Title: Fix Her Up
Author: Tessa Bailey
Narrator: Charlotte North
Series: Hot & Hammered, 1
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Avon, an imprint of Harpercollins
Publication: June 11, 2019
Read: January 2020
Format: Audiobook
Length: 9 hours & 59 minutes
Rating: 4 1/2 Caffeinated Stars
Trigger Warning: Mention of divorce, Mention of childhood neglect

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Thoughts:

When I got approved for Tessa Bailey’s newest novel that is releasing in a few weeks, I knew I needed to dive deep into the Hot and Hammered series. Fix Her Up is the first book, so I was extremely excited that my library had a copy of the audiobook that was ready for me to listen to via Hoopla. I listened to the sample and knew then and there that the audiobook would be perfect for me. Charlotte North did such a fantastic job narrating this book. I loved all of her voices, and she truly brought this story to life. The humor that Tessa Bailey writes with was portrayed well, and I’m definitely adding Charlotte North to my list of voice actors I need to listen to more.

What I loved the most about this book was the chemistry between the two main characters. I have to say that Tessa sure knows how to write dirty talk. I almost had to start fanning myself at one point. The erotic scenes were incredibly well written and showed just how great the chemistry was. Though I thoroughly LOVED Travis and Georgette, I couldn’t help but hate Georgette’s family. I honestly just wanted to rage at how they treated her throughout the book.

Fix Her Up had so many of my favorite tropes that I couldn’t help but smile. In this book, you’ll see the Sunshine/Grumpy pairing, the forbidden romance, and the fake dating trope. The plot between the tropes was pretty cute. Tessa sure knows how to write a plot that will make you smile and want to read late into the night. I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn’t help but listen to it in two days.

All in all, I did enjoy this book. There were definitely some issues present, but I loved how tropey it was. I recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Bromance Book Club. It has that kind of vibe to it.

Want to take a chance on this book? Here are the buy links!

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Libro.FM, Goodreads