FIX HER UP
Series: Hot and Hammered #1
Author: Tessa Bailey
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 11th, 2019
Georgette Castle’s family runs the best home renovation business in town, but she picked balloons instead of blueprints and they haven’t taken her seriously since. Frankly, she’s over it. Georgie loves planning children’s birthday parties and making people laugh, just not at her own expense. She’s determined to fix herself up into a Woman of the World… whatever that means.
Phase one: new framework for her business (a website from this decade, perhaps?)
Phase two: a gut-reno on her wardrobe (fyi, leggings are pants.)
Phase three: updates to her exterior (do people still wax?)
Phase four: put herself on the market (and stop crushing on Travis Ford!)
Living her best life means facing the truth: Georgie hasn’t been on a date since, well, ever. Nobody’s asking the town clown out for a night of hot sex, that’s for sure. Maybe if people think she’s having a steamy love affair, they’ll acknowledge she’s not just the “little sister” who paints faces for a living. And who better to help demolish that image than the resident sports star and tabloid favorite?
Travis Ford was major league baseball’s hottest rookie when an injury ended his career. Now he’s flipping houses to keep busy and trying to forget his glory days. But he can’t even cross the street without someone recapping his greatest hits. Or making a joke about his… bat. And then there’s Georgie, his best friend’s sister, who is not a kid anymore. When she proposes a wild scheme—that they pretend to date, to shock her family and help him land a new job—he agrees. What’s the harm? It’s not like it’s real. But the girl Travis used to tease is now a funny, full-of-life woman and there’s nothing fake about how much he wants her…
4 ‘The girl who loved me, even when I couldn’t love myself’ Stars
HOT DAMN!!! Tessa Bailey’s masterful writing strikes again in Fix Her Up! And what a perfect name for the series, because this book left plenty of HOT – still fanning myself, it is a #QueenOfDirtyTalking original, after all – AND hammered, to all these characters!
Everything about this book since it was announced it had been appealing to me, so much so that I couldn’t wait to read it, and considering my general wariness of the best friends’ little sister trope, that is saying a lot, but giving Ms. Bailey’s addictive prose, the additional fake relationship theme and a female main character I that I could see in advance I would love, I just had to jump right in!
“I see you,” he rasped. “Dammit, Georgie. You had to be exactly what I need, didn’t you?”
Had anyone ever kissed him with so much trust? No. No one kissed or exposed themselves like her, honest and unrestrained. No one had ever pulled him in so deeply.
And dive right in I did, to the point that I couldn’t put it down. Even with some pet peeve in the mix, at start, I just couldn’t stop reading it! Yep, Fixe Her Up was just as deliciously addictive as I expected! And Georgie… Can you all say ‘GIRL CRUSH’?! <3
Might as well admit it. She could turn him on in a goddamn clown suit. As if that wasn’t enough to scare him, since being reintroduced to Georgie the adult, he’d run the gamut of feeling protective, possessive, and straight-up missing her.
He had the urge to confide in her. Wanted to hand her a piece of himself, because he knew she would take care of it.
Now, before my raving starts – and there will be plenty of it! – , and considering this issue was mainly at the start of the book, it’s best if I pull the cat out of the mad on what bothered me in Travis and Georgie’s story. Because with how much I enjoyed this book, I have to confess Fix Her Up was one tough nut to crack for me, rating and reviewing wise, hence why I seated a couple of days in posting it, because like I said above, I tend to generally not be a fan of the trope best friends’ little sister, but the scenario that really ends up putting me off, and it was the case here is, being one of my PERSONAL pet peeves, is that exact setting in addition to the über manwhore/virgin, so here I have to indeed confess I was kind of blindsided by that fact. First because that secondary trope is not at all what I’m used to by Ms. Bailey, no matter the age, the setting or even the circumstances, one thing was always constant in her spectacular writing, and it’s one of the things that have me so addicted to her male characters, I have no doubt, how much they are smitten, changed and devoted after meeting their ‘one’, even if they don’t acknowledge it at first. So I did not expect at all so, so many references of Travis endless sexual ventures to be in our – and specially Georgie’s – face, and most of all, for her to be fully aware of those, in detail, and still, never tried to move on. I know, I know, a lot of readers adore this setting, but yours truly is not one of them, so like I said, it’s all subjective, and if that doesn’t bother you – and even if it does – I just reading it all the same, because otherwise you are missing out on a amazing read.
He had her number. She was a giver in all things. Right now, he had to convince her to take. He needed to be the giver. For her. Just . . . her.
“How do you do that? You . . . accept me. Exactly as I am. But you still change me for the better.”
To tell you the truth, the reason for which that single fact impacted more was, never once in the past had he looked at her with more than a little girl, there in a family that was more family for him than his own, but it just made it less believable for me that all of the sudden, she was all he could see and want. The ‘in your face’ uber experienced/manwhore/player coupling with the virgin/completely unexperienced/hung-up really aggravates me… Le sigh… Ok, I digress, but I really had to clear this main thing that truly bothered me, because if not for that I would have given Fix Her Up all the stars! And goddammit, I really wish it wasn’t set like that, because it would have been absolutely perfect, if not for the manwhoring/hung-up virgin thing! LOL
He kissed her like he was . . . taking care of her. Soothing her.
Who wouldn’t look at her like she was a fucking angel? That’s exactly what she was in that moment. Every moment. A being sent straight from the clouds.
That being said, and the second reason why it took me this long to decide, is because if not for all this references from THE PAST, the book in it’s timeline, was so darn exquisite!!! Even Travis, the man himself, was on page absolutely swoon worthy most of the times, every delicious bit of Tessa Bailey’s usual Hs. He was every bit obsessed and devoted, protective and possessive as them, as soon as they met again at the start of the book, which I adored. Broken, but oh so redeemable, clueless to matters of the heart, but ‘take action’ all Alpha when it came to Georgie. And oh boy, was the man SCORCHING HOT!!! That is no surprise, right?!
“That hug you gave me yesterday in your parents’ living room?” His palms skimmed up her thighs, setting off a low tug in her belly. “I’ve been jerking off thinking about it. Jerking off to a hug, Georgie. Your hands need to report for duty.”
Georgie was so completely FANTASTIC!!! I adored everything – ok, minus the complete hung up/ virgin thing, lol – about her. She was everything I love in a female lead: sweet, sassy and a bit snarky, and so devoted to her objectives, passion and family, even considering they downplayed her constantly. She was amazingly rich, complex and so very realistic. Travis was right to snatch her up as soon as he realizes just what treasure he had, because she indeed was precious! Totally Georgie fangirling here.
“What you’ve done for me, baby girl . . . bringing me out of the dark? It’s a miracle. Not a thing. You’re a miracle.”
Tessa Bailey truly rocked this rom-com, and took the genre to WHOLE new level of hotness! Yes, for those of you who are, like myself, die hard Bailey’s fans, Fix Her Up is every bit as steamy as usual TB trademark, as in, volcanic porpotions/shower needed after, HOT!
Fix Her Up, is so much more than the typical rom.com, it runs through a huge spectrum of emotions and shows us a story of healing, of self discovery, redemption, friendship, and most of all, LOVE! Love in all forms and shapes, familial, self, friend, and romantic. What surprised me the most is that not only you see the journey of healing of the broken man, Travis, but also the amazing introduction of the friendship and complicity and support of the Just Us League (which I want to be part of too!), that allow Georgie to truly blossom, as a person, and as a human! It was INCREDIBLE!!! And speaking of the the other two main members of the Just Us League – which will be the other two books of the series – OMG, way to stun us and intrigue us. I. AM. DYING. HERE. With all that teasing about Rosie and Dom!!! Seriously, I need they story, now! Married Couple trope is one of my all time fav tropes, so believe me when I say, I’ll be stalking Ms. Bailey religiously – more than usual – for Love Her or Lose Her!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
Her heart had created an extra chamber for loving Travis Ford.
“I’ve met her twice in my life. This time, I was smart enough to fall in love with her.”
“I’ll make sure she knows every single day that she’s the air I breathe. That’s a promise.”
ARC kindly provided by the author via Avon / Harper Collins for an honest review
Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days.
Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.
She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband of eight years and four-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.
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Brynne Asher grew up in the Midwest and now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, three children and her perfect dog. When she isn’t creating pretend people and relationships in her head, she is running her kids around and doing laundry. She enjoys cooking, decorating, shopping at outlet malls as well as online and is always seeking the best deal. A perfect day in “Brynne World” ends in front of an outdoor fire with family, friends, s’mores and a delicious cocktail.