Handyman

Nichols's contemporary romance debut is built around an engaging comedy of mistaken identity. When a weeping Maggie Ivey enters the San Francisco therapy office of Dr. Jason Golding, hoping to have her life magically transformed by his famous 21-Day Overhaul, she has no idea what she's letting herself in for. The real doctor has been hospitalized with a heart attack and the man behind his desk is his carpenter, Jake Cooper. Before he can clear up the misunderstanding, Jake is swept along by Maggie's account of her not-so-small problems, which include a sick child for whom she is the sole caregiver and a boss who is both sexually harassing and underpaying her. Missing several chances to correct Maggie's error, Jake instead finds himself scheduling her next appointment. Maggie, meanwhile, is pleasantly surprised to find that her therapist is more like a kindly genie than Sigmund Freud. Jake's unconventional approach to Maggie's problems involves practical assistance--he strong-arms her boss, fixes the locks on her doors and reads to her son--but he encourages her to develop her own backbone, too. As it becomes clear that the two are attracted to each other, however, complications arise. What will they do when Maggie's three weeks of therapy end? And how will Maggie react if and when Jake finally confesses that the man she's come to trust so much has been harboring one fairly big whopper of a lie? Nichols has a fine sense of irony and her lampoon of the expensive self-help industry is often droll. There's even a madcap climax la the Marx Brothers, and the denouement will satisfy the sensibilities of romantics and justice seekers alike. Major ad/promo. (Jan.)