Shelby Springfield has a lot to prove. As a teenager, she starred on a popular teen sitcom named The World According to Jackson. It was a bubblegum show about being an American teenager. It starred Lyle Jessup, with Shelby as his girlfriend and Cameron Riggs as his best friend. Backstage, the sparks were flying between Shelby and Cameron, not Shelby and Lyle, but when the show ended, Cameron left Hollywood as fast as he could.
In the wake of Cam’s leaving, Shelby became a pop singer and started dating Lyle . They were social media sweethearts, until he dumped her for her best friend and then wrote a song about how the breakup had been all her fault. He had a hit song and a new love, and Shelby was publicly humiliated and vilified.
After burning out in Los Angeles, Shelby had moved back to Michigan, where her father taught her about rehabbing houses. She started working for him, helping to bring houses back to their former glory. Now they work as a team, with her father and his crew doing most of the work of the house while she works on restoring distinctive pieces that add to the beauty and informs the area’s history. Her latest project is a set of built-in bookshelves that she restored and is putting back in place before adding that last coat of varnish.
Now she’s thinking about getting back into television, but not back to Hollywood. She wants them to come to her, to film her and her father rehabbing houses in Michigan. There is some interest in the project, but her father just doesn’t have that same on-camera charm that she does. She needs another option, and when the idea comes up that Cameron Riggs be her cohost, she was willing to try. But would he be willing to?
In the years since the show ended, Cameron had gone a different direction. He attended college and then landed a job with National Geographic, working behind the camera, making documentaries all over the world. But after years of world travel, he got a call from Shelby and decided to take some time off to move home to Michigan. It’s an opportunity to connect with Shelby again and help her make the pilot for a reality house rehabbing show. But it’s also a chance to reconnect with his family, maybe even with the father he barely knew, who resented his success as a teenager and for splitting up the family all those years Cam and his mother spent in Hollywood. Plus, it’s Shelby. He could never say no to her.
But when they have a meeting with the producer, they realize that this new show will be more of a challenge than Shelby and Cameron realized, since Lyle has taken over as showrunner. He says he’s over all their teenage drama, but it’s clear that he still has something to prove. But will his machinations take down the show, and their growing feelings for each other, or will Shelby and Cameron be able to build something strong together, with a past they can celebrate and a future that has a strong foundation?
Built to Last is an addictive rom com that blends a story of child stars grown up and of reality home restoration show hosts into a fun and inventive tale of old friends who become new friends and so much more. These characters are smart and funny and strong, and when they learn to get out of their own way, they are almost unstoppable.
I devoured this book. I loved how Shelby was able to find something for herself, that she had built with her own two hands. I liked Cameron a lot, and I was really impressed with his years with Nat Geo. I loved watching them get together and try dating for real, with honesty and respect, taking the time to build something real, just like with the house they’re rehabbing. But the character that I thought stole all the scenes she appeared in was best friend Lorelai Jones, former country star. She was pitch-perfect and brightened up the story. So basically: loved the story, loved the characters, loved it all!
Egalleys for Built to Last were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks.
