Official Review: Teardown: A Love Story by Becky Burckmyer

[Bertha Jackson]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Teardown: A Love Story" by Becky Burckmyer.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Teardown: A Love Story by Becky Burckmyer is a memoir about Becky, whose husband died after 37 years of marriage and two children. Her home is an 1881 Queen Anne/Stick Style Victorian home with three floors, five bedrooms, and ocean views. The house has seen better days, and Betty has no income except for investments. Betsy and Phil, her real estate agents, tell her that she needs to tear the house down instead of trying to sell it. Due to lack of modernization, whoever bought the house would be purchasing the land, not the house, because the land is more valuable than the house. Desperate to keep the home she and her family loved, she decides to make the house into a Bed and Breakfast. Her son, Charlie, discourages her because the house is rundown, and he goes over the repairs it would need before people would want to stay there. Her daughter, Sarah, is concerned about her mom being able to do the work involved in running a business of this type. Becky decides to go ahead, and she names the Bed and Breakfast Marblehead on Harbor. Becky and her children make the repairs, develop a website, and are in business. Will her business be successful? Will Becky keep her home?

There are many things I liked about this enjoyable book. Firstly, the author provides a picture of the beautiful house on the book cover. This picture helped me understand the love she has for her home and her determination to prevent its destruction. Secondly, the author provides detailed stories and descriptions about each of her guests. I felt like I knew each of the guests on a personal level. Thirdly, the care Becky gave in making each of her guests feel special made me want to call and book a room at her Bed and Breakfast. Fourthly, I could feel the pain and guilt Becky had if she accidentally forgot a guest registration. Or the sadness she felt if she did not meet a particular need of her guests. Fifthly, instead of nonborderline profanity, Becky left the word up to imagination by using the phrase “[expletive deleted].” Finally, in the appendix, the author provides a copy of the letter to Barb. This letter lets Barb know the expectations she has in completing all the work involved in running a Bed and Breakfast. This information gave me a clear picture of the daily life involved in running this type of business.

There was only one thing I disliked about this book. The book is well-written, and the story flows smoothly, but there are formatting errors a professional editor would have caught. The author appears to have used hard hyphen breaks in words that should not have been there. These errors were distractions to my reading.

Due to these errors, among others, there were quickly over ten errors in the book. I feel like all of these errors would have been found by a professional editor. Therefore, I can only give this enjoyable book 3 out of 4 stars.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys memoirs that read like a piece of fiction. There is a small amount of borderline profanity that probably will not be offensive to most readers. I would caution readers to be prepared to become emotional while reading this book.

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Teardown: A Love Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[WADonnelly]

Not sure this is one for me but I enjoyed your review. It is a shame about the errors you found but hopefully they can be fixed

[kdstrack]

I am curious about this perspective of telling a memoir. It is interesting that so much of the focus is on the house and not solely on the people involved. This story intrigues me, and I like the way you summarized the story. Great review! Thanks for recommending this unique story.

[Yvonne Monique]

Here in Europe, starting a bed & breakfast is an extremely popular business. However, now with Covid-19, this type of business is struggling . I am sure that this memoir can help other people understanding the dos and don'ts of a bed & breakfast business.