Title: Fix Her Up

Author: Tessa Bailey

Publisher: Avon 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 400

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Literary Escapes - New York; Romance

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...

Ooof… This was not good. The more I sit on this book, I angrier I get at the book. I feel duped. I feel angry at the patriarchy that perpetuates dysfunctional relationships. I am confused (but not really) by the fact that this was written by a woman. I am turned off by the sex scenes (and I’ve read and enjoyed a lot of erotica). The more I thought about this book, the more stars I knocked off of my rating.

Amongst all of this crap, there were a few good items. I loved the growth of relationship between sisters Georgie and Bethany and friend Rosie. I loved the creation and growth of the Just Us League. I wanted an entire book focused on those relationships.

But instead, we get a deeply problematic romance. I’m not going to get into all the details, but let me say that I was icked out by the power dynamics, the actual sex, repeated use of “baby girl,” keeping secrets, playing games, overprotective brothers, dismissive family, and the need for a clothing makeover focused on tight and short. Checking out other reviews on GoodReads, I realize that I’m not completely alone in my disappointment and anger. Thinking that this author is going on my “do not read” list.

Next up on the TBR pile: