Remodel and Renovate in Fiction

Restoring Grace
Katie Fforde

Grace lives on a lovely but crumbling English estate. Newly divorced, she has no prospects for getting the money it will take to repair the dry rot that's threatening to ruin the house. Ellie, a newly single and pregnant artist, has nowhere to live. When Ellie tries to sell Grace a painting of the house, the women form a fast friendship and quickly realize they can help each other out if Ellie were to move in. Then Ellie uncovers antique wall murals in the house that could be valuable, and unexpectedly falls for the restoration expert on whom she calls. Meanwhile, Grace finds herself attracted to the handsome new stranger in town. London Times best-selling author Fforde (Paradise Fields) has crafted another charming, lighthearted romance that belongs in most public libraries.
Library Journal Review; June 2006.

Wreck the Halls
Sarah Graves

Pairing home repair and murder may seem a bit of a stretch, but Graves hits the nail square on the head in her Home Repair Is Homicide mysteries. Even those who don't own a screwdriver will be hooked by this fifth installment in the series. Graves' oddly named but thoroughly likable female protagonist, Jacobi 'Jake' Sorenson, left a lucrative career as a New York financial advisor and moved with son Sam to the tiny island of Eastport, Maine, where she devotes her days to the never-ending repairs on her 1823 Federal clapboard home. Jake's enjoyment of the Christmas season is interrupted when she drops in on her friend, Faye Anne Carmody, and finds Faye's abusive husband dead and Faye covered in blood and unsure what happened. With the encouragement of her best friend, Ellie, Jake agrees to help Faye Anne prove her innocence. Meanwhile, domestic tranquility between Jake and husband Wade is threatened by the annoying presence of Jake's ex-spouse, Victor. Graves paints a compelling portrait of small-town Maine in this entertaining cozy.

Booklist Review; November 2001.

Murder at Five Finger Light
Sue Henry

At loose ends because she is unable to race her dogs this season due to an injury, Jessie Arnold heads to Five Finger Light Island to help friends restore an old lighthouse. On the way to the island, Jessie meets Karen Emerson, who is on the run from a persistent stalker, and invites her along on the trip. Once on the island, Jessie's idyllic getaway turns deadly as a body is found, a woman disappears, and an extensive search of the tiny island fails to find her. Jessie and her companions realize they are on their own when they discover that all means of communicating with the outside world are either missing or destroyed. Alternating chapters from Jessie's and the stalker's points of view keep motives hidden and readers guessing as the plot moves briskly along. The unspoiled Alaskan setting, and Jessie and her boyfriend Alex's somewhat uneasy relationship, add to this eleventh in the series.
Booklist Review; March 2005.

The Renovation
Terri Kraus

Kraus, an interior designer who has coauthored multiple inspirational novels with her husband, Jim, offers a fairly standard but likable romance in her first solo effort. Ethan Willis is a 40-ish widower in small town Franklin, Pa., who builds his life and his living around holding on to the past. As a restorer of Victorian homes, Ethan craves historical accuracy. In his personal life, he cherishes the memory of his beloved wife; he has neither recovered from her tragic death nor discussed it with his young teenage son. Cameron Dane is a pretty young newspaper reporter doing a story on Ethan's current restoration project, with a tragic past of her own. Of course, a newspaper interview leads to lunch, which leads to dinner, and readers will be able to do the math and find everything they expect and nothing they don't. (There's no sex, and there's a simple but sincere conversion story as the characters recover their faith.) Kraus focuses on the theme of forgiveness throughout, with quotes at the beginning of every chapter. Ethan's incessant insistence on historical detail may grate on readers' nerves the way it does his client's, and the comparison between holding on to the past in his work and his life is a bit overdone, but the story is enjoyable and will please Christian romance enthusiasts.
Publishers Weekly Review; January 2008.

Castle
J Robert Lennon

Eric Loesch, the narrator of this fifth novel from Lennon (Mailman), returns to rural upstate New York to buy land near where he grew up. He finds the town rundown, the ramshackle house on his property in need of major renovation, and his childhood neighborhood blighted with abandoned cars and weed-filled yards. Eric himself is a disagreeable loner, rebuffing the friendly locals, sometimes violently. Then he makes a startling discovery--a parcel of land with a large rock formation and the ruins of a castle sits in the middle of his property but is not part of his deed. His obsession to find its owner not only opens doors into a dark relationship with his father and a peculiar psychologist named Avery Stiles but also discloses Eric's own violent past in command of a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. The appearance of his estranged sister, Jill, helps him sort out sinister elements in his past that he does not understand. This gripping novel will solidify Lennon's reputation; highly recommended for all public libraries.

Library Journal Review; March 2009.

Midnight Bayou

Nora Roberts

When wealthy Boston attorney Declan Fitzgerald discovers that Manet Hall, a dilapidated mansion on the bayou just outside New Orleans, is for sale, he leaves his practice and moves in to renovate, restore, and redecorate. Independent and tough, bar owner Lena fascinates him from the minute he lays eyes on her. Believing that he's incapable of romance, he's amazed by how quickly and overwhelmingly he falls head over heels in love with her. But he worries about his own sanity when he experiences fugue states that leave him with memories of events and people who lived in the mansion more than 100 years earlier. Are there ghosts about? Or could it be that he is the reincarnation of one of the players in a century-old mysterious disappearance? Roberts has cleverly crafted an enticing tangle of times and relationships featuring characters whose pain and triumphs are palpable and has also created a hero who is strong enough to carry off being well mannered, sensitive, and interested in antiques without diminishing his manly charms.
Booklist Review; September 2001.

Fire Point
John Smolens

Tensions simmer among the residents of a small resort town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula until a young man from Chicago moves in and stirs the situation to a boil. After Martin Reed buys and restores a dilapidated house, he becomes involved with 19-year-old Hannah LeClaire, who is finishing high school after complications from an abortion. Even though Hannah is nearly a decade younger than Martin, their romance quickly heats up. But then Sean Colby, the classmate who fled into the army after getting Hannah pregnant, returns to town; soon, Martin and Hannah face a growing threat from Sean and his policeman father. Smolens proves especially adept at illustrating the tenuous alliances and small fissures that form between townies when the tourists have all gone home. In a quiet, assured fashion, he sets up a series of inevitable confrontations that don't usually turn out the way one would expect--just like in real life.
Booklist Review; August 2004.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
Sarah Strohmeyer

Admissions counselor Eugenia 'Genie' Michaels has dated professor- turned-author Hugh Spencer for four years, patiently waiting him out. When Hugh's bestselling novel lands him on TV, Genie's loved ones tuning in are surprised to see him make an on-air proposal to 'the love of his life.' All assume it's Genie, but off camera, Hugh confesses to an affair, escapes to England for the summer and leaves Genie to do the explaining. Best friend Patty proposes that, rather than moping, Genie keep her mouth shut and enjoy being 'engaged' while it lasts. Soon, Genie's sporting a giant, self-purchased cubic zirconia ring, and masses of wedding gifts begin to arrive at her office. As the inevitable approaches, there's plenty of opportunity for sticky situation comedy, including handsome, charming carpenter Nick, and Strohmeyer nails it at every unpredictable turn.
Publishers Weekly Review; April 2007.