Fix Her Up: A Novel

by Tessa Bailey

A spicy, hilarious HGTV-inspired romantic comedy trilogy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker!

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...

“Her voice feels as fresh and contemporary as a Netflix rom-com.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Fix Her Up ticks all my romance boxes. Not only is it hilarious, it’s sweet, endearing, heartwarming and downright sexy. It’s a recipe for the perfect love story.” – Helena Hunting, New York Times bestselling author of Meet Cute

• ISBN10: 0062872834
• ISBN13: 9780062872838
• Publish Date: 25 July 2019 (first published 11 June 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[neurospicybookworm]

⭐️4.5

[The Romantic Comedy Book Club]

Is it possible for a book to make you blush? Yes, yes it is and this book had me blushing A LOT (and I think my eyes almost popped out of my head at one point). This book is intense and HOT as fire. It is like Bailey challenged the fake relationship concept to a fun game of Twister. Along with a lot of humor and some page scorching moments, this book also dives into how one's past and the perspectives of others can destroy you or propel you forward. I truly enjoy the nuggets of wisdom these authors tend to slip it.

[mrs_mander_reads]

Loved this! I really enjoy a brooding male character paired with a bright and sunshine-y female. Not quite opposites attract, but more like they balance each other. High steam factor here, so I wouldn't recommend to those who enjoy lite romance / closed door romance.

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

I love the tropes Brother’s Best Friend and Fake Relationship, and Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey includes both in it. Thanks again to the #Romanceopoly2020 Challenge for having me read this book because I’ve had it on my TBR for a while now. Last year was a rough year of being sick, though, so I’m slowly but surely catching up on previously released books.

I’ve read previous books from author Tessa Bailey, so I know I was going to get a fantastic story out of Fix Her Up. I fell hard not only for the tropes that were in this book but the characters, Georgette Castle and Travis Ford.

I’m not going to give a detailing of the book because the synopsis does an excellent job of describing the book. Here are some things that I loved about Fix Her Up:

1. Female Protagonist, Georgette Castle. She plans birthday parties for kids and dresses up as a clown. Her personality is adorable, and she is determined to be seen as an adult and not as a little kid. Unfortunately, her family sees her as a bit of a kid still, even though she is grown and has her own business. She has the help of Travis Ford to convince her family that she is grown, also though he’s hesitant to help her since Georgie is his best friend’s little sister.

2. Male Protagonist, Travis Ford. He used to be the hottest baseball player rookie until he got injured. Now he’s back in his hometown trying to live his life. Unfortunately, his character is seen as a player, and everyone still sees him as that, even his best friend. There’s only one person that doesn’t see him that way, and that’s his best friend’s little sister, Georgie. I liked how Travis fought hard not to fall for Georgie, but he couldn’t help it in the book. He saw Georgie as a grown-up and not as a little kid anymore. He was very protective of her and wanted to help her.

3. The fake relationship that Georgie and Travis decided on doing to help each other. I knew one or both would start having feelings. It happens. These two were meant to be real, though, and not fake.

4. The club that Georgie was in with her sister and every woman wanted to be apart of eventually. The men were scared over this club.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy was how everyone treated Georgie in the story. Travis did the same thing at first until he started realizing how everyone else was treating her. Georgie’s family drove me nuts with blowing Georgie off as a kid. There was a particular scene in the book that I wanted to go through the book and hug Georgie. Travis, though stepped up and helped her.

Oh, and if I haven’t said it, yet, I love brother’s best friend romances. Georgie’s brother didn’t like the romance brewing between his best friend and his little sister. The overprotective brother had it handed to him at the end, though. There was a lot of hot romance scenes between the main characters, so be prepared to take a cold shower afterwards.  

Would I recommend this book? Yes, definitely. If you are a fan of romantic comedies and contemporary romances, then this book is for you. I also <3 the cover of the book too!

[blackbibliophile]

Cute story. My only gripe is that the script from the love scenes kinda sound like they should belong to soft core p-nos. Super cringe worthy. Other than that, it’s a fun and light read.

[Berls]

I do wish I'd read this before Love Her or Lose Her, since it gives some great insight into Rosie, with the Just Us League. But it worked out of order too. I love the characters and it was great watching this friends to lovers play out. It has a bit of a makeover too, which I always seem to enjoy in books (and movies). Eager for book 3!

[jamiereadthis]

Ugh, another strikeout from Bailey. I wanted to give her one more shot after Getaway Girl struck out, but this makes me see red.

[Djilan]

A really cute story!
I was having trouble choosing a book to read and a friend recommended I pick this one (she knew I had it). And no regrets! Loved it :)

[leahrosereads]

Continuing this roll of romantic contemporaries, I was recommended this by a couple of people. The writing was great - Tessa Bailey can absolutely weave a compelling story together. Unfortunately, I didn't really like the characters. They didn't feel fully fleshed out or interesting, and I genuinely wished I saw more of Georgie as her own person, but she came off very love struck the entire time. And, I did NOT like Travis at all.

What little I saw of Rosie, I really liked though, so I'll be trying the next book in the series.

[bookperson]

DNF

I just couldn't get through the fact that main characters are childhood friends and when guy describes heroine in her childhood with nostalgia and couple of pages later they're boning whilst he calls her "baby girl"...
That's a big yikes from me.