Thirty year-old Gretchen Hanover, ditched by her fiancé right before the wedding, found consolation for her grief in ice cream and HGTV.  Lonely, depressed, and twenty pounds heavier; Gretchen decides to do something about this pity-party she has held for the last eighteen months.

Inspired by HGTV, Gretchen partners with her father, a retired contractor, to purchase, restore, and flip a run-down house in six short weeks.  As Gretchen restores the house, God restores Gretchen.  Self-reliance turns into dependence on God and loneliness gives way to unimaginable friendships.

In just six weeks, a nearly condemned house and an abandoned soul are amazingly transformed into model show-cases displaying beauty on the inside as well as the outside.

The author includes a near impossible amount of activity and relational bonding with in the six week setting of the book, however it is this activity and bonding that keeps the reader from putting the book down.  Besides, hasn’t God been known to work miracles that quickly?

I recommend this Christian fiction novel to the female reader, young or old, because in it she will gain hope despite the spiritual place and circumstance in which she finds herself.

July 9, 2008