4 ⭐

"When you love someone for over a decade, it lives in your bones, like an echo.”

Aly is a fixer. She has been fixing everything around her: her parents, work problems and friend’s love life. After a chance meeting with an ex she also realized she’s been fixing her boyfriend’s too. That’s when she and her friends thought about Fixer Upper. They thought they could empower women by helping them fix their men. Help the men see their potential and act on it. Sounds easy until their biggest client Nicki asked for their expertise. Things get complicated when the Fixer Upper new project is no other than Aly’s estranged best friend Dylan. This was a fun and fast paced story. I can’t say it was a romantic love story over all because it was more than that. It was about women empowering women, the influencer lifestyle (the unrealistic part) and the issue of fixing everything else except yourself. The friends to enemies to lovers trope was just the cherry on top. I really wished there were more Aly and Dylan moments together and Hello I needed explanation and story behind the two digit years of silence and no communication. Overall this book was enjoyable. The funny banters between characters had me giggling. I need friends like Eric, Tola, Ben and Priya in my life. The work situation got into my nerves (coz it still happens) but I was glad Aly finally stood up for herself and finally acknowledged her worth. 

My favorite part of the book is the Five Wonderful Things. It was Dylan’s mum saying. Tell five things you’re excited about today and if you can’t think of five, you’ve gotta take yourself off on an adventure.

Thank you Netgalley and Putnam Books for letting me read this book.

This was such a cute romantic comedy! I mean I love anything to do with British men so there was no way that I wasn't going to absolutely love this!

I love a good rom-com and this one did not disappoint. I love when there is a happy ending. I will definitely be picking up more from this author in the future. Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone has a talent, and Aly’s is fixing. She’s been doing it her entire life. Fixing her relationships, her parent's marriage, and other people's work troubles. From this, Aly and her friends, Tola and Eric, start a company called “The Fixer Upper” which is a business to help encourage men to grow for their partners. When Aly decides to take on a celebrity client, she runs into a childhood friend from her past.

Overall, this was a super cute book and I really enjoyed reading it! I am an absolute sucker for a second chance love/friends to strangers to lovers romance. I love the growth of our main characters Aly & Dylan in this book and just adored the side characters.

If I’m being nit-picky, I felt like the story took a bit to kick off but once it gets into the action it really hooks you!

Read this if you want:
💗 A cute British rom-com
🤷‍♀️ A “we do not know each other” trope
👩‍❤️‍👨 A friends to strangers to lovers storyline
🥳 Cute banter

Special thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam, G. P. Putnam’s Sons for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Unfortunately, I found I just really couldn't get into this novel. I kept opening my kindle, reading a few pages or a chapter and then wandering off. It had a decent start but the addition of the marriage plotline with the ex when combined with how the pages & characters didn't grab me made this a DNF for me. I think it will be perfectly lovely for other folks, but just isn't a book that I wanted to continue trudging through.

As per my personal policy, I will not be posting a review of this book up anywhere since I didn't finish. Best of luck to the author on their release this summer.

I enjoyed the book but it just felt like something was missing. I think this book would have greatly benefited from being dual POV. If we knew how Dylan felt it would probably move the book along better. That being said I absolutely loved their fight and then the romantic gesture following it.

I received an arc through netgalley.

the concept here is amazing and i can really see these friends being amazing at this however it got boring too fast. I love a fixer upper with relationships but it really felt like they were mainly lying and guilt tripping people to get the answer they want and not this other story they imagined.

3.5 spoilers rounded up. Thank you to Putnam Group and Lauren Forsythe for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book left me feeling a bit stressed. I think the main character could have been a little more likable and a little less self destructive to allow for a happier read. Overall, I loved the humor and I didn’t always know what was going to happen next which is a plus. I wished for more character development and a little more chemistry between the main character and the love interest. I loved the ending, super cute and tied it all together well. I would read a book by this author in the future, I think for a first novel her writing style has a lot to offer!

Aly Alestri has a habit of improving everyone's life but her own -- her exes, her parents, her friends, her co-workers. Now she has to learn to stop putting everyone else's needs before her own. But can she do it?

This was such a fun read and I loved the best friends to enemies to lovers again. And while it was a quick fun read I did have to roll my eyes a few times because all of the issues in this book are all because of miscommunication and it just felt frustrating at every turn. While I over all enjoyed the banter and the relationship at the end I wish communications could have been handled better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read an ARC of The FIxer Upper. I am sharing my review voluntarily.

This was really well written and the characters were so thoughtfully created and shared. I felt the friendship between Aly, Eric and Tola grow as the story progressed. The premises was well done and had me sitting in an uncomfortable gray area throughout.

I loved the friendship between Dylan and Aly. It was authentic and developed believably.

I felt like the story started off slowly and I had trouble getting into it. I considered not finishing it around 30% because I felt like I’d been reading for so long without much enticement. I am so glad I kept going! This was thought provoking and sweet. I would have missed out on so much if I hadn’t finished. Once the EasterEgg crew is introduced the book flows quickly and is really interesting.

I went to sleep reflecting on this story and how parts of it show up in my own life. That is such a meaningful byproduct of reading a well written book and I’m grateful for it with The FU.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC.

I loved The Fixer Upper, and found Aly a really relatable protagonist. I loved following her journey of self-worth, and realizing what she was meant to do. I loved how she stood up for herself in the workplace, and turned her "Fixer Upper" business into one for empowerment. The Fixer Upper is witty, and fun to read, and I flew through it in one sitting. I appreciated how Dylan and Aly became friends again first, before falling back in love with one another, and loved the second chance romance aspect of it. An overall predictable, but incredibly enjoyable read nonetheless!

A fun, easy, predictable story that “feels like home.” Aly’s growth was overall positive and I liked her as a main character. Happy with the LGBTQ+ representation as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC.

This was another contemporary romance/women’s literature mashup that just did not hit the mark for me. I liked the idea that Fixer Uppers were a group that helped women “cash in” on the unpaid, emotional and physical labor they offer men (and the narrative had a lot of insightful things to say about that topic!), but after that the story felt flat. I did not feel an ounce of chemistry between Dylan and Aly. Frankly, Dylan was so sulky, obstinate and dismissive of his girlfriend’s work that I cannot see how he should have been a romantic interest. The whole point is to not get stuck with a man you have to project manage! This trope of “he’s not a jerk, he’s just damaged” combined with my biggest pet peeve of immature, snippy behavior passing for “banter” made this already slow book feel way too long for so little action and such a speedy resolution. All together, I would have loved to see a better narrative built around this really interesting premise.

Unfortunately, especially as I was really excited for this rom-com, I just don’t think it was for me. I really struggled to get through it, and by the time the plot picked up and the romance became more involved, I had lost interest in the main character. I found her extremely uninteresting and flat, and her friends felt very on-brand for the romance genre, but almost so much so that they were hard to distinguish from other characters. So unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a review!

Aly is notorious for pleasing everyone. If she (or someone she knows) comes across a dilemma, she is sure to fix it whatever the task. How far will she be pushed till she decides enough is enough?

For me, this book started off a bit slow, but it was easy for me to resonate with Aly, as I always feel the need to please everyone. The author did a great job introducing Aly and her friends. I almost felt like I was one of them, cheering her on on the sidelines. Her friends did exactly what friends should do; they encouraged her when she needed motivation, and they told her when she was in the wrong. Seeing her reunite with an old friend was bitter sweet, and I wish we got to see more of her friendship/romance with Adam!

Overall, I felt the story was cute and modern, but for a book that is classified as a romance novel, I would've loved to see more romance.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, for providing me with an ARC of this book. The following is my honest review of this book.

Aly seems to always find herself "fixing" those around here--whether it's her exes, her parents' marriage and subsequent issues, her co-workers, or even strangers. Her friends and co-workers, Tola and Eric, encourage her to make a side-gig out of doing this emotional labor and target it at women aiming to fix up their boyfriends. The business is really taking off when a popular influencer hires their services for her tech entrepreneur boyfriend, but Aly quickly realizes that he's her estranged childhood best friend and first love.

This book is witty and fun to read, although slow-paced (not my personal preference). For falling into the romance genre, the friendship between our two main characters is far more heavily featured than a romantic relationship; the romantic interest, Dylan, is not introduced until twenty percent of the way through the book and <spoiler>the main characters only get together in one big public confession of love in the very last chapter.</spoiler>

The best friend characters felt a bit stereotypical at times, Eric in particular fell into the "gay best friend" trope, but the book was quite self-aware of this, even giving Eric the line:

"Every straight girl wants the only two gays she knows to get together. The fact that we both sleep with men is not enough of a connection."

At first I found myself quite fatigued by Aly constantly doing office housework, such as ordering cakes for special events and staying late at work to help her inept co-workers complete projects, but it was satisfying when she finally realized her own bad habits and started standing up for herself and saying "no".

Overall, the book followed pretty predictable beats and wasn't the most memorable. I didn't find Aly to be the most likable main character, but many will enjoy the banter between her and her friends.

I had a hard time getting into this in the beginning, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The ending was good, though I didn't particularly like either of our main characters and found that the supporting characters seemed much more interesting.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this rom-com story, Aly is the go-to gal at work who will help whoever asks her in order to show she is hardworking and deserving of a promotion. She defines herself as always trying to help others. In fact, when she looks back on all her ex-boyfriends, she has helped them become better people and realize their potentials but she has never reaped the benefit. However, those changes always happened after the relationships ended. Aly and two of her friends decide to put Aly’s gift to work and set up a “fixer-upper” service to help woman change their men and their relationships. As word of mouth spreads about her success, a social media celebrity contracts her to fix her boyfriend Dylan who also happens to be Aly’s childhood best friend and her first love. But things don’t always work out when you confront your past and then it gets complicated when she realizes she still has feelings for Dylan. Aly must deal with the realities of fixing people through manipulation and losing sight of being honest with herself and others.

The story started out well and I applauded the premise of a woman being strong to celebrate herself and go against the grain by treating herself to a lovely night out. However, it soon became pretty slow paced and had trouble keeping my attention. I would have liked Aly to fix herself up as she thought more of others needs than her own. Also, I would have liked more chemistry in the relationships for a romance story. Where was the sizzle? The characters were pretty flat. It’s not really a book I would recommend as a must read, but it’s good enough to while away an afternoon.

Many thanks to #netgalley #thefixerupper #laurenforsythe for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I absolutely loved Aly's story! Her fears are very similar to mine of never being good enough and putting yourself last to help everyone else. I loved her journey to figuring out what she really wants and going after it, plus the social media aspect of the story was great as well!