Fix Her Up: A Novel

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If you read this book, what was your favorite or least favorite part? What’s your favorite sport? Are you the youngest one in your family and do you receive treatment like Georgie did (in being talked down to or not taken seriously)? Let me know below int eh comments as I love hearing from you all. I've actually never read the "in-love-with-brother's-best-friend" trope and I think the trope sounds great and I was so excited for this esp. because I hadn't read any romances lately and my other current read had zero romance (as a subplot) in it too. Eww that sounds wrong!!!! I cringe at myself, but that’s what I get for trying to be clever with my intro. When you are first introduced to Travis and Georgie, you do not expect the scene that you read. That's how Tessa bring the BAM to the beginning of the story. Known from their childhood, and been neighbors who live in Long Island (which is where I am from **squeals**), and grew apart because of their own differences. Travis becoming a professional baseball player, whom throughout out ends up getting injured and his career comes to an end. Georgie has known him since she was little, the youngest sister of Travi's best friend Steven. Always running around and following them as a child. She always attended all his games, Travis' biggest cheerleader, Georgie became enamored by him. To him, Georgie has always been Steven's little sister that no one pays attention to. But after one hangover morning, Travis' perspective towards her changes in the best of way. She is now all grown up, has bought her own house, is a clown for a living... YUP! You read that correctly, one of my favorite female characters of 2019 is a CLOWN FOR A LIVING!

Okay, I love this author, so reading this book was a no brainer. But did you get the fake relationship part in that blurb? With an unrequited crush? Oh, yes, I needed to read this one. AND I wasn't disappointed. From metaphors and similes that literally made no sense to cringey dialogue to sexual descriptions that made absolutely no sense, this book needed an editor, bad. Some things I let slide more than others but the phrasing of this book was just SO awkward and I didn’t vibe with the writing at all.

And then there was the fact that she had a HUGE childhood crush on him and how throughout the book she has this internal monologue about how obsessive and in love she was with him and how he made her nervous and shy and anxious and all these things, yet she could go to his house all the time and tell him to get off his scum butt. It just didn’t make sense. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about Travis being a bit alpha and possessive which is definitely true. Something I noticed while reading is that the book almost reads as a dom/sub relationship without fully taking it there. There’s a fair number of sex scenes (so be warned), and the language used by both parties reads more kinky than I would have expected from a mainstream romance. There are moments where the language veers into some virgin or even little kink (as Georgie is a virgin and it’s made a big deal of and she also comes off as very innocent). I honestly think if the author embraced that a bit more and made it more explicitly kinky, people might have had less issues. But since it’s not discussed by the characters, it comes off a bit weird. stephen not allowing bethany, his sister, more freedom in their company when both of them inherited it because he’s a traditionalist?? wow, no, women can’t take on more responsibility than men or what I DON’T GET YOU, STEPHEN, HONESTLY

Georgie and Travis, oof. It's cringe. Random heartfelt, serious conversations come out of nowhere and feel extremely out of place. Their conversations consists of those weird serious ones and Travis manipulating her and constantly pointing out the age difference while Georgie tries to fix his problems. It's weird. And I didn't care about their relationship at all. the ridiculous emphasis placed on georgie’s virginity makes this feel like an early 2000s book, except it was written in 2019 lol Okay, so the writing? Terrible. But one of the biggest problems for me was the pacing and the way events were placed in this story. From the very beginning, shit was just off. The first scene we're given feels like it should have been further into the book, not the introduction. The whole Just Us League (which is literally just women hanging out??? and having drinks????? IT'S NOT A CLUB IT'S JUST HANGING OUT GOOD GOD) should have been something that was introduced way earlier on if it was supposed to be the "heart" of this book or whatever. It was literally just a way for the author to introduce Rosie so that she could get us interested in a spinoff. Narrator voice: it did not get me interested, I skim read most of these parts because they did nothing for the plot and felt so randomly thrown in. If it was introduced way earlier, it'd be different. But nope.me before this book: i can't wait! i've finally found another 5 star romance book! i can't wait for the steamy sex scenes! When they both realise they have questionable reputations, they decide to enter a fake relationship to achieve their lifetime goals. There is no questioning that Travis and Georgie have undeniable chemistry, but can they overcome their hang-ups and commit to something real?

This is one of the worst books I've read so far this year. Even Shadow and Bone was better than this. This was: there’s something really poetic when the love interest tries to deny for better part of the book how much they love the main character but everyone can see CLEARLY they gave their heart to the mc from the very first day 🥵🥵🥵 The Just Us League with Bethany and Rose was such a fun female empowered group and as Adelaine Morin would say Girls Supporting Girls. I truly loved how it wasn’t a group to bash guys, but to support each other in their goals. Bethany wanted to start her own business flipping houses because Stephan didn’t want her having her own project, Rose wanted to open her own restaurant, and Georgie wanted to expand her entertainment business. So Georgie went on this whole makeover to wear professional clothing and it reminded me of a Queer Eye episode. It’s the season three episode with the Latina woman who had a cultural business in her hometown and how no one took her seriously as a Latina woman and when the fab five came to make her over, they showed her how to dress professional while still being her. It reminded me of Georgie in how she too was exploring that professionalism and what that style meant. I loved how when people did see her dressed like that, they thought of her maturely. I also liked that moment when news of the Just Us League leaked to the community and all these women were inside one of the girl’s houses and Georgie was the one to calm all of them down. They thought of Georgie as the founder and leader of the Just Us League and it was a proud moment for me to read that after seeing how low people placed her. When she was given a leadership role, you could tell how much it meant to Georgie and how it bolstered her to want to do good by what others saw in her.

travis seems to have a very bad possessive streak. but not only him. everyone else seems to be of the opinion that women belong to men. in this case georgie either belongs to stephen, georgie's brother (who can honestly CHOKE) or travis himself. travis always seems to be apprehensive about getting physical with georgie becaue she's his best friend's little sister and because he might have a problem with it. like, boy, she is her own person, she is 23, she knows how to make her own decisions. in the end he says: How about this radical idea for a 2019 best friend's little sister romance trope - he meets his best friend's younger sister after years of being away, finally gets to know her as a person, appreciates her maturity and all her great qualities, doesn't need her to go through a waxing/clothing makeover and show her ass in a tight skirt to get his attention, or bring him food, or clean his place, falls in love with her and DOESN'T CALL HER "BABY GIRL" AND BRING UP HER FATHER DURING SEX? Read with caution, as feelings on this book are very polarizing, but if you like dirty-talking, lightly kinky, dominate men, and you like humor, a fun female MC (I loved her too!), and a super romantic HEA, then try this book. I'll be reading more Tessa Bailey from this point on.

Travis was..... the worst love interest. He considers Georgie his little sister for half the book but still sexualized the hell out of her in literally every single scene she’s in. He was also SO jealous and overprotective of her even when they weren’t even together, and Georgie let him get away with doing super sketchy stuff like sabotaging a date just because she thought he was ~so hot~. The only thing I’m left wondering is why the book was called Fix Her Up? Didn’t they both fix each other up to be better people? I don’t know, but the title seems a little one sided, and it wasn’t so much about fixing things up. But it doesn’t matter because it was a clever title in some ways. I could not stop smiling. Romantic comedy perfection. -- Lauren Layne, New York Times bestselling author

Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist by Codi…

I'm not going to go much in detail over this stupid ass of a book. I'm not here to offend anyone, my rating obviously tells I didn't like it so if you love this, good for you. But don't come asking, "How could you say that?" The only real complaint I have about Georgie is the fact that as a 23 year old, she's ready to have kids and it's constantly brought up. Which of course, is in exact contrast with Travis, who has extreme commitment issues and doesn't want that at all (or so he thinks 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄) Also the fact that Georgie's a virgin in the first place came across very unrealistic and, surprise surprise, VERY Wattpad-y. Even though she's gorgeous, because she wears overalls from a thrift store, guys just don't see her that way and constantly friend zone her 😐 Her father is just a stereotypical as the mother, a sexist traditionalist who passed down the family business to his son. Technically he passed it down to his other daughter as well but everyone in the family knows the sons in charge. When his wife asks if she can't be apart of Georgie's and Bethany's club because she's too old (haha queue emotional manipulation here! it's so funny!) Dad says something like "You're not too old. You're just not unhappy." Implying that women can only form support groups to better themselves if they're unhappy? He also is a king manipulator himself because when Bethany says she's leaving the family company to do her own flip (something she asked to do multiple times within the family company and was shut down) he made a huge deal of it and said it was a mistake to leave the company with his children. And of course "let the adults talk, Georgie." When Georgie stands up for Bethany. Again, I know it's the plot but she's 23. It's unrealistic for people to be saying that to her. And if they did anyway, she should be cutting off her relationship with her family because no one says that to anybody over the age of twelve without it DRIPPING with condescension.