Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
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...
A literal birthday clown decides that dating her high school crush and the towns bad boy will help her be taken more seriously.
5 out of 5 steam level
This book was a cute and funny romcom. I chuckled to myself a few times while reading it. The family dynamics were written really well. As the youngest child in my family, I liked reading about the siblings and their struggles to all be taken seriously. My favorite part of the book was the girl gang. The Just Us League was a crew of women supporting women and I can get behind that all day every day! I could tell as I was reading that there were going to be some other companion books in this series and when I finished the story, that was confirmed! As I was scrolling through my kindle notes for the novel, I found quite a few funny lines highlighted. This was a true romcom (and a steamy one)! The amount of clown jokes in this, was perfect in every way. I laughed a lot at Georgie's humor. Also, her sister Bethany was awesome. She definitely has to have her own book because she was amazing in every way. I loved the scenes she was in. Here's a little snippet of humor to wet your pallet:
"You look like a live childbirth just went by in your Facebook feed."
Funny right? Haha! I definitely busted out laughing when I read that line.
There was a flaw with the whole plot. It didn't make any sense why Georgie would be taken more seriously as an adult by dating Travis. He was a playboy... who dates a playboy and then is suddenly taken seriously?There is a big scene regarding professing a relationship status. That scene just wasn't for me. It perhaps has to do with my personal taste public displays of proposals. But oh my gosh I was cringing while I was reading it!There was a sentiment in this book that was repetitive. The reader was reminded that Georgie was attempting to show Travis that he was worthy of commitment. Did I tell you he was worthy of commitment? Travis, you are worthy of commitment! Oh did you get it already? I did too.Holy steam room steam level! This book was STEAMY!!! I think a lot of romance readers are really gonna like that about it. However, for my personal preferences, this was too steamy.I couldn't get a read on whether or not Travis was supposed to have an accent in the book. That doesn't really matter but he gave Georgie a nickname that they used THE WHOLE BOOK (in fairness I do not like cutesy nicknames in books. It rarely seems genuine to me) and that seemed like it was kind of more a southern style of talking. I'm not sure.Travis. Travis, Travis, Travis. I just didn't like him. Isn't that the WORST in a romance read? It's not the writing of him, I just didn't like his character. I would NEVER have dated him. He was super domineering and gave insane mixed signals. He was possessive and had a dirty bedroom mouth. He was just kind of a douche. I know, strong words but really how else do you describe someone like that?!This book was not for me but honestly, I do think a lot of readers will really like it. I would probably recommend it to a few friends who's reading style I'm familiar with.
Do: write down your ultimate goals and dreams. Find your support group that will encourage you to get there.Eat: a big waffle breakfast!Listen: God Only Knows by Brandi Carlile