A House But Not a Home

"The living room was an unfriendly room, but then the whole house was built to be unfriendly. It was built to say, '"Look what I have and you don't.'"

This house, built in the early 1880s, is the setting for "A House, But Not a Home." It quickly became known as The Jewell House, so named after the man of the house, Cyrus Jewell. He was not a nice man. Nor was his wife, Irene. They were the first family of the fictional small town of Richland, Indiana.

Their daughter Lillian is the central character of the story. An enigma in her own community, she became a savvy business woman and married a good man. However, neither experience could heal her scarred childhood heart. The book follows four generations of her family, a few members quite admirable, but others who redefined the word despicable.
Then in her later years, a sixteen-year-old girl enters her life...