Customer Reviews

A Mile in My Flip-Flops: A Novel

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In the novel "A Mile In My Flip Flops" by Melody Carlson, Gretchen Hanover has become a recluse. Seeking solace in front of the tube watching Home and Garden TV with a container of Ben and Jerry's and a spoon, this charming leading lady tries to heal the heart broken by her fiancé only four weeks before the wedding! With the help of friends and family and God, Gretchen rises like a phoenix from the ashes of broken promises to discover new life and new love.

Melody writes a beautiful story full of wit and wisdom that inspires and teaches as it entertains. Her loveable characters come to life in vivid color. Gretchen's strength and reliance on God really inspired me to get out of my own personal ruts and more actively pursue God's will for my life.

I really, really liked this book! The quirky cover made me pick it up, the easy to read format made me buy it and the story grabbed me from the first sentence!

Gretchen Hanover knows she's in a rut. Her fiance dumped her right before the wedding so she's living in a small apartment surrounded by the things she had planned to decorate her new home with. She's a kindergarden teacher who spends her spare time watching HGTV and eating ice cream. Even she realizes that SOMETHING needs to be done.

Inspired by HGTV she decides to "flip" a house. Buy one cheap, fix it up and then sell it at a profit which will allow her to buy a nice one for herself.

Gretchen is a great character. She's likeable and definitely not a know-it-all. None of the other reviewers has mentioned the humor in this book and believe me, there is plenty!!! Gretchen makes mistakes in her remodeling - sometimes one right after the other - and they put her in some pretty amusing situations.

The secondary characters add a lot to the book. Noah, a friend of her father's who helps her. Of course, its no secret where this is going. His daughter, Kirsten, is a real joy to the book. And I especially liked the scenes where Noah's ex-wife are in. She's not particularly nice but she adds a lot. Gretchen's dad (who has a heart attack early in the book) is a contractor but due to his health is not able to help Gretchen as he planned. The love between the 2 of them just comes right off the pages at you.

Obviously, I loved this book because it made me feel good. I learned some about remodeling and "flip flopping" too. I especially learned to stay away from sledgehammers!!

A Mile in My Flip-Flops by Melody Carlson is a perfect summer beach read! Gretchen Hanover has spent too much time (and gained too much weight) mourning the end of her engagement. All of the furniture she purchased to decorate the new house that wasn't is crowding her tiny apartment, as is her chocolate lab puppy. She decides to make use of her addiction to HGTV and tries to flip a house on her own. Her father, a retired contractor, is supposed to be her right hand man, until he is sidelined with a heart attack, and suddenly Gretchen is at the mercy of hunky carpenter Noah Campbell. Despite the sparks that fly between them, Gretchen doesn't want to get involved with a divorced man who has a child. The house turns into The Money Pit, and Gretchen can't seem to stop her heart from beating double time whenever Noah is around. Romance, drama, and faith: what more could you ask for in a summery book? Carlson mixes faith gently without ever overdoing it; the focus here is on Gretchen learning to trust again: herself, others, and God. With last winter's These Boots Weren't Made for Walkin', Carlson seems to have a shoe thing going on. I can't wait to see what's next!

If you love HGTV and house flipping shows, you'll enjoy this romance centered around a house flip. What's a girl to do when she's been dumped by her groom and can't get over the loss and the rejection? Flip a house! Nothing will yank a girl out of an ice cream eating depression like the challenge of choosing tile and paint. But is there more than that to flipping a house? What happens when serious problems are found and the budget is slipping away? Find out in this romantic comedy.

Melody Carlson is writing some stellar chick lit! LoveLoveLove this book! Highly recommend it! Fun read and can identify with main character. Will definately purchase more of her books.

When life breaks down around you, take a hammer to it and reconstruct a better life. That's how Gretchen Hanover moved past a broken heart, but first she had to throw herself a party inviting pity along to indulge in life's simple pleasures: Ben & Jerry's and the Home & Garden channel.

Me? I can live without Ben & Jerry's, (I'll take Breyers on sale) but HGTV? I love HGTV. Sad I don't get to watch it much anymore.

Anyhoo. Overall, I enjoyed reading the home improvement parts of the story; however, Gretchen's treatment of her new love interest grated on my nerves at times. Not to say her reasons weren't valid to her. Hey everyone has their preferences! But her reasons to push him away, kept killing the romantic in me.

Read the book for yourself, you may have a different take.

While A Mile In My Flipflops wasn't my favorite Melody Carlson book, I'm not worried not one bit! She has at least 15 books coming out this summer alone. No, probably not fifteen, but it's a lot!

I continue to offer the disclaimer that I am not a fan of Chick-lit, that I need suspense and intrigue to really keep my attention, but once again, I have been proven wrong. A MILE IN MY FLIP FLOPS is not a book I would have naturally picked up on my own. But when I received it in the mail to review, I begrudgingly laid aside the four other books I've been dying to start and read Melody Carlson's latest release . . . and enjoyed every moment of it.

Gretchen Hanover, a 30ish, single who has just been dumped by her fiancé before her wedding, has wallowed in depression, finding solace with Ben & Jerry and HGTV. She finally decides to break out of her rut and purchase a house in much need of repair, fix it, and flip it on the market . . . all in six weeks. With the help of her father, a retired contractor, she's sure she'll have no problem fixing up the house and making enough of a profit to afford her a down payment on her own house. Well, things don't go as smoothly as she anticipated. And when her father tries pushing Noah Campbell, a divorced carpenter on her, as both a sub-contractor and a romantic interest, Gretchen digs her heels in and wants to prove she can finish the project on her own.

A MILE IN MY FLIP FLOPS is an enjoyable, yet somewhat predictable story. Of course, it's nice every now and then to read a book that moves along at a carefree pace and doesn't challenge the super sleuth in you. I did find myself on occasion, rolling my eyes at the way Gretchen interacted with Noah, but she soon saw the errors of her ways.

WARNING: PLOT SPOILER DON"T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.
My only real negative to the book is how Gretchen's father's heart attack was handled. Unless open heart surgery has really advanced in the last few years, I remember my father being in a lot of pain once he got home from the hospital, and had to constantly hold a pillow to his chest when he had to cough. Now, my father was definitely a go-getter, and not one to sit around and do nothing, but his recovery was slow just the same. Hank seemed to bounce right back, his only complaints seemed to be about his restrictions, not the pain that he was sure to be feeling.

Other than that, I found AMIMFF's a pleasure to read. This was another example of Don't judge a book by its cover. I'm not one to be attracted to quirky, but once again I was pleasantly surprised.

This is an adorable book laced with both humor and heart. As the description says, the book is about a thirty-something woman whose life has been turned upside down by heartache. She decides to do something new to get her out of her slump, but she finds it's not as easy as she imagined.

Gretchen decides to try her hand at remodeling a house and she finds many parallels in this task to rebuilding her own life. She learns that life doesn't always meet our expectations, yet that doesn't necessarily mean it can't be worthwhile.

I love Melody Carlson's books and this one is no different. I flew through it and passed it on to my twenty-something daughter who loved it too. It's a great read.

Hard to find an entertaining book that is clean from all the vices of the world, but you found one here. Really enjoyed the story, well developed characters and the warm feeling the end of the story left me with. Would highly recommend!

As a 30-something lady looking in the christian "chick lit" genre, this book stood out to me in my church library. Overall, I liked the story. In this age of "self-help" and HGTV, it was interesting to see the process of flipping a house.
Gretchen is the typical single "everywoman", a young woman looking for love, with her past relationship history playing a part. She holes up in her apartment after a nasty breakup, binging on Ben and Jerry's and watching reality tv. She eventually gets out of her rut by "flipping" a pathetic house she buys with her father's apartment on the line. A love interest makes his appearance early on, although his past relationship history makes her cringe.
As the flipping progresses (or stalls at parts), Gretchen's relationships deepen, ultimately ending on a good note.
I really liked how the author made this book relatable to women my age. Wanting (and losing) love, watching home-improvement shows, depending on ice cream, loving their pets, yearning for a home of their own; all these issues are what most women deal with at some point in their lives. As a christian, the religious aspect of the character was refreshing, deeper than the typical non-spiritual characters in most books. I also liked to see her relationships with different people in her life deepen, including her father and friends.
SPOILER ALERT! The one thing I disliked was the ending. Noah proposing to her was too sudden and too fast, like the author had to finish the book with the ultimate happy ending. Instead, I would have preferred them to continue knowing each other and start a dating relationship.
I also thought it would have been cute to have HGTV hear of Gretchen's house woes and do a "Flip This House" episode with her. It would have tied nicely into the show's numerous mentions in the book.