Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Building Home
SERIES: Home in the Berkshires
AUTHOR: J. MacKenzie
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 328 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2025
BLURB:
This house isn’t the only one in need of a fresh start
Spencer Lim has a good life—a decent apartment, a job renovating houses with his best friend, and a dog who’s the goodest boy on the planet. So what if he hasn’t slept with the same guy twice since he moved to Pittsfield? It’s not like he’s looking for a relationship, anyway.
Then he gets a call from Ian Collier, who has a wreck of a house and no idea what to do with it. This should be just like any other job. Except that Ian is quiet and serious and looks at Spencer in a way that intrigues him like nothing has in a long time. There’s a reason Spencer doesn’t do repeats, but it’s getting harder and harder to remember the more time he spends with Ian.
When Spencer volunteers to help Ian clean out the house’s basement, he starts to understand why dealing with the place has been so hard for Ian, and he’s tempted to share in return. Will opening up to Ian be a mistake? Or is Spencer finally ready to put himself out there again?
REVIEW:
Spencer Lim is a designer for a home renovation company. He’s left behind his former life as an artist/graphic designer in NYC as well as an abusive ex. He’s happy where he’s at and he’s got a great found family of friends. He does a design for a guy who has inherited a house and there seems to be something unusual about him. Ian is an ER doc who lives in another town close by. The house is his grandparents and because of the death of his parents in a car accident, he now has inherited the property and the money to fix it up.
For Ian there are ghosts in the house. Spencer senses that this is a lot of Ian before he knows the backstory. Spencer offers to help him and then helps him through a panic attack. They ends up spending the night together – completely platonically. But both want more. Spencer has completely avoided attachments after his ex. Ian is single by choice, but he really likes Spencer. Is there something there they can build on?
J. MacKenzie is a new author to me. I really enjoyed the writing in this story. I would call the pace meandering – but in a good way. The slow build of the relationship between Ian and Spencer seemed quite authentic to me. Both men have baggage and issues. Spencer has done a lot of work to undo the damage from his abusive ex. Ian has been through a lot of loss and has ended up someplace he never expected The building attraction and friendship here seemed pretty organic to their interactions around the renovations of the home that Ian inherited. Communication was key to their successful navigation of their rules of engagement. Spencer’s past relationship causes him to distrust both himself and others. Ian is very good at honesty and showing and telling Spencer his worth. For the first time Spencer has complete agency in his relationship. Ian is very mature and he is more experienced in relationships and helps Spencer set healthy boundaries and communication standards and keep them on the right path.
I don’t want to spoil the story, but this couple decides that monogamy is not a requirement for them. If this is a hard limit for you, perhaps skip this one. An author shouldn’t be penalized for writing the story they had to tell if it doesn’t fit a readers requirements. I thought this aspect of the relationship was handled with real sensitivity. Even if it’s not necessarily a choice one might make in their personal life, it doesn’t make it an invalid expression of a relationship for other.
Overall I really enjoyed this story. If I had one niggle, I guess it’s that I could have done with less home reno page count stuff. But it did serve a purpose to bring in Spencer’s found family. The rest of the supporting characters were very good and I am looking forward to more stories in this world. Recommended.
RATING: 
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