From Publishers Weekly
Booth's latest novel (after Marry Me), the saga of a Martha Stewart-like lifestyle guru's tempestuous life, is a for-fans-only effort. In 1970, 20-year-old Kate Haywood, who has "Nordic features chiseled like the ice floes and fjords in which her Viking ancestors had sailed," is a waitress at center-of-everything-hip Max's Kansas City in Manhattan. There, she meets her future husband, literary agent Peter Haywood, who soon turns her good design/fashion/cooking sense into an empire from which the egomaniacal Kate later excludes him. Driven away by Kate's tantrums, Peter leaves her and their daughter, Sam, for her scheming assistant Ruth, knocking Kate into a depression that nearly destroys her business network. Running parallel to this story line is the doomed marriage of Steve (an artist) and Donna (a surgeon), who split when Steve blames Donna for their young son's accidental death. After Kate has rebounded from her own divorce and saved her business, she and the proud but sensitive Steve fall in love in East Hampton. But is her company safe from the backstabbing Ruth? Is Peter gone forever? Booth's melodrama spins merrily on, but the cliche-ridden prose keeps it strictly humdrum. Set in a world where sexually aroused men's voices are "husky," efficient business women look "cucumber cool" and a choice at a forked road will "change her life forever," this uninspired romance fiction lacks panache. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A glamorous Sixties model marries, has children, starts her own business?and then watches it all fall apart. From the author who has taken us from Malibu to Palm Beach.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Kate Haywood has imagination, creativity, and the drive to make it all happen, especially when teamed with her husband, Peter, and daughter, Samantha. As Kate becomes "An American Icon," her life is fraught with emotional ups and downs that echo the energy of her Martha Stewart-like career. Kate Harper's involvement in the narration drives the story through its incredible twists and turns. Harper becomes Kate Haywood in her reach for the top. A loud background hiss threatens to overwhelm Harper's voice, especially when her voice dips. Nevertheless, listeners will wonder where the time went as they learn about Kate's triumphs over all that threatens to thwart her career. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
As Kate Haywood accepts her "Woman of the Year" award, she is truly happy for the first time in years. Finally she is being recognized: for building a homemaking empire of bestselling books, a top-rated television show, and an award-winning magazine. She has inspired women worldwide to serve homemade apple brown betty, to stencil their bathroom walls with pastel designs, to grow dozens of varieties of peonies in their backyard gardens. She is a role model to millions. But as she dutifully thanks her family in her acceptance speech, she has the nagging sense that something is missing. She knows that she hasn't been a perfect wife and mother, and she resolves to spend more quality time with her family, to have them come first for a change. But that very night, her dream is destroyed. Peter, the literary agent who pitched Kate's first bestseller back in the 1980s, leaves her after more than twenty-five years of marriage. Kate's life is shattered. She is alone, and she knows that her critics are laughing as the dirty laundry of the world's most successful homemaker is hung out to dry. Slowly, supported by the love of her daughter, Samantha, she fights back. But she has a decision to make. Is her business enough to keep her happy? Or should she put her career on a back burner and battle to save her marriage? Complicating matters, Steve Gardiner, a handsome sculptor, enters the picture and unlocks the passions that Kate hasn't felt in years. When shocking events conspire to deepen her bonds with both Steve and Peter, Kate is forced to decide between two very different lives. Safety, security, and family - or desire, excitement, and mystery......


About the Author
Pat Booth is the bestselling author of such novels as PALM BEACH, BEVERLY HILLS, MIAMI, and MARRY ME. She is also the author of three books on photography and is herself an accomplished photographer. She lives with her husband and their two children in Palm Beach, New York, and London.

ANNOTATION

A delicious new novel about a model turned caterer turned business mogul who creates a public image of homespun perfection only to see her own home life deteriorate before her eyes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The bestselling author of "Miami, Malibu, Beverly Hills", and "Palm Beach" is back with a delicious new novel about a model-turned-caterer-turned-business mogul, who creates a public image of homespun perfection--only to see her own home life deteriorate before her eyes.

SYNOPSIS

A delicious new novel about a model turned caterer turned business mogul who creates a public image of homespun perfection only to see her own home life deteriorate before her eyes.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

A glamorous Sixties model marries, has children, starts her own business--and then watches it all fall apart. From the author who has taken us from Malibu to Palm Beach.

Kirkus Reviews

Roman à clef about superhomemaker Martha Stewart, a colossus idolized by millions.