The Fixer Upper

Remember me telling you last month about the What's in a Name reading challenge?  It's a really fun challenge with six categories; the idea is to read one book that meets the criteria for each category.  I just finished The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews that fits just perfectly into the "Up or Down" slot. 

Dempsey Killebrew is a junior lobbyist in Washington D.C. whose boss has taken her under his wing and made her his prodigy, so she thinks, until he is charged with bribing a senator and uses Dempsey as the fall guy. She loses her job, and her name and picture are spread all over the news as the girl who hired prostitutes for the senator. Dempsey's unlikable father has just inherited his family home in small town Georgia and, not having much choice, Dempsey packs up and heads to Georgia to "flip" the house. It turns out the once beautiful Victorian is in shambles and a shirttail elderly cousin has taken up residence in the home. Dempsey has her hands full with the house as well as with the scandal that won't go away. Two FBI agents show up in town and threaten her with prison time if she doesn't cooperate with them. As Dempsey starts to restore the family home and her own life, she begins to find the things that are important. 

This book was just ok for me. There wasn't a single character that I really connected with and the fact that the author thought it necessary to throw brand names around in every other sentence really annoyed me. For most of the book, I found myself mostly skimming instead of digging in and really getting into the story.  I certainly won't go out of my way to read any other books by this author.

Not to late for you to join in the What's in a Name Challenge!  Where is your reading taking you?