The plot of this book sounded so cool, but I wasn't a fan of how it played out.

Ok. So the main storyline of this book is that guys suck until they have a woman come along and "fix them" for their future relationships. I didn't say it, it's literally the main plotline of the story.

This lady, who has had like 12 exes runs into her ex-bf and sees that he's a completely changed for the better man. He's married and has a good career, Yada Yada and he says it's all thanks to her goding him and leaving him.
Actually, all of her exes are now very successful wouldn't ya know.
So, naturally her bffs decide to make a business outta that where they help a woman push their men towards being better for them.

And I just, can't.
It's unbelievable simply put.
I liked the idea enough but it could have worked out better in a different way. Maybe teach these women to either enjoy the man they chose or leave him and find what they are looking for?

I get that's where the author was going eventually with the love interest, but it fell flat.

And speaking of the love interest, yikes. I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole. After hearing about their pasts and how he treated her and also just how immature he seems. I honestly wanted hunter to be the love interest just saying.

I liked the idea of it and I enjoyed The side characters.

Loved this rom-com! This would be great for any Christina Lauren fan. I will be recommending this rom-com to all of my friends!

second chance and childhood friend tropes are promising. aly is an incredibly comforting and refreshing character. i truly admire her realness + foremost opinions about dual personas and self doubts. there’s no question that she isn’t relatable, relationships or not!

on the contrary to being a romance lover, i found myself looking forward to the friendships most. aly and dylan felt a bit flat at times, therefore this may be an underwhelming romance for some.

thanks to penguin group and netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review! The Fixer Upper is a really fun rom-com and I highly enjoyed it! It was a fast read and the author did a great job getting me interested and hanging on! I loved the roller coaster the protagonists relationship went on and I liked that they truly knew each other!

This book was not what I was expecting. I went in for cute fluffy romance and ended up crying over long lost beat friends calling you out on your bullshit.
Her struggles with her mother and finally letting people in. Loved it.

If you've been here a while, you'll know that I'm a sucker for romantic comedies with the enemies to lovers trope. Even better if you have a vibrant group of friends and some forced proximity. But before I dive in, I wanted to thank G.P. Putnam and the author for the advanced copy for review!

Aly was a fun, complicated character. Her relationship with her parents (Mom, really) has had a huge impact on her life and relationships. Aly has coped by becoming the ultimate team player. I'm talking people pleaser to an extreme with an ability to read the motivations/hopes/desires of the people around her. Mostly anyway. She uses this well-honed ability to slowly make her way up the marketing chain and she is so close to attaining it. Her (terrible) manager has been dangling it in front of her for a year. So she a lady with a plan and she has worked herself into the ground trying to attain it only to be shaken by the discovery that she seems to be running on a hamster wheel while her previous paramours have moved on to become successful in whatever form that may be.

I liked this book and I liked Aly and her little vibrant group of friends! I know this is labeled a romantic comedy, but it leans more toward chick lit/women's fiction for me. The main theme of the book is Aly changing and finding her new "why" or purpose. Shifting away from her people pleasing, setting boundaries, and becoming comfortable with herself. This is all great and I love to see it but with a romantic comedy I'm expecting the relationship with the MMC to be front and center. This isn't to say the book isn't funny. There is some fantastic banter between Aly, Eric, and Tola. But the bulk of the story is Aly finding herself and becoming comfortable. Learning to advocate for herself and not bend over backwards to please everyone. She's learning to love and appreciate herself. ALL good stuff. So why just three stars?

I'm just not swooning over the romance even though it has some of the tropes that I would usually enjoy. This is more a: friends that have a big miscommunication (le gasp)-> which leads to ghosting -> which turns them to apparent enemies (?) -> to friends with shit to hide -> to eventual romance but we don't even get to see it! I'm not bitter, you are.

For me, the romance was the weakest part of this book. I knew going in that the MMC was going to be in another relationship for a bit of the book, but once it hit 75% and he was still in that other relationship I started to riot. Aly and Dylan were stronger characters apart than when together.

I didn't particularly like Dylan. There is a point where he mocks Aly for being a people pleaser. That's awfully rich considering his superpower is being a chameleon in relationships; shifting to become what the other person desires. Their miscommunication was an easy fix in the end, but it didn't feel particularly satisfying. Especially with the grand gesture happening right at the end that kicks off the romantic part of the relationship.

The Fixer Upper was an enjoyable debut with some really great, feminist "you can do it" messages that I always enjoy seeing in my romances! I didn't love the romance, but the friendships were solid. Fair warning, there is no steam.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a very cute romance! I enjoyed the main characters and the plot, which felt very original.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was amazing! I was shocked by the amount of real life advice I found. Reading Aly's story felt like I someone saw me and understood me for the first time. Five Wonderful Things is going to be a staple in my life now. This is an absolute must read!

I really enjoyed this novel. I chose to go into this book blindly after only being intrigued by the cute cover and fun, inviting title. Aly was an inspiration, and I found her relatable and realistic. The side characters were also great. This book has HEA which I adore! I binged through this book because after about 20% of the way through, I could not put it down! This was so much more then a typical rom-com, fun and different story!!

Aly has always been fixing something for as long as she could remember. Fixing her parents' relationship, her coworkers' work and even her ex-boyfriends apparently.
After discovering that all of her exs have done better after dating her, she and her friends decides to start the Fixer Upper.
The Fixer Upper is an exclusive underground service for women who are tired of having to do more emotional labor than their significant others.
After a series of successes, they're hired for a famous Instagrammer's boyfriend who ends up being Aly's long lost childhood best friend.
The two of them seems ill-matched to Aly.
Nicki wants to change everything about Dylan meanwhile Dylan doesn't seem to like her anything about her.
As the Fixer Upper job on Dylan goes on, Aly can't help but try to understand and help her old best friend.
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This was such a fun read!

It's a quick read and I liked all the personal growth Aly did.
She was realistic and her issues were relatable.

I also really enjoy her and Dylan's relationship dynamics. Things built-up nicely and their relationship progress didn't feel out of the blue.
When I requested this book from Netgalley, I didn't read the last sentence about Dylan so when I got to the part about Nicki and Dylan, I was a little apprehensive.
I hate it when a relationship starts while another one is on-going, but this novel didn't really do that.
It was made clear since the beginning that they weren't happy with each other and weren't a good match.
It's fairly light and the romance parts of the novel doesn't really start until after Dylan breaks up with Nicki.

I really did enjoy this book and it was a nice read to relax with while I was studying for midterms.
Thank you Putnam Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Two quick thing that I didn't include in my review.
I think you guys should maybe hint at the fact that Dylan's and Nicki's relationship is a little rocky somewhere in the summary. Also there were a few times where some sentences felt weird and off to me.

4.5/5

This one struck a little too close to home with me, I related to Aly soooooooo much. If only I had a guy best friend I could fall in love with. I would have loved to have a little more romance in the book, but I loved the friendships and Aly and Dylan were amazing - I just wanted a little more. It would have been amazing to get a chapter or two of flashbacks to them as teenagers.

This book just didn’t do it for me. I hate to leave less than shining reviews and someone else may love it. But for me I had to force myself to read it and I didn’t like the man getting introduced 25% into the book and pretending not to know or. Or the weird random setup up she and her friends came up with tie randomly fix people’s relationships. Like a version of Failure to Launch. (And I loved that movie). Sorry.

This was definitely a slow burn romance. It took quite awhile to get to the good stuff. I could have done without the first few chapters. In my romcoms I like to get to the meet cute right away without all the build up. I did really enjoy all the friendships within this book, and I was happy with how the book ended! This was a creative and refreshingly new storyline!

The only thing missing was a pov chapter or two from Dylan!

Thank you Putnam for my gifted copy!

Childhood friends to lovers is my absolute favorite trope and I also really enjoy a slow burn - this book completely fit the bill! It took me about 15-20% in to really feel invested, but after that I couldn’t put this one down! I loved the writing style, I the characters were wonderful and realistic, and the plot kept me absolutely captivated. I haven’t read a book quite like this one, so that added to the fun. Definitely a book I want on my shelves and will recommend to all my rom com lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

The romance....well there just didn't seem to be much. I didn't mesh well with the characters and the topic itself was a little odd and cringy at times.

While it wasn't for me I don't discourage anyone from reading this book if you are a rom com fan.

At 4% when I read the following, I knew this wasn’t the book for me:
“that we needed someone with that Gen Z energy to stop us being two bitter Millennials, constantly bitching about everything.”

Nope. Stop portraying millennials as so “woe is me” generation.

DNF for me.

3.5 stars.

At times like this I wish Goodreads woule give us half stars ratings
because there are some books that you enjoyed more than enough to give it more than 3 stars but somethings that didn't make it a four star read.

Aly is a fixer she has helped her exes get their lives on track and when she realizes what she does her friends decide to make it a business, she basically fixes other people's boyfriend's or husband's for them. A social media star takes notice of her who hires her to fix her boyfriend and offers a good sum of mone, sounds perfect right? Well, that said boyfriend is Dylan, Aly's childhood best friend and first love. And to make matters worse, Aly and Dylan haven't in been contact ever since Aly left for college.

Aly's character development was good, it was frustrating at times to see what she was dealing with though. Aly and Dylan were perfect to be honest, they had chemistry, history and their banter was good. I just wish we got to see more of them and their relationship as it was the best things about this book. Honestly, if the author ever writes a novella about them I would totally read it.

🛠 The Fixer Upper 🛠

“Love is only meant to be terrifying right at the beginning, right before you fall,” she said softly. “Then it’s meant to feel like home.”

Aly, The Fixer Upper, is here to help. Convince your man to propose? Give him a spark of motivation to get that career off the ground? Whatever it is, she has a playbook of subterfuge to light the fire of inspiration. Together with her best friends, Eric and Tola, they work their “emotional outsourcing” to help out their network of women in London. Their reputation precedes them and they are contacted by a social media darling, looking for their services to polish off her boyfriend and inspire him to be proposal ready. The only hiccup? Said boyfriend just happens to be Aly’s childhood best friend, Dylan. As the old flame rekindles, Aly begins to question the work she and her friends are doing - why do the men need fixing up? Why aren’t they good enough as is?

This one was sweet and goofy. I enjoyed watching Aly step into her own power as she developed through the course of the book. She took back her voice from the people speaking for her. I was cheering for her as she started saying no to those demanding too much of her and started saying yes to herself. A quick, funny read with a hilarious cast of supporting characters, I definitely recommend checking this one out.

🛠 Single POV romance
🛠 Set in London
🛠 Friends to lovers trope
🛠 Hilarious and supportive friends, which quips like, “You with an authority kink does not surprise me at all,”

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam for this ARC! The Fixer Upper is on shelves August 2!

Thank you Putnam and NetGalley for the E-ARC copy of Fixer Upper in exchange for an honest review.

Aly is a single girl with two good friends from her office: Eric and Tola. When Eric and Tola discover Aly has improved the lives of all her ex-boyfriends by 85% they embark on an experiment to see if they can make life better for other someone (getting their boyfriend to propose, parenting issues, work issues, etc).

One word of mouth gets around Aly is approached by a reality tv star and social media influencer who wants Aly to deliver big: a successful pitch for her boyfriends startup and a proposal for her by the end of the month.

However, when Aly meets Nikki’s boyfriend, it turns out it’s Aly’s childhood best friend she was in love with and hasn’t seen in fifteen years…

There are feminist themes, true friendship, love , lies, loss, honesty and learning to stand up for yourself all contained in these pages.

This novel easily sucks you in and is such a delightful palette cleanser. It felt like being wrapped up in a warm hug from a friend. I absolutely adored this novel.

5/5 stars.

The Fixer Upper is described as a romantic comedy, but it largely missed that mark for me. There was hardly any romance and even less romantically comedic dialogue. I thought that the first half of the book was all over the place and a bit chaotic — I often had to go back and read paragraphs/pages again so that I could understand how we just switched scenes so quickly.

The FMC, Aly, is overall likable, although she is quite a pushover and ultimately does whatever her friends tell her to do, which I did not love and could not relate to.

I love a second chance romance and was excited for that aspect of this book, but I personally just couldn't get behind the "fixer" part of the book. It came across a bit negatively and was portrayed as a necessity, which (I hope!) we all know that hoping to change someone in a relationship is not a good idea.

Overall, I thought that the book should have been explained differently in its synopsis and/or included more romance to match its description. That said, I think Forsythe is a great author and had a good storytelling ability.

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam, and Lauren Forsythe for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!