Who doesn’t love an excellent renovation story? Whether it’s the consultants of “Queer Eye” making life-style enhancements, Marie Kondo organizing litter, the beloved hosts of “What Not to Wear” upgrading a wardrobe (nonetheless ready on that reboot, TLC) or the “Property Brothers” giving a house a much-needed tuneup, all of us like to look at professionals take a large number and rework, renew and restore it into one thing lovely. There’s a hopefulness to renovations, too, in the concept the whole lot has hidden potential simply ready to be dropped at mild. And the primary couple of Ashley Herring Blake’s Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail? Well, let’s simply say they may use some touch-ups.
Carpenter Jordan Everwood has been spiraling for the reason that abrupt, heartbreaking finish of her marriage. On prime of that, the place she loves most—her beloved grandmother’s historic Everwood Inn—is on the verge of closing. Their solely hope is a renovation lined by “Innside America,” a preferred TV present. But filming the present means working with glamorous, ice-cold designer Astrid Parker, with whom Jordan has a disastrous meet-ugly. Astrid is gorgeous, composed, organized, environment friendly—and likewise desperately sad, locked in a life that doesn’t carry her any pleasure. And now, to save lots of her stalled profession, she’ll need to work with the exasperating, sarcastic, beautiful, immensely proficient Jordan, who thwarts and upstages her at each flip.
Far from being a match made in heaven, Astrid and Jordan appear extra like a lit match and a fuse. It takes time for them to let down their partitions, reveal their vulnerabilities and permit themselves to be seen and valued for who they are surely. While Astrid is the eponymous character, Jordan’s journey really proves probably the most shifting. Practically from web page one, it’s clear that Astrid’s relationship along with her mom is poisonous and that she’ll solely discover happiness when she learns to face on her personal. Her discovery of what actually brings her pleasure is good and satisfying (satisfying in each means—it is a romance novel, in spite of everything), however the plot threads really feel pretty acquainted. On the opposite hand, the teachings Jordan has to be taught should not as instantly clear. I felt like I found alongside along with her what she wanted to listen to somebody say to her, what she wanted to uncover about herself and, in the end, what she deserved from life.
Why will we like renovation tales a lot? Maybe as a result of all of us are works in progress, too. There’s at all times the hope that, like Astrid and Jordan, we’d find yourself renovated and restored into precisely who we’re meant to be—with precisely the companion we’re meant to have.
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