It is no secret that Claire Cook is one of my all time favorite writers.  I’m a huge fan, and I’ve been waiting impatiently for BEST STAGED PLANS to hit shelves for months now.  It came out on June 7th to rave reviews, and is a June Indie Next pick!

I know what my weekend plans are: Lawn chair, iced tea, and the latest Claire Cook book!  I feel like summer has officially started now!

Here’s a description of BEST STAGED PLANS:

As a professional home stager, Sandy Sullivan is an expert at transforming cluttered rooms into attractive houses ready for sale. If only reinventing her life were as easy as choosing the perfect paint color. She’s eager to put her family’s suburban Boston home on the market, to downsize, and to simplify her own life. But she must first deal with her foot-dragging husband and her grown son, who has moved back home after college to inhabit the basement “bat cave.”

After reading them the riot act, Sandy takes a job staging a boutique hotel in Atlanta recently acquired by her best friend’s boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time with her recently married daughter, Shannon, in Atlanta. The bad news is that Shannon finds herself heading to Boston for job training, leaving Sandy and her southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates. If that’s not complicated enough, Sandy begins to suspect that her best friend’s boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side.

Filled with characters who are fresh and original, yet recognizable enough to live in your neighborhood–plus plenty of great tips and tricks for fixing up houses, and lives–this is a wise and witty story of letting go and moving on. Best Staged Plans is Claire Cook at her most humorous and heartfelt.

Here’s what people are staying about BEST STAGED PLANS:

*“Fans of HGTV and of Cook’s previous charming fiction (Seven Year Switch; Must Love Dogs) will adore this light, funny read.” -STARRED Library Journal review

“Cook’s likable heroine is charming without being silly, and her story is very well paced all the way to a genuinely delightful conclusion.” – Booklist

“Midlife craziness…crowd-pleaser for empty nesters…charmer…Cook knows the territory of secret longing and snappy dialog.” -Publishers Weekly

“Claire Cook has knocked it out of the park with BEST STAGED PLANS! Everything she has written previously has been entertaining, fun, and funny, but this novel made me cry as well, then laugh again. Every page of this story of an almost-empty nester “Home Stager” trying to sell her own home is filled with humor, warmth, insight and humanity. Plus great tips and tricks! … And a homeless woman named Naomi will steal your heart. I loved it!” -Joan Lang, Front Street Book Shop, Scituate MA

“Claire Cook is back with another gift for beach readers and book clubs everywhere–BEST STAGED PLANS….you’ll find fun, heart and hilarity from cover to cover. This is yet another winner for Cook, most certainly.” – Jackie Blem, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO

And here’s the book trailer:

You can follow Claire on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.  And enter to win a beach bag full of all 8 of her books here!