Home Sweet Home by Sarah Title (Southern Comfort #2)
Released: April 3, 2014
Contemporary Romance
eKesington

Reviewed by Mandi

Grace Williams is moving to the house of her dreams, after accepting a teaching position at Pembroke College in Kentucky. Leaving the west coast, Grace arrives at her new/old Victorian house and can’t wait to get inside. But once she does, she realizes the big dreams she had of fixing up an old house is in reality, a ton of work. Everything needs updated, a lot of things need repairs, and Grace with her tiny pink hammer isn’t quite sure where to start. Her realtor really wants Grace to feel welcome in this new town (and really wants Grace and her Jane Austen expertise to join her bookclub) so she offers her brother’s handyman services to Grace free of charge. Only problem is that this brother Jake, doesn’t really want to do the work.

Jake’s passion is to flip houses, but the market at the moment isn’t great for that. So for now, he lives in a small apartment above his sister’s garage and does various repairs and handyman work around town. Right from the start Jake and Grace butt heads.

“Hello?” the woman asked.

Jake grunted in response.

“Hi, this is Grace Williams. Um, your sister sold me that house?”

Right. The professor who lived in that money pit. He thought he was off the hook with that obligation. If she needed him to hang her cat pictures, he was going to be pissed.

“Yeah, hi. What’s up?” he said in the most uninterested way possible.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

Years of maintaining relationships with difficult clients had taught Jake to politely deny when he was being inconvenienced, no matter how big a lie it was. “Yeah,” he replied.

He wanted her to know that she was inconvenient.

Don’t fear though, because Jake isn’t that big of a jerk. These two start off not fond of one another but Jake is actually a really good guy. Grace is alone in a new town and although her realtor is very friendly, Grace is a little awkward. She is quite independent and gung-ho about her new house, but also realizes when she needs help. She hates having to ask Jake, but doesn’t know anyone else trustworthy in town to help her.

Grace also has a few prejudices against her to start. The people in Pembroke, where her college is located are known to look down upon the small town Grace lives in. Jake immediately assumes Grace belongs to this snobbish section. There is also a legend that comes along with her house – known as the ‘Spinster’ house. This house apparently in history, has gone on the market when the female owner is about to get married. It’s always bought by another single female who will always end up getting married. This worries Grace, as she had a very bad relationship and break-up back in California and is so not int the mood to find love.

But Jake and Grace turn their hateful banter to silly banter and start to become friends…best friends even. But Grace always keeps a little bit of distance from him. There are times where she can be pretty cold, which I didn’t love, but it wasn’t enough to really mute my interest in this book. When she is not keeping her distance, Grace is really cute. Like the after the first time she sleeps with him.

“Good night,” she whispered, and kissed him on the nose.

As soon as she closed the door behind him, she died. She leaned against the door and squealed as quietly as she could, which was pretty difficult considering she was bursting inside. Holy crap. Jake, the pain in her butt, was a Love God.

No, not love. She didn’t do love.

He was a Like God.

No, he was a Sex God.

They have a lot of great moments in the house doing repairs together like hanging wallpaper or when Grace gets stuck on the roof. Scenes where Jake learns how funny and warm Grace can be, and that turn his initial judgment of her into something else.

This author has a cute sense of humor. Little lines of  quietly sneak up on you and make you laugh. I read Kentucky Home last year by this author and had a similar experience. Home Sweet Home is a nice, easy. cute romance.

Rating: B

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