Courtney Miller Santo

The novel is told in three parts from the perspectives of three cousins, Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel.

Although the novel shifts voices the main character for me was really the character of Lizzie. LIzzie is trying to cope with the fact that her professional soccer career may be over. Dealing with her mother pushing her to deal with her late grandmother's home in Memphis, Lizzie and her two cousins, Elyse and Isobel go together to see about fixing up the house.

This entire novel was just an average read to me. Honestly I found the novel to also be just a bit depressing due to all of the characters going on and on about how horrible her life is/was. Lizzie's character actually drove me up the wall since she was so unpleasant about everything related to her upbringing and when you read further you don't get why she is as angry as she is about things with regards to her mother and stepfather. And unlike with "The Roots of the Olive Tree" I didn't find the writing inspiring this time. Instead I found it to be a drudge to get through and often times my mind just wandered while reading since I didn't feel 100 percent engaged in everything that was occurring for the characters.

I previously loved this author's other book, "The Roots of the Olive Tree" but this one just gets bogged down in vague family backstory that when it is explained you have ceased caring about at all.

Please note that I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program.… (mais)

If you haven't heard of spite houses before, go look them up because they are fascinating. If you have heard of them, you're probably intrigued by them like I am. The stories behind these houses are wild and so very, very human. They tell of neighbors who hate each other or families who cannot get along. They are a giant middle finger, revenge for something unforgivable. One such house is the thing that functions exactly opposite the way that it might have, bringing cousins together, helping them work through the crises in their lives that are weighing them down, and helping them find happy, productive futures.

The Memphis house that Lizzie lived in until she was eight, before her mother married her stepfather, is a spite house. Several years after her grandmother's death, she and her mother could lose the house to condemnation if they don't restore the derelict building and bring it up to code but her mother's out of the country on a mission trip so it's up to Lizzie. Lizzie doesn't want to upend her life to save it, especially given her contentious relationship with her mother, but since she's recovering from a horrible knee injury, one that could cost her her dream of Olympic gold and a her professional soccer career, she agrees to check things out. Once back in Memphis, faced with the overwhelming task, she makes the decision to rescue the house, determined to save it from demolition by the city. She is joined by her two step-cousins, Elyse and Isobel, who are each facing growing pains of their own. Elyse was blindsided when her sister and her childhood best friend, who she's been in love with forever, announced their engagement and Isobel, a former child star, cannot capture the fame and celebrity she craves as an adult. So all three women are on the precipice (almost literally, given the house's location) of change, whether they want it or not.

Spite House is both three stories tall and literally a house of three stories, those of Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel. Each woman's story is told in turn in the three sections of the novel. The house holds secrets and answers but it is only the backdrop to the renovation, reinvention, and restoration the characters must do in their own lives; it's a project to keep them moving forward and to help them embrace their futures, significantly changed from what they once envisioned. Lizzie is the strongest of the characters and the mystery of her father's identity is another big plot line here. Given the structure of the novel, Lizzie's story, followed by Elyse's story, and finally by Isobel's story, Santo has done a good job keeping all of the stories going, one in the foreground with two in the background at any given moment. The resolutions to everything might be a little bit easy but over all, this was a satisfying, readable family drama.

*Note that although this was supposed to be an Early Reviewer book for me, I never did receive a copy of it and ended up getting my own copy.… (mais)

Thirty and none of them where they want to be in life, the three cousins – Lizzie, Elyse and Isobel – decide to move in together and to restore Lizzie’s family’s crumbling home in Memphis. As they deal with what life heaps on them, and with the help of each other, the Elizabeths gradually grow into their own strengths. The Three Story House is written with each girl’s story as one part of the whole house.

Like a glass of southern sweet tea, maybe just a tad too sweet, but what a nice thing to have with you on the beach.… (mais)

A good summer novel, above chick lit, this is a story of three female cousins who hit the career and personal life skids simultaneously and decide to renovate a collapsing family house in Memphis. It's a "Spite House", build on an odd lot due to inheritance disputes. Lizzie, Elyse, and Isobel each have some secrets and mysteries in their families which have shaped them, and dumb mistakes they make as a result. But their travails are amusing and within the realm of possibility, and each character has their own distinct quirks which make for a smooth read.… (mais)