Review: Built to Last

Built to Last by Lexi Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Harper Ross inherited the majority stake in her family's New York construction business when her father passed away suddenly. Since then she's discovered he and her uncle had a very sketchy idea of how to run a business, which mainly seemed to be using the business as a family slush fund, giving jobs to family who have no construction experience, and the big one, never paying taxes! Since then she's been trying to get the company on an even and legal footing, but it has required her to sell some of her shares. Now every one of her many relatives is moaning because they want a new car, or to join a sorority, or equal pay with her. Her mum just wants her to get married and pump out babies and let a man run the business.

One of her ride-or-die BFFs has bought an old brownstone on Park Avenue and intends to stage a reality TV renovation show, with the sale proceeds from the renovated house going towards disaster relief in her country. Harper is excited to be renovating such an historical building, its her great passion and she wants to do it justice. Then she discovers that two reality TV house designer brothers, Reid and Jeremiah Dorsey, are also part of the show (think Drew and Jonathan from The Property Brothers), Harper is immediately bowled over by Reid's good looks and sharp suit, now she wishes she wasn't still in her construction work wear, but her admiration turns cold when she overhears him talking about ripping out all the old features. Then he compounds his gaff by assuming she's a set runner.

What Harper doesn't know is that the house has already been sold and Reid is working to the new buyer's requirements, as they bicker over every little detail. But fight as they might, it only makes the attraction burn stronger.

My heart sank when I realised that Harper's BFF has married the King of a (fictional) small European country, in fact I put the book down for several weeks because I just can't bear those sort of books. Luckily Anika and Luca are just side players (I now know that this is the third book in a series which features each of the BFFs) and when I picked the book up again I raced through it.

It was fun, flirty, all about home renovations (which I love), sure it was pretty predictable why Reid blew hot and cold and who the mysterious house buyer was, but that didn't stop the enjoyment. Reminiscent of Lauren Layne. Perfect, undemanding beach reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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