Grand Designs by Linda Mitchelmore

2.5 Star

You can change the house but can you change the man? 
Carrie Fraser is an interior decorator and cannot believe her luck when she is invited to work at Oakenbury Hall – a beautiful manor house in the heart of the English countryside. Nor can she quite get over the owner of Oakenbury – the gorgeous (not to mention, completely loaded!) Morgan Harrington. Morgan appears to have it all, but his previous life is clouded with sadness and heartache, which Carrie can relate to only too well. He is intent on running away from his troubled past to a glamorous, celebrity-filled existence in Cannes, but there’s a problem… 

Morgan is bound by his late father’s wishes to keep Oakenbury Hall within the family and have children, and the more time Carrie spends with him, the more she yearns to be the woman to fulfil this wish. But the likes of Carrie Fraser could never be enough for a high-flying businessman like Morgan …could she?

Kindle

Kathryn - 2.5 Star

I feel Grand Designs had a great amount of potential but either I was just not invested in the characters or something in the telling of the story was lacking.  Writing a short story like this is difficult for character development and can certainly make it hard to get the action to reach a pinnacle while still creating warm, relatable personalities.   

My dilemma was unfortunately with the main character. Carrie was all over the shop and that made her internal voice appear a bit blah.  I didn’t expect her to be pushy but I still expected her to be able to either focus on her job or, failing that, scrap the job and let him know she was really attracted to him.  Her love interest was no secret for the reader from the beginning (as there were statements from both about their attraction for each other) so I found myself incredibly frustrated that the novel didn’t progress in that department as quickly as would have seemed realistic. 

I actually liked the storyline laid out in Grand Designs though so I think this may have suited me more as a full length novel- with perhaps the relationship being established early on and the pinnacle being her discovery about his position.  This would also have allowed for more time with her mother (who seemed to have quite a life of her own we missed out on) and the mutual friends running his company abroad (they seemed cheerful and quite good fun!).

I’ve read a number of interviews with the author and she’s always funny and seems to have a great sense of humour so I shall not give up!  Grand Designs was an easy read and perhaps I’m just being too picky from a novella!

Thank you to Chock Lit Publishing for our review copy. All opinions are our own.

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