Title: Fatal Fixer-Upper
Author: Jennie Bentley
Publication Date: November 4th, 2008
Genre: cozy mystery
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Library
Blurb:
Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt’s old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path — home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house — without getting finished off in the process.
Review:
Receiving a letter in the mail from her estranged aunt, Avery makes her way to Maine to find out what kind of family secrets the only lady feels the desperate need to tell her. She arrives, only to find her aunt has passed away. The letter took over two weeks to arrive due to a lack of enough postage. At first, Avery is eager to just get rid of the house and return to her job in New York and her boyfriend.
While the week long limbo occurs before she can take over ownership of the house, Avery returns home. And finds her boyfriend shacked up with the store’s receptionist. Hurt and overwhelmed, Avery spends the next few days getting her affairs in order. She’s now decided to go back to Maine and spend the summer renovating the house herself so that she can get maximum profit out of it. Especially now that she has no job.
Her aunt’s death gnaws at her, seeming a bit too unbelievable for Avery. She begins cleaning up the house, one room at a time while the town handyman Derek Ellis sets to work beginning the renovations. She’s told to stay out of his way and just let him work. At least that’s how it is in the beginning. After a string of mysterious accidents at the house, he begins spending more time around Avery, keeping an eye on her and helping her out.
This book actually kept me guessing. It didn’t delve heavily into a mystery until well over halfway into the book but there was enough intrigue to keep you hanging on up until that point. And when you finally have all the players on the field and think you have it figured out, you end up being wrong. Or at least I did. It was full of sexual tension without there being anything sexual going on, which was actually kind of refreshing. And the details used to explain some of the design ideas that were used in the book were so vivid that I could picture it. Plus it has how-to’s in the back!
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the series C:
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