A BASIC RENOVATION

A BASIC RENOVATION                        SANDRA ANTONELLI
Posted:  Dec. 2, 2013


  When it comes down to it, rats in the oven trumps Lesley’s desire to never set eyes on another Brennan family member. So Lesley, a pro at property redevelopment, scrambles to Dominic Brennan’s hardware store for supplies. Dominic knows poison — rat and otherwise — and he sees it in Lesley. The woman ruined his brother’s life. Now that she’s back in town, Dominic’s afraid she’ll drag up the past, the secrets, and the pain. They clash immediately, but mix in a teenage boy, a puppy, some white paint, and some loud music, and what starts as cold fury transforms into a nuclear attraction. This basic renovation becomes a major life refurbishment for them both.

MY REVIEW:



    Lesley was home to work on a renovation flip that she bought over the internet from her home in Chicago.  Or at least her home for the past 16 years.  You see she use to live in the town where she just bought the new remodel.  The town of Los Alamos in New Mexico.

     She left there because it held nothing but awful memories of her past.  A marriage that was wiped away by the church so that now you can’t really call it a marriage.  But trying telling the she devil that which is what I call her ex’s mother which by the way is so true.  For it seems that everyone in that town not only has an opinion of what and who Lesley is but they feel a need to yell it at her.

     It wasn’t bad enough that she grew up feeling like she was not special, pretty or loved by anyone.  But the ones that should of just seemed to tell her all her faults.  The thing she found out is that when she left is that she started to really like herself and that she found the real her.  And she found that she didn’t really give a shit what other’s thought.

     Oh that is until she was home to work on this place for what say 24 hours?  If even that.  Then boy did life take an interesting twist.  Coming back she knew she would have to face the skeletons in the closet.  She was not the same woman who left.  Her looks, self-image, job, and moxie had all changed.  But if that closet opened or her ex’s mother showed up she could crumble at any moment. 

     This cast of characters were so exciting and vibrant.  Each one brought its own brand of crazy to the story.  You get so wrapped up in the scenes that you feel like you are right in the room with them.  That just makes the chapters just seem to fly by.  I loved Lesley and Dominic’s relationship I think because it was never boring and that it had so many layers to it.  Kyle was a really cool kid that every parent would want especially in a house of crazy.

But my all-time favorite in this book is “GP”, Martino, Lesley’s grandpa.  OMG!  He was just a hoot!  I can’t even believe what came out of his mouth.  But I laughed, he reminded me of my grand-dad.

     You will totally laugh out loud and then feel some other troubling emotions too.  Once again this book I loved it must be the family saga but this writer has to be good in order to hold my attention and have this great of a cast or then again I could just be warped.  I did love it.  Provided by netgalley.com

                                                                      Back to You #1 Hard Crush HARD CRUSH                                  ...