatens to become something more despite her supposed marriage.
     When the real Robbie reappears and threatens the whole charade, just as everything seems set. The tension of having the real man who inspired so much feeling back is compounded when the reporter is brought in on the secret. Though the relationship between Blaze and Randi was revealed as fiction turned to real friendship, Robbie's return jeopardizes even the possibility of something between Matthew and Randi.
     The facade crumbles around her and the media discovers Miranda's secret. But she is worried about what her fans will think and how her friends and family will deal with the years of lies. In a romance which centers around the myth of Randi's marriage and keeping her secret, her Christian faith and hopes for the future drive her decisions. Followed by Blaze's quest for forever, Made to Last is a story of forbidden love, which may not be so ruinous when the dust settles.

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