The Fixer Upper (audio) by Mary Kay Andrews

After Dempsey Killebrew is implicated in a political scandal, she moves Guthrie, Georgia to Birdsong, a home her father has inherited.  Expecting to do some minor renovations while the scandal blows over, Dempsey is, instead, tasked with doing some major work on the old home.  But as Birdsong takes shape so does Dempsey's life, in an unexpected way.

When I started this book I kept thinking "What does this remind me of?" and then I remembered; Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews. It had a similar trope with the main character fixing up an old house.  I enjoyed Hissy Fit, just like I enjoyed The Fixer Upper.  Despite having one plot contrivance in common, the two books were different though, of course, the writing and flow in similar.  It is the same author after all.  I really like her tone and her sense of humor.

Dempsey is a very naive woman who gets mixed up in a political scandal involving bribery of a U.S. Congressman.  She heads down to Georgia to wait it out.  There, in Guthrie, she meets a cast of characters including Ella Kate, the cranky old squatter living at Birdsong and T. Carter Berryhill, the adorable attorney/newspaper editor and his father, also an attorney, both of whom take to Dempsey in very different ways.  The romance is so sweet and I liked T. Berryhill.  I think he is a good match for Dempsey.  I was frustrated by Ella Kate and how mean she is at first, but I like how her story pans out and I loved the ending.  Dempsey experiences a lot of character growth and it was nice to see her get hers in the end.

15 hours

Isabel Keating is the narrator of The Fixer Upper and I loved her voice.  Though there were a few places where she couldn't seem to get over her accent, she overall did a nice job with the Southern Georgia accent.  She did a good job of making everyone sound distinct and did really well the the male voices, something with which a lot of narrators seem to struggle.  The audio book was well done with the breaks in the right places.  I enjoyed this audio and look forward to listening to more by this author.

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