Oh Yum! - Built to Last

Book Title: Oh Yum! - Built to Last
Author: Sierra Dafoe
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Publisher URL: http://www.ellorascave.com/
ISBN: 9781419916823
Genre: Contemporary Older Woman, Younger Man
Nymph Rating: 4 Nymphs
Literary Nymph Reviewer: Mystical Nymph

Nationally syndicated advice columnist, Ginny Chase, is finding it difficult to take the advice she’d give to her readers, if one of them had written in with a problem similar to her own. How to get over the unexpected death of a seemingly healthy husband? Her knee-jerk answer is to sell her Boston condo and move to a rundown farmhouse in Maine. As much as she loves the house and town, she doesn’t love the leaking roof, old wiring, leaning foundation, and the multitude of other repairs that need to be done. She also doesn’t love the first excessively high repair quote a local contractor has given her. The only answer is to get another bid, and when she does, she get much more than she bargained for.

Local carpenter, Mike Standish, is thrilled when he’s given the opportunity to bid on repairing one of the isolated and often neglected farmhouses that dot the Maine landscape. It was the type of work he’d dreamed of while building cookie-cutter modern houses when he worked in Augusta for two years. What he didn’t expect when the owner opened the door was to be hit with a wave of desire so intense, it almost buckled his knees. It’s not long after he starts repairs before he realizes that it’s not only her house he wants to fix. The question is whether a twenty-four year-old man can fix the broken heart of a forty year-old widow, and teach her to love again?

Built to Last is a tender and heartwarming tale of one woman’s struggle to overcome a devastating loss, and Ms. Dafoe does it with compassion, understanding, and humor. Her expression of Ginny’s heartache was perfect, giving the reader a realistic depiction of the guilt a surviving spouse feels when they begin to feel attraction and desire for someone other than their deceased loved one. Mike is just as realistically portrayed…dedicated, hardworking and determined, not only to do a good job, but to show a wounded woman that age doesn’t matter. That happiness is just out of reach and all she has to do is put out a hand to grasp it. He might be young and not have as much life experience, but he knows who he wants in his life and his bed, and that woman is Ginny. Good work Ms. Dafoe. I look forward to your next release.