I was given this free e-copy by NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased and honest opinion.
I have not read a Kate Carlisle novel before, but I do believe I will start doing so. This is the eighth novel in her A Fixer-Upper series and I really enjoyed the it. Shannon Hammer owns her own construction company and has just taken on one of the biggest projects of her entire career at the behest of her best friend, Jane. The Gables was once the old state aslyum and holds some truly sad memories for Jane. Now, however, she wants to turn those memories into something beautiful and so the building will become a hotel. On the day of groundbreaking, a group of protestors arrive and want the Gables burned down instead. Matters get worse when Shannon is shoved into a pit full of bricks after finding a hidden room. With no idea as to what's going on, Shannon and her crew continue their work until the body is found. Now Shannon must figure out what exactly is worth being killed over in an old boarded up asylum.
I really enjoyed the research that Kate Carlisle put into the history of the Gables. It is a sad and unfortunate fact that there were places that had such scary histories. There were doctors who believed in the keeping their patients safe and humanely helping them. There were also doctors who tortured those poor souls, and later tried to use science and "greater good" as a means of justification. It is a sign of our own healing that we are able to talk about these events and continue to find ways to correct them, so that no one ever has to go through such horrors ever again.
I enjoyed the characters as well. I liked how they were each finding their own happily ever afters. I might be late to the party but this novel did not make me feel lost. It was obvious that it was not a standalone novel, but the author does a good job of keeping the focus on the Gables and the plot line. The characters' backstories are woven into the narrative. If there is ever a necessary mention of a previous book, it is made, but quickly moved back to the main plot. I'm kinda hoping that something else happend to Whitney, and Tommy gets a true happy ending. But some people actually do like mean girls.
My only negative is that the murder wasn't until well after the halfway point of the novel, and the crime solving and sleuthing was about 3 chapters in total. It was mainly about the history of the place, which I was okay with.
Overall I rate this novel 4 out of 5 stars, and will go back to the beginning of the series.
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