The Color of Home

Author: Kit Tosello
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 352
Release Date: September 24, 2024
Publisher: Revell

The life she's designing may not be the life she's meant to live

Bay Area interior designer to the rich and pretentious, Audrey Needham is already on thin ice with her impossible-to-please boss when her great-aunt Daisy asks for support as her husband descends into Alzheimer's. Now Audrey is risking the career she worked hard to build as she returns to Charity Falls, Oregon.

Her feelings toward the idyllic small town are . . . complicated. While she has many good memories of her childhood summers there, Charity Falls is also the place her father was killed in a tragic fire at the Sugar Pine Inn thirteen years ago.

Despite Audrey's intent to avoid emotional entanglement, something should be done about the deteriorating inn. A local girl with an incarcerated father needs a friend. And handsome local do-gooder Cade Carter is coloring Audrey all shades of uncertain. The pull of home is hard to resist.

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Reviewer: Amy Smelser

Change is inevitable. In this story, we get Aunt Daisy and her niece Audrey’s perspective on changes happening in their lives. The kind that just sneaks up on you, or in Aunt Daisy’s words, “We just don’t realize they’re so close at hand until they’re on our doorstep, knocking. It’s simply our turn.” 

Daisy needs help. Her husband, Dean, has Alzheimer’s, and she just can’t take care of him alone. So, she decides it will be in their best interest to sell their longtime home and move into an assisted living place. But she has much to go through, cleaning and sprucing up, so she reaches out to Aubrey.

Aubrey never really wanted to go back to the town where her father had died. But Daisy needs her, and there is no reason to stay as her job status is up in the air. In this time of the unknown, she goes to help. Only she doesn’t realize the impact the townspeople will have on her. Nor the impact she will have on them.

This was a small hometown read, with no suspense, there is a romance thread, but that is not really what I took from the story. It is really about change, that is what gripped me as I turned the pages. Whether it is moving, a new job, a baby, an accident, or sickness, we really have no way around it. This really impacted me for personal reasons, and I liked the author’s light humor and turn of phrase in the matter of facts of life. This is by no means a heavy story, just one of helping one another through life’s ups and downs.

I was provided a copy of this novel from Revell Publishers through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to post a positive review, and all views and opinions are my own.

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Reviewer: Rebecca Maney

"By the time the Charity Falls city limits sign comes into view, my eyes burn. Everything feels at once familiar and also like a scene from someone else's life. Same town. Same road. Different Audrey."

Thirteen years have passed since Audrey Needham last drove down the streets of Charity Falls, Oregon. As an interior designer for upscale California clients, her career totally consumes her—day after day, week after week, month after month . . . . until her Aunt Daisy's request for assistance gives Audrey the impetus to arrange a short absence from her job, hoping that it will be waiting for her when she returns.

Wrapped tightly within the confines of the small idyllic town are the happiest and saddest moments of Audrey's life. Coming back is hard, her uncle's health is failing and based on the disrepair of the Needham's home, her aunt has not had the energy to ready the lovely cottage for sale.  Surprisingly, Audrey immediately feels the semblance of home. Escaping the frenzy of a big city allows time to breathe, to listen, to remember ... her artist's heart viewing the landscape in living color. Perhaps she needed this kind of space to hear the voice of the One who created it all. "How precious to me are your thoughts, God!"

An outstanding story! Experienced through dual points of view. Audrey and her aunt Daisy travel similar journeys from different directions, facing the hard times together, pulling back the scabs over wounds that had never truly healed, accepting that "grief isn't something you move past . . . it's something you learn to carry". Lest we forget the role that "Mr. Very Nice" (in the green shirt with a voice as rich as ginger, driving the classic two-tone Ford pick-up) has to play, "You always come out of the woods better than you went in."

I received a copy of this book from Revell Publishers through Interviews and Reviews.

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Reviewer: Elizabeth Eckmeyer

Audrey Needham goes on a visit to her aunt and uncle's house in Oregon after taking a break from a big design firm in California. While in Charity Falls Audrey has no idea the town will change her life forever.

This story is airy and delightful. From the first paragraph to the last, it is written with beautiful details of colors and designs. The characters of the town are fun and mesh together beautifully to create a flowing story.

This book looks at difficult pasts and choices made. The story takes you on a journey to see how people evolve out of hurting hearts and when they seek God He brings their stories together for good. 

I love that scripture was used throughout the book. The words and descriptions come off the page and you honestly feel like you are walking through the small town. You absolutely won't want to miss this masterpiece!! 

I received a complimentary copy courtesy of Revell Publishing Group through Interviews & Reviews for my honest opinion.

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