Oooh, we’ve got a good one this week! For all you HGTV lovers out there, send a big thanks to Reader Chloe who sent in this request:
I’m seeking out romance with remodel recommendations. I love stories of shops/houses/barns – you name it – restored or remodeled or what-have-you alongside a good romance. I have no cares as to whether it is contemporary or historical but would like to find something funny or witty. I’m not really looking for anything paranormal, fantasy, or sci-fi flavored, though.
Explicitness of content, or lack thereof, doesn’t matter much to me.
Elyse: Billionaire Builders series by Jennifer Probst.
Amanda: Elyse reviewed Any Time, Any Place in the Probst series and enjoyed it!
Elyse: The Obsession by Nora Roberts.
Amanda: We also have a “renovation romance” theme in our book database. Feel free to poke around!
Also…though Chloe isn’t looking for anything scfi/fantasy based, I’m very curious if renovation romances that fall into those subgenres even exist.
Which renovation romances would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!
Sandra Antonelli’s A Basic Renovation and Kate Clayborn’s Beginner’s Luck – both have heroines with home reno projects.
I haven’t read it in years, but I remember really enjoying HOME IMPROVEMENT by Barbara Daly, part of Harlequin’s Love and Laughter line. Most of the books in the line weren’t very funny, but I’ve always remembered that as one that actually was.
https://www.fictiondb.com/author/barbara-daly~home-improvement~44184~b.htm
Sarina Bowen’s Man Hands.
I love these too! There are some other Noras that qualify: Midnight Bayou and Tribute for instance, and the hotel series starting with The Next Always. Also, Karen White – The House on Tradd Street. Laurie King’s Folly. A couple of Katie Fforde’s books, such as Restoring Grace. Mary Kay Andrews’s The Fixer-Upper. Some of Barbara Michaels’s books don’t quite qualify because they aren’t actually restoring the house, but the house is a presence in the books and the characters explore it and its history – House of Many Shadows for instance.
Julie Ann Long’s Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap.
Somebody to love by Kristan Higgins
Miss Fix-It by Emma Hart
Amanda Weaver’s A Duchess in Name. The heroine renovates the hero’s crumbling manor while he’s in Italy. It’s excellent.
Kristen Ashley’s The Kaleidoscope.
The Winston brothers series by Penny Reid. I can’t remember which one it was where the hero was renovating the carriage house but either way there’s lots of renovating and working with hands throughout the series.
Loved The Bottom Line. It’s part of Sandy James’ Ladies Who Lunch series. Super hunky hero!
In Anne Calhoun’s UNFORGIVEN, the heroine is renovating her grandfather’s dilapidated mansion. The heroine also does home renovations for others as a primary way to earn money. Several scenes—particularly one involving replacing a house’s siding on a cold day—show how much hard manual labor goes into construction work.
A little off-topic but Kate Hoffmann’s OFF-LIMITS MARINE features a military widow who refurbishes an old sailboat and begins to fall in love with the title character when they take the boat for a series of shakedown cruises.
Rachael Herron has 2 (looks like series is planned for 3) with brothers with a renovation reality TV show. The first is On the Market and then Build it Strong.
Nora Roberts’ Inn Boonsboro trilogy is just one long story of renovation porn. There were times I felt I was reading it more for the inn than the romances.
Inés Saint’s Spinning Hills series takes a look at a different area of the renovation business and centers around three brothers who buy homes, renovates, and flips them. The first book, Flipped!, is about a woman who saved to buy this gorgeous Craftsman house until the hero,steals it from under her. It was a fun story and I have the next two books queued up to read.
Jeannie Watts’ A DIFFICULT WOMAN. Her first book, I think? It’s a Harlequin. It’s a good Harlequin. She can write.
NO,NO,NO. Tomorrow we will finish remodeling our masterbath which we started August 1st! Unlike TV it doesn’t take 4-6 weeks but can be 4 MONTHS even with no hidden problems. Materials don’t arrive, workman are on other projects, patience is NOT rewarded. We made our decisions promptly, were flexible with changes, were available for any workman or delivery. STILL. And, this is a top rated, well recommended contractor.
The Walshes series by Kate Canterbury. They run an architecture/restoration business and it’s a big part of most of the books.
Almost anything from Mary Kay Andrews……
There’s a YA from the ’80s called Mel that’s about an older teen who discovers a flair for interior decorating while renovating her low-income housing unit after it’s been trashed by her hoarder mom. She also ends up having a romance with a rock star. If it sounds kind of wtf, it’s because it is, but I loved it as a teen and still love it now.
I know you aren’t looking for paranormal but Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper is definitely funny!
Jeannie Ray’s Step Ball Change is witty and has an unexpected romance amid a heap of family problems and a contractor who comes to breakfast!
Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry. It’s been the heroine’s dream to buy and restore the local theatre in her small town, so her best friend comes to help her while he’s getting divorced. She’s also been in love with him for years, so there’s the friends to lovers trope which I love. I also think I’ve read everything by Ms. Mayberry and I really like her writing. 🙂
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7557790-her-best-friend
Lisa Kleypas’ Dream Lake has a cute baker heroine and a cranky alcoholic hero who is fixing up an old house (haunted by a sexy ghost, it makes sense in context) with his brothers. Medium angsty but sweet and sexy like all her work.
Actually, I think the house renovation thing runs through all of her Friday Harbor series. I read a couple years back and enjoyed them!
Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James is a cute historical one. It’s part of the Desperate Duchesses series (the hero, Thorn, is the son of the Duke of Villiers), but it’s okay to be read as a standalone. Not only does Lady Xenobia redecorate his house, she also gives Thorn a “social” makeover. Hilarity and shenanigans ensue.
I just wanted to add that A Basic Renovation by Sandra Antonelli, which was mentioned in the first comment, features a romance between two people in their 40’s and we all know how rare older couples are in romance novels. It was also quite funny.
Tribute by Nora Roberts, the story is built around a renovation project. And for a shop book, the Dream trilogy also by Nora Roberts. Dating to Dream, Finding the Dream, Holding the Dream.
@Rose: Bah, I JUST read the second Friday Harbor book last night, and that didn’t even cross my mind. You’re absolutely right.
Jay Crownover’s “Built”: the hero is a contractor, the heroine has an old house that he’s working on.
@Meg it took me a minute to think of it because, ironically, the house is so much of a character that it doesn’t immediately seem like traditional renovation romance–but I think it would fit the bill nicely!
Practically brand new, Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn, the start of a series about a group of friends who won the lottery. The hero’s dad owns a salvage yard where the heroine gets period-appropriate details for her historic house. Great book with lots of fun restoration details.
Not strictly romance, but the mystery series ‘Home Repair is Homicide’ series by Sarah Graves features Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree, a reserved divorced ex-Wall Street investor who retires and moves to Maine with her son. Jake buys an old house in dire need of repair and stumbles into a murder she soon solves.
It’s been years since I last read them (it appears the series is complete) so certain details are hazy, but iirc there was a lot of info regarding historic old house restorations. Some humor, some family issues (teenaged son unhappy with move, exhusband also not happy with her move, dating) and her budding friendships and eventual relationship with another man.
Of course, as always ymmv.
Damn, but I wish there was an edit button.
Susan Andersen’s Cutting Loose is about a remodel. It’s the first in a trilogy, but not all are about the work in the house.
Please forgive the self-name-dropping.
My novel, Damselfly Inn, is about an emergency remodel to a historic home-turned inn. Innkeeper meets contractor in a small college town in Vermont, first in a series.
http://bit.ly/DamselflyInnEbook
Well, I have added three books to the wishlist based on these recs because I love me some renovation porn. And really, thanks, because if I had stumbled across the books some other way I probably would not have guessed (from the Amazon descriptions) that renovation was a Thing.
Oddly enough, even slogging through a six-month reno of our new old rental did not put me off my taste for this stuff. 🙂
Alice Clayton’s Screwdrivered is about a heroine who inherits an old fixer upper house from her aunt. It also has a great beta hero.
Room for Improvement by Stacey Ballis. About an interior designer who’s hired for a home dec reality tv show. Several of the room redecorations are described in detail.
It’s more chick lit than romance – the hero is off page for most of the book and the heroine dates/sleeps with a couple different men. But it’s a lot of fun, the heroine has great friends, and she’s unapologetically not skinny.
The Lucky Harbour series by Jill Shalvis, particularly the first book. Three estranged sisters inherit a dilapidated bed and breakfast from their deceased mother. Small beach town, renovation porn, sexy carpenter, lots of humour!!!
I’m with @Joy on this one. I worked too much construction for this to be the subgenre for me. Inboonsboro drove me crazy with the rehab plot! Also Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap, Three Weeks with Lady X, and Her Best Friend, all mentioned above, involved lots of skimming for me, so highly recommend since that’s what you’re looking for.
Irl, I once housesat a cottage in Oxford that had an incredibly beautiful garden, like a romantic ideal of a garden, and I asked the brand new owners how they had ever induced the previous owner to part with it, as it was obviously a longstanding labor of love. Turns out – she and her gardener fell in love over the course of a dozen years working together on it, got married and bought a place with 4x the land.
I recommend Sherry Thomas’ Ravishing the Heiress. The hero and heroine work together to build their life together after their arranged marriage, which includes remodeling their estate and continuing to build her father’s canned food/grocery empire.