Review : How to Build a House
How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt
Pages : 227
Genre : Young Adult
My Rating : 
Harper’s dad is getting a divorce from her beloved stepmother, Jane. Even worse, Harper has lost her stepsister, Tess; the divorce divides them. Harper decides to escape by joining a volunteer program to build a house for a family in Tennessee who lost their home in a tornado. Not that she knows a thing about construction.
Soon she’s living in a funky motel and working long days in blazing heat with a group of kids from all over the country. At the site, she works alongside Teddy, the son of the family for whom they are building the house. Their partnership turns into a summer romance, complete with power tools. Learning to trust and love Teddy isn’t easy for Harper, but it’s the first step toward finding her way back home.
This book was a complete surprise for me! I was looking for something else at the library when I came across it, and I only picked it up because I remembered reading a few good reviews of it – and I’m glad I did.
I thought this book had such a great balance of romance, memories, friendship, etc. The book is a quick read, but the characters are so well defined that I quickly had a sharp idea of who they were. Then again, there was a good balance of their traits; they weren’t perfect, but they weren’t annoying either, which made them all the more realistic and likeable. Especially Teddy. Every girl should have a Teddy!
I also loved the book’s structure, which navigated between present and past, titled “here” and “home”. There was just enough of each to give you an idea of what happened and who Harper is. This leads to a good ending, where things are not completely, magically resolved but clearly on their way to be.
I definitely enjoyed it, and it is perfect as a summer read!
Is there a movie based on this?
Good question! Not that I know of… did you have a specific movie in mind?
It just sounds so familiar! The first thing I can think of is Life as a House but that’s not it. Amazon says this was published 2008, though? If that’s true, it’s not the movie I was thinking of. I saw it at least 4 years ago.
I always like the past and present style of writing. I like that this story’s premise is unique…sounds like this is one I need to read in the future!
Amanda : That’s funny you mention it, “Life as a house” just was on TV last weekend! I only watched parts of it but, no, apart from the “building a house” thing, the book is really different from that movie.
Staci : I like this too, especially when it’s done well! Some authors do it just for the fun of it and it brings nothing special to it, but in this case, it worked well. I hope you’ll enjoy it too 🙂
Awesome! I’ve never heard of this one, but the plot sounds great.
That book sounds like it has it all. Great review.
sounds like a really interesting read..