I have previously enjoyed an up-lit novel by Marie Bostwick, about women who found activity and good hearts again after their lives seemed to have come to the end of major chapters. Focusing this time on one lady, a Southern belle transplanted to New York City and thriving – until now – the newest women’s fiction tale is even better.
THE RESTORATION OF CELIA FAIRCHILD refers to the work undertaken by Celia, and the gradual remaking of her heart and family. Upon losing her advice column job and marriage, Celia Fairchild has started the process to adopt a stranger’s baby. We can see that what she wants is a family. Supported by her best friend, Calvin LaGuardia, Celia has to return to her upbringing in historic Charleston, and the friends she left behind, when her Aunt Calpurnia dies.
This Calvin is a story device; he’s there so Celia can tell the reader information without talking to herself, he greases the wheel with contacts a few times, and he’s a nice man who isn’t a romantic prospect. I got tired of him being always on the phone or dropping in for a visit (his boyfriend is abroad so he has time). But at the end I decided Calvin was pointing up the difference between Celia’s New York life and her new life, while showing that in many ways, she wasn’t losing much by moving to a stylish city.
Charleston didn’t dislike Aunt Calpurnia, but it does dislike her hoarder’s home. The neighbours want it cleared out and renovated. A developer wants to smash it and build condos. The town planners want strict rules applied to any remodelling. And the hotels are too pricey for Celia to live anywhere else. She’s inherited the rambling old house and in two minds about what to do, except that if she renovates, it will look good to the adoption authorities. First, she has to squeeze in the door. Then she’ll need a builder, and her late aunt’s lawyer Trey Holcomb can only recommend an ex-con as all the firms are booked solid. Celia’s severance payment will only go so far, and she has no work. The challenges keep mounting, and each made the story better.
Probably my favourite character was the inspiring Pris Browder, a keen young blogger; after that, Teddy, a charming young man who serves coffee in Bitty and Beau’s, a coffee shop staffed mainly by people with developmental disabilities. I was delighted by this inclusion. Many other characters populate the pages, as warm or busy as they can be while a deadline for the house visit draws closer. THE RESTORATION OF CELIA FAIRCHILD to the community where she grew up and the way of life she left, will resonate strongly with some readers and entertain all the others. This is a lengthy read, but trust Marie Bostwick, she is worth the investment of your time.
Evvie Drake Starts Over meets The Friday Night Knitting Club in this wise and witty novel about a fired advice columnist who discovers lost and found family members in Charleston, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Second Sister.
Celia Fairchild, known as advice columnist ‘Dear Calpurnia’, has insight into everybody’s problems – except her own. Still bruised by the end of a marriage she thought was her last chance to create a family, Celia receives an unexpected answer to a “Dear Birthmother” letter. Celia throws herself into proving she’s a perfect adoptive mother material – with a stable home and income – only to lose her job. Her one option: sell the Charleston house left to her by her recently departed, estranged Aunt Calpurnia.
Arriving in Charleston, Celia learns that Calpurnia had become a hoarder, the house is a wreck, and selling it will require a drastic, rapid makeover. The task of renovation seems overwhelming and risky. But with the help of new neighbors, old friends, and an unlikely sisterhood of strong, creative women who need her as much as she needs them, Celia knits together the truth about her estranged family — and about herself.
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