Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Can a prickly carpenter build a reality TV host a way out of the closet?

 

Real estate guru Brandon Chase knows what “family friendly” means in the biz, and it’s not being open about his sexuality.

 

The end of Brandon’s marriage is still making headlines when the Restoration Channel makes him an offer: helm a show about flipping houses in New York City’s risky market. Still smarting from the bad press, Brandon is reluctant to get involved—until he falls in love with an old Victorian.

 

Except the house isn’t the only thing that catches his eye.

 

It’s contractor Travis Rogers’s job to enumerate every way a renovation could go wrong, which leads to a lot of on-set sparring and mutual frustration between him and Brandon. But when the simmering attraction underneath boils over, the show and their relationship hang in the balance.

 

Travis hates the media attention that follows Brandon, and the network has a history of firing LGBTQ personalities. Like the houses Brandon makes over, this relationship has potential. But if Brandon can’t convince Travis to take a chance, their chemistry might stay on-screen only.

 

Book Review

I love watching home improvement shows and the house flipper shows with a couple who bicker their way through budget and design decisions make the shows fun to watch. Kate McMurray takes the essence of those shows and uses her imagination to bring readers along for a first-hand look at a show in the making. The switch is that the original couple divorced so only the guy remains and he and the good-looking contractor do the bickering and eventually realize they have more to their relationship than the house they are working on.

 

The home improvement and show production information was interesting. I’m not sure if it was fiction or based on fact, but it seemed realistic and it was really fun to watch how the show developed and how the couple progressed. Told in both POVs, readers have a chance to learn the emotions behind the characters’ actions and by the end I was rooting for an HEA for Brandon and Travis.

 

The downside is that in the first half there’s such a huge info dump that I was overwhelmed by the narrative at times. Of note, there was much less dialogue than narrative, so there were pages upon pages of long paragraphs with background on the show, on Brandon’s first marriage, on Travis’s love of carpentry, and of his family memories. I found Brandon, the show host, to be “pretty” but insubstantial, somewhat one-dimensional—until the last quarter of the story. On the other hand, right from the beginning, Travis was solid, well-rounded, and likeable. The secondary characters were interesting, diverse, and added to the story without detracting from it. In fact, Brandon’s ex-wife was an unexpected upbeat character who gave me a better perspective on Brandon’s past and what makes him tick.

 

All in all, if you are a reader who enjoys these home improvement shows, don’t hesitate to pick this up—it’s a lovely romance and an insider’s view of house flipping as a bonus. 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 212 pages/73280 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	09-February-2021
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/domestic-do-over-by-kate-mcmurray-11810-b