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A Basic Renovation (2013)

by Sandra Antonelli(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Escape Publishing - Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd (February 1, 2013)

review 1: I enjoyed reading this steamy romance book that was about older adults for a change. Lesley is the confident, independent woman and Dominic the wonderful father, hardware store owner, and ex brother-in-law. Throw in a romantic 92 year old grandfather, a meddling ex mother-in-law and a teenager into the mix and you have a great novel by Sandra Antonelli. Lesley comes home to visit her family and to flip a house while she is there, hence the contact with the unwelcoming ex-brother-in-law. Read along to see how they untangle lies told by his brother and find their way to their HEA. I hope you read and enjoy it.
review 2: I marked this 'American' and 'Australian' because it was set in the US, but written by an Australian and published by an Australian arm of Harleq... moreuin. I purchased it because it had 'older' main characters. I won't say they were mature, however. (And might I just ask, if the heroine is supposed in her mid forties, why does the cover have a photo of a girl who looks like she's in her twenties?) The book started out okay, around the middle I was starting to lose interest, and by the end, I really disliked it. I'm surprised I even finished it really. The swearing was totally annoying. Okay, one swear word now and then might be considered 'edgy' or 'modern', but when the hero is calling the heroine the 'c' word and she's giving him the finger in his face and telling him to 'f**k off', it's really not charming, you know? And don't get me started on the hero/heroine's respective families... Oh my... The term 'white trash' flashed through my mind pretty much the whole time. They cussed even more than our principals, and add homophobic, racist, abusive, gamblers, etc etc etc. So not funny. (Which I'm assuming sometimes it was meant to be?) A lot of reviewers mention they loved the heroine's grandfather (GP), but he never endeared himself to me at all. And the 'funny' scene where he goes and buys condoms to have sex with his new girlfriend left me totally confused. He was 92. His girlfriend's in her 80s. Don't think she's going to end up pregnant. And he really thought she had a sexual disease? Perhaps he had one himself... IDEK... Oh, and don't get me started on the obsession the writer must have with junk food. I really really don't need pages and pages taken up by descriptions of popcorn and pizza and apple pies from McDonalds. And the characters weren't obese? Really? Anyway, very disappointing outcome for my favoured 'older mature lead characters' thing. less

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