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A review by emiged
The House at Rose Creek by Jenny Proctor
3.0
While competently written and fairly pleasant to read, I can't imagine any audience for this book beyond active Latter-day Saints.
Kate Sinclair is an orphan. When her parents died in a car accident when she was 7 or so, she went to live with her aunt and cousins - one of whom, Leslie, is very close to her in age - in a small town in North Carolina and became part of their family. When she grew up, she left the small town for the big city, becoming a powerful career woman, neglecting her family back home. She didn't even return for her cousin's husband's funeral, leading to hard feelings and more distance. At the beginning of the book, she receives word that her aunt, the one who took her in and raised her, has passed away from a sudden heart attack.
With a heavy heart full of regret for missed opportunities, Kate returns home for Aunt Mary's funeral and to try to repair the damage done to the other family relationships. When Mary leaves her the old family home, she is shocked and has to determine what to do with it, sell it and go back to her life in Atlanta, or decide to live there and focus on family. To complicate matters, it's discovered that a new freeway is planned to go straight through the property and it's up to Kate to fight the county commissioners and save the house.
Honestly, I think there's plenty of a plot right there to hold a book together, interpersonal conflict, repentance and forgiveness, family relationships, fighting the bureaucracy to save the family home. But Proctor tosses in a few more things for good measure. Of course, Kate meets a mysterious, attractive man - Andrew - while out running, so there's a romance factor - and you all know how I feel about romance ("some connection, some mystifying force of gravity, was pulling her in, grasping tiny pieces of her soul, and one by one, tying them to his..." Oh, blergh!) - but then there's also a religious conversion plot inserted as well.
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves.
Kate Sinclair is an orphan. When her parents died in a car accident when she was 7 or so, she went to live with her aunt and cousins - one of whom, Leslie, is very close to her in age - in a small town in North Carolina and became part of their family. When she grew up, she left the small town for the big city, becoming a powerful career woman, neglecting her family back home. She didn't even return for her cousin's husband's funeral, leading to hard feelings and more distance. At the beginning of the book, she receives word that her aunt, the one who took her in and raised her, has passed away from a sudden heart attack.
With a heavy heart full of regret for missed opportunities, Kate returns home for Aunt Mary's funeral and to try to repair the damage done to the other family relationships. When Mary leaves her the old family home, she is shocked and has to determine what to do with it, sell it and go back to her life in Atlanta, or decide to live there and focus on family. To complicate matters, it's discovered that a new freeway is planned to go straight through the property and it's up to Kate to fight the county commissioners and save the house.
Honestly, I think there's plenty of a plot right there to hold a book together, interpersonal conflict, repentance and forgiveness, family relationships, fighting the bureaucracy to save the family home. But Proctor tosses in a few more things for good measure. Of course, Kate meets a mysterious, attractive man - Andrew - while out running, so there's a romance factor - and you all know how I feel about romance ("some connection, some mystifying force of gravity, was pulling her in, grasping tiny pieces of her soul, and one by one, tying them to his..." Oh, blergh!) - but then there's also a religious conversion plot inserted as well.
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves.