The Fixer Upper had a little bit of a rough start, for me. The first couple of chapters made Aly and her friends seem really vapid and flat, but once you get to meet NIcki and Dylan, it really kicks off.

Aly has spent her whole adult life pouring all of her emotional energy into her boyfriends, kind of without realizing it. She runs into an ex one day who now has a really, really great life. She and her friends start a secret agency to basically trick men into taking on some of the emotional work they've been passing on to their partners. It's going really great until they get hired to work on her childhood best friend/first love, Dylan.

I love the way that Aly and Dylan's friendship is rebuilt. The quiet way that she notices all the things she loved about him as a teenager and the way you can see him realize, through her eyes, that his life is not what he wanted.

If you're a no-smut sort of romance fan, this one is totally PG.

I never tire of a romantic comedy/drama with a happy ending! I did find some parts weirdly repetitive (like I saw the same exact paragraph at two different spots), but it seemed to work itself out by the second half of the book. I'm still a little unclear about what was supposedly sooo wrong with the FixerUpper method up to the big one, the one that WAS clearly in questionable taste, because it really felt at the end like they were ashamed of the entire thing... and I don't see why, but I'm not going to overthink it. I was entertained!

I really enjoyed this quick, cute, friends-strangers-friends-lovers story! 4* because I loved the plot and honestly could relate to the idea of a fixer upper. I don’t usually like the miscommunication trope but overall it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend to a friend.

This is a London based romcom with a social influencer celebrity, an app startup, and a women whose tired of fixing her boyfriends just for them to go be perfect for the next girl!

Synopsis: In this funny and sharp romantic comedy, a woman with a knack for turning her boyfriends’ lives around starts a professional service to help wrangle men, only to be unexpectedly matched with an old flame.

Fast paced, perfect summer romance read!
childhood friends to lovers
and who doesn't love a good project?

will recommend to all my pals!

This book and I got off to a rocky start. In the beginning, I had serious issues with the main character, her eventual love interest, and her business model.

Our protagonist Aly takes the relationship complaints of other women and figures out why their partners’ behaviors are blocked - they misunderstand their girlfriends’/wives’ needs, or they’re scared of something, or they don’t see the value in certain ideas, etc. Then she sets off to resolve the problem.

A couple of problems I have with this:
a) The premise seems to allude that most men can be, or even should be, “fixed” emotionally through a single conversation with a stranger
b) And that women who are emotionally exhausted should seek out a “fixer” rather than either work through their relationship issues through deeper conversations or move on from the relationship
c) Also, Corporate Aly was a total pushover with less than zero boundaries and I’m not sure that that translated well into Fixer Upper Aly, who was so assertive and confident

Then we meet Dylan, someone from Aly's past that is so rude and unlikeable at first. But as I passed the halfway point in the book, I started rooting for both Aly and Dylan, individually and together. And by this point, I was getting increasingly nervous about how Aly was going to deal with the eventual fallout of lying to literally everyone in her life about pretty major things that affected each of them.

By the last third of the book, Aly learns to stand up for herself and set healthier boundaries, but also comes to realize why the initial idea behind the Fixer Upper was so flawed.

While I had misgivings about the earlier parts of this book, I came to really enjoy the overall story and the characters!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Steam Level: 🔥 (kissing only)

Aly Aresti appears to be a confident, single woman, but really she's the one who fixes everyone's problems- from her parents' unhealthy relationship to her colleagues' work problems. And she soon realizes that she played a part in fixing all of her ex-boyfriends so they could find love and success without her. This motivates Aly and her friends to build a side business of fixing people's relationships. When they get a call from reality star, kitty litter heiress, and social media influencer Nicolette Wetherington-Smythe, they decide this could be their big break. But Aly soon learns that the man they need to fix is her former best friend and first love Dylan James. Out of panic and desperation, Aly makes a deal with Nicolette to motivate Dylan to pitch his start-up company's app AND to propose in just a matter of weeks in exchange for a huge payout. But she soon realizes her feelings for Dylan never faded and fixing him isn't going to improve his relationship with Nicolette. Will Aly come clean about her feelings? And what will happen if she can't really fix things like she promised?

I have such mixed feelings about this book. The premise was intriguing, and I liked that we had a friends to lovers/"it's always been you" trope. I thought the side characters had some really great moments, and I liked how they gave off some found family vibes. While this had a lot of potential, the romance fell a bit flat and the plot was problematic. I enjoyed seeing Aly help Dylan with his start-up company, but their chemistry was hot and cold. Even at the end, I wasn't sure if they'd actually get together. Aly made some questionable choices throughout the book and was completely steamrolled at work- none of which sat well with me. There were just so many lies being told, as well as misunderstandings. While some people might enjoy all the drama, this one just had too much for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A cute British romcom to enjoy this summer.

Though I know being an influencer is very popular these days, reading about influencers in romance novels makes me cringe. Whether it’s true for all or not, they are always portrayed as shallow and fake, making the storyline difficult to get through. I did love the history between two of the main characters; their inside jokes and things they knew about each other had me rooting for them to get together from the beginning. A predictable novel, but a cute one nonetheless.

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I sat on this one for a while after I finished it, because I wanted to give it a fair review.

While I really enjoyed it, I also read it after finishing a book that I will be rereading multiple times and has become part of my soul.

This is a good book. The plot kept me interested enough to finish, and enough so that I want to go back and read it again later, after I’ve not just finished a 8-star read

4 stars

Listen. I tend to steer away from women's fiction written by Americans, but there is just something about the British version of the genre that has me just gobbling them up. In the case of this book, I started The Fixer Upper on Tuesday afternoon and had finished it by Wednesday morning!

What I think really worked about this book is the exploration of how the emotional labor in heterosexual relationships often fall on the women. Forsythe doesn't shy away from that aspect both in her protagonist Alyssa's personal and professional life, demonstrating time and time again how misogyny and weaponized incompetence are woven into the fabric of society. Do Alyssa and her friends go about combatting that in the healthiest way? No, but it is highly enjoyable and feels incredibly human.

Of course, I would have loved more actual interaction with the eventual couple that we focus on and the ending does get wrapped up fairly quickly. That being said, I still highly, highly enjoyed The Fixer Upper and I hope that you do too!

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

DNF at 36%

I tried so hard to like this book, and having to try to like a book is never a good sign. Normally, I’m very quick to DNF, but for some reason, I was determined not to do that with this one. At least three or four times, I put it down to give myself a break by reading something else, and every time that I’d come back to it, the story never got any better. Because here’s my one major complaint about this book: it was just. so. boring. And slow. In the first 36% of the book (which amounts to about 109 pages), absolutely nothing happened. It was just a summary of the main character being a people-pleaser and a pushover, and I kept waiting for the real plot to begin, but it never did.

So many people have enjoyed this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Negalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This one started a little slow for me, but once Dylan was in the story more I started to like it a lot more. From friends to strangers to enemies to friends again, it was a sweet story. It's a low steam romance if that is your thing. I wish we had more of Aly and Dylan together, but it was still a good book!
Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the arc. All opinions are my own.

The cover and the premise are what initially drew me in but I felt like it fell flat at some points. Once the story picks up (around 20% in), it really is such a quick and easy read. But I do wish we got more at the end, everything just got wrapped up too quickly for my liking.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for this earc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I did think going in there would be more of a romance aspect to it, while there was some, it was really more about Aly. I loved this twist on the fixer upper much like the movie Failure to Launch, but again with a unique twist on that concept. I also really enjoyed the side points about social media and trying to figure out what is real and not real. Dylan wasn't my favorite main character, and honestly wish he would have figured out his feelings for Aly sooner, because he was still with Nikki for most of the book. I wish him and Aly had talked more before making love declarations to each other at the end of the book. I did want them to be together I just wish it hadn't happened so fast because he'd been in a relationship just a chapter ago. I also loved the themes of women in a man dominated field and how hard that can be for someone like Aly. I loved her friend group and I definitely wouldn't mind a Ben and Eric book!

Quick read, fun premise, & great characters. What more can you want? Childhood friends normally isn’t my favorite, but I do like it in this book.

4.5

This was a wonderful surprise. I was drawn in by the cover and the title. What I thought was a friends to lover trope was more of a friends to enemies then back to friends then to lovers trope. Lots of witty British banter and a smart, sweet leading lady. I thought all the characters were well written. Once I got going the book was easy to read and hard to put down. I will say it did take me a few chapters to get get reeled in.

I would classify this book more chic lit than romance. In fact, if you are diving into this book looking for a steamy romance you will be disappointed. This book is more about our leading ladies growth and taking control of her life. And it is well worth your time.

***Advanced copy obtained from Penguin Group Putnam via Netgalley***

This was a cute book overall and although it was slow for me, the ending more than made up for it. It was definitely more women's fiction/chick-lit than romance and I wish there was way more of the relationship with Aly and Dylan. The friends group was strong in this so if you like strong supporting characters this is definitely a book for you! I struggled with Aly being such a master manipulator but glad to see some growth in the end.

I really enjoyed this story from start to finish. I kept struggling to put it down. I loved Aly, flaws and all, and Eric and Tola were the best kind of friends. The characters all had great chemistry and the ending was exactly what I wanted with even better ideas than what I had.


I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This was such a cute premise. I love any book that features a driven female lead who's not willing to settle, and Aly definitely delivered on that front. The writing was sharp and snappy and the pacing excellent. This book reminded me of books by Sally Thorne or Mhairi McFarlane.

The cover is my favorite thing about the book. It is cheery and draws the eye. The book itself is not a romance. When the hero is still with his girlfriend at the 85 percent point this is not a romance. Aly works in marketing and is a fixer. She takes care of her job and fixes others problems as well. Her two best friends notice a pattern that Aly’s ex boyfriends always go onto to be better people after dating her. Together as a lark they decide to start a side job of fixing people. Get the long term boyfriend to propose call Aly. It’s going well until a big media influencer offers her money she can’t refuse to fix her boyfriend. Dylan James happens to be her childhood best friend before a falling out before she left for university. She is reintroduced to him as career coach in hopes of getting him prepared to meet with investors for his new app. There is more to the story but that is the basics.

Her friends are great but Aly who at first appears very competent and over achieving is actually a personal mess. She is over extended taking care of people around her. Reading as a women’s fiction this is an okay but it is a far stretch to call it a rom-com. I never felt a connection between Aly and Dylan. She tells us that she was in love with him in the past but even then they never dated or were involved as more than friends. It feels weak to build a whole thing from something that never was real to begin with. Then everything wraps up so quickly you don’t get to see them work things out or resolve issues. It is a small grand gesture and bam it’s over.

Somehow I was never invested in the characters enough to care that they got together. I did want Aly to get a better job that would be more fulfilling. And I wanted her friends to be happy. Intimacy is a couple of kisses for the MCs and the book has some language. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the book. Although I felt like it was more chick-lit than romance. But otherwise it was good. The characters were well developed and so was the story. I felt intrigued and genuinely interested in what was happening with the characters.