Southern By Design by Grace Helena Walz

This book was checked out from the library by Traveling With T.

Southern by Design

Summary: Sweet Magnolias meets Fixer Upper in this delightfully refreshing debut about a woman bravely chasing her dreams, building a life on her own terms, and maybe even discovering a second chance at love.

Magnolia “Mack” Bishop is staring down the barrel at single motherhood–thanks to an unsolicited personal picture her husband texted another woman that quickly went viral among every mom group in town. But she’s determined to not let it distract her from the professional victory she’s inches away securing Charleston’s prestigious Historic Preservation Design Fellowship, the apple of every local designer’s eye.

But when the final house tour is undone by a host of calamities, Mack’s shot at the fellowship goes up in flames. Smelling blood in the water, Mack’s mother, the original Magnolia Bishop, breezes in with a project lead–strings attached. If there’s one thing Magnolia lives for, aside from maintaining her station atop the Southern social ladder, it’s to control Mack’s life . . . and that includes keeping the identity of the absentee father Mack never knew in the shadows.

While working for her mother is the professional equivalent of moving into one’s parent’s basement, Mack spots an opportunity to make it her own when a television network puts a call out for local designers. Pitching the home renovation TV pilot of her dreams–one with a historic preservation twist–might just be the way to finally prove herself. Still, she’ll have to do it covertly to avoid her mother’s interference.

Just when Mack finds her professional footing, at home she spots an impossibly familiar figure unloading his moving truck into the newly sold house next door. She is furious, floored, and regrettably flustered because Lincoln Kelly is the one who got away. Fifteen years earlier he was a summer romance she inadvertently fell in love with, and when he left, following his dreams to New York, Mack was broken-hearted.

Filled with characters who could step off the page and a reminder that nothing worth saving is beyond repair, this charming and delightful debut novel will resonate with readers of Southern women’s fiction by Mary Kay Andrews and Kristy Woodson Harvey.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

A few months ago, a friend of mine (Alison Law) had the opportunity to interview Grace Helena Walz at a literary event in Georgia. I did not get to go, but Alison was talking up the event on Instagram, so I decided to check out the book. Seeing that it seemed to be a book I would enjoy and one of my fave authors (Kristy Woodson Harvey) had wrote a blurb for it- I added to my library list and checked it out a few weeks ago.

I am not super into HGTV and shows about remodeling homes, but I have been known to watch from time to time. This was a part of the book and it did have some fun aspects to that angle.

What I liked:

Thought the cover was too cute!

Mack. I loved how she went after things in life, how she wanted to be known for her reputation and not because people had given her unfair advantages in her work world.

The dynamic between Mack and Magnolia. Mother-daughter struggles are what Southern books are made of a lot of times and the 2 M’s did us proud!

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book and look forward to checking out other books by her!

*This book was checked out by Traveling With T for personal reading and all thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*