Having the Builders In by Raey Tannahill

It's the late 13th century and Dame Constance De Clair decides the castle at Vine Regis needs extending for her eldest son and his new bride. However as anyone who has ever had the builders in will know, nothing ever goes to plan. Combined with her future daughter in law trying to oust her as the lady of the castle, a thief and her eldest son's preference for court intrigues than Vine Regis nothing seems to be going right for Constance.

When I picked up this book and read the blurb on the back I had a chuckle and felt that the book would be an easy to read comic caper. Although the book did offer comic moments and was fairly easy to read I did not take to it at all. It was almost child like in its writing style, too simplistic for my tastes. The plot never really grabbed me and I was easily distracted by anything other than reading whilst I was trying to read this book. I am sure that the plot could have been more inventive and that those plots followed in the book could have been written in a way not to make me feel as if I was having my teeth pulled. I think perhaps I was expecting too much from this book.

I spent a lot of time wanting to slap Susanna, the 15 year old daughter to be. There was nothing likable about her, and my opinion still had not changed by the end of the book. I found Gervase her husband not only lacked back bone but any depth of character at all. In fact I found that Tannahill had a rather broad brush approach in terms of his characters, they all seemed rather two dimensional and flat.

There was nothing that endeared me to this book. Tannahill is writing a sequel called 'Having the Decorators in' which I intend to avoid at all costs. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they were under heavy sedation.

*1 star*