Email a friendHouse & Home
Ellen Flanagan has two precious girls to raise, a cozy neighborhood coffee shop to run, terrific friends, and a sexy, if irresponsible, husband. And she adores her house, a yellow Cape Cod filled with quirky antiques, beloved nooks, and a million memories. But as her eighteen-year-roller-coaster marriage heads toward divorce, she’s about to lose it all—her house, her husband …and her sanity.
Set in the gorgeous surroundings of Portland, Oregon, Kathleen McCleary’s funny, poignant, curl-up-and-read debut strikes a deep emotional chord and explores the very notion of what makes a house a home.
Ellen Flanagan has two
“[One] of the most engrossing books this season”
—O at Home
“Altogether so superior it’s hard to believe that it’s a debut.”
—Booklist
“This novel is a delight. It grabs you from the opening paragraph…and holds you with its cathartic exploration of home and family”
—The Oregonian
“A sharply funny, nicely realized work of catharsis that will be saisfyingly familiar to anyone who has ever suffered seller's remorse.”
—New York Times
“At the center of Kathleen McCleary’s impressive debut novel is a woman who risks destroying everything she has lovingly arranged just so someone else can’t have it. House and Home is a riveting book, packed with wit, dramatic twists, powerful consequences, and pitch-perfect details.”
—Joanna Scott, author of Liberation and Everybody Loves Somebody
“A highly enjoyable read.”
—Ladies’ Home Journal Online
“HGTV.com columnist McCleary’s tale of real estate woe…will resonate with unhappy homeowners, as will her portrait of a regular woman pushed to extremes trying to do the right thing for her family.”
—Publishers Weekly
"I didn't want to put this book down. I thought it was well written and packed with all the things that make a book great; witt, drama, and love."
—melissadave322
"As a 40-something-year-old woman, with a marriage that is approaching two decades, two young children, and a home that I love, I related to the premise and characters in McCleary's novel, and found reading it to be pure pleasure. As I read, I could envision the scenes, and I can't help but think it's destined to be made into a movie—so that we can see the lovely home, coffee shop, Mr. Tall Vanilla Latte, shopping escapades, good friends, and candles....lots of great candles! McCleary's first novel is a real winner."
—mpsalley
"I just finished House & Home by Kathleen McCleary. I LOVED this book! The characters have been stuck in my head for the past week I spent getting lost in the book. I could vividly picture Ellen and feel her emotions with her at the end when she is trying to rescue her family from the fire. The book left me with such a wonderful feeling of what is truly important in life. It is not the house, it is the home. It is the family within the house that make it a true home. I would definitely recommend this book as a fabulous read...I understand this was her first novel, I hope it won't be her last!"
—Maureen Kennedy
"Kathleen McCleary's first novel, House and Home, reverberates with devotion and passion from the first page when we read about main character Ellen's feelings about her house, her home: because of all this history with the house, all the parts of her life unfolding there day after day for so many years, that Ellen decided to burn it down. Ms. McCleary draws the reader in right there! Raised in a home that later was mine when I married, I spent 45 years of my life there, so I fervently identify with Ellen's feelings. Despite all the positives that came with our move, there was that feeling of personal possession just like Ellen had which made turning my house over to the new buyers a heart wrenching experience.
"House & Home is about Ellen's marriage, which is at the heart of the story that lives in this charming yellow Cape Cod home in Oregon. Ellen's years of loyalty to her husband Sam has led them all over the country to follow his dream of inventing THE next best discovery for mankind! Sam feels they need to live where the invention would be best used and so every mishap is followed by a new idea and a new address. Finally, Ellen convinces Sam to let them put down roots so they can have a family and she can fulfill her dream of owning a decorating business. That dream plays out in Portland in the very house that they now find they are forced to sell. With his newest invention, a baby beeper, Sam wants to move again to a better test market, and this results in Ellen and Sam separating as Ellen can't do it one more time. She does not want to give up all they have in their home, in their lives. The painful sale of the house is a result of Sam losing so much money on this newest project. It is at this point that the action really takes off, and you can't put this book down as you live, laugh, and experience Ellen's misguided, but desperately well intended, plot to keep her home after all.Ann Douglas once said, "Home is an invention on which no one has yet improved." Unfortunately, THIS is not the invention Sam made and so the house must be sold to pay off the debts. Ellen's dealing with this and the new insufferable buyers is a fun ride and read. McCleary does a splendid job of developing characters that the reader cares about and can relate to. The story is clever and funny, but also tugs at your heartstrings. The story contains delightfully unexpected twists and turns that lead to a surprise ending most will never see coming! This treasured first novel makes one eager for McCleary's next book!"
—Karen Haney
