Fix Her Up

A Novel

By: Tessa Bailey

Narrated by: Charlotte North

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A brand-new romantic comedy from New York Times best seller Tessa Bailey!

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....

©2019 Tessa Bailey (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

25% adorable love story 75% explicit sex talk

This book feels like such a bait and switch. At some moments it’s this sweet, cute love story between a girl no one takes seriously and a washed up baseball player wallowing in his rejection. It’s got all the fun tropes: brother’s best friend/best friend’s little sister, celebrity crush, childhood crush, famous guy/loser girl, fake relationship, and so on. I loved the Just Us League too. BUT when it switched to all this dirty talk and explicit sex scenes, it robbed the story for me. I wanted to love this. But I just can’t recommend it.

Absolutely not.

The main character is a 22yr old smoking hot virgin (yea, ok.), who owns her own house (even less believable), that she bought with money she earned being a clown at birthday parties (even unbelievable in fiction.). Who’s older brothers best friend is a 28 yr old retired professional baseball player, and a ladies man.

He calls her “babygirl” as a pet name. (Barf).

I kept thinking “wow, this is the worst book I have ever read/listened to” it’s contrived and has terrible dialogue.

I kept listening in a horrific fascination. It was like a course on how not to write.

I can only describe the intimate scenes as uncomfortable and kind of gross. It was humorous to hear myself making unintentional sounds of disgust.

I absolutely stopped listening to this book somewhere in the middle of chapter 13. The main character is working her party clown job at a birthday party for five year olds. She volunteers her love interest to get his face painted. While she’s painting his face, and getting all hot and horny and having inner monologue about it, there is a group of five year olds around her with lines of dialogue.
Unacceptable.

I sincerely hope to never meet anyone that made it through this book. And especially never to meet anyone that enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed it

Okay, I love this author, so reading this book was a no brainer. But did you get the fake relationship part in that blurb? With an unrequited crush? Oh, yes, I needed to read this one. AND I wasn't disappointed.

Their families are friends. Georgie grew up with a huge crush on Travis. But he only sees her as his best friends little sister. So when it's Georgie that throws food, yes I said food, at his sorry behind to get his head on straight, Travis takes notice. That's the point where their friendship begins. I loved that the book didn't bounce right into a fake relationship. No, they became friends first. That made the set-up perfection. It didn't take over the story at all. It was just a small piece. Loved that.

The characters really drew me. I'm interested in all of them and can't wait for more stories from this group of friends. I loved how they supported and cared for each other. But I will admit that the best part of the characters in this group was Travis. There is one scene where he stands up for Georgie to her family. I was cheering him on. Go Travis! He was spot on with the way they dismissed her idea because they saw her as young and not a part of the adults in the room. I loved this better than the group meetings, the apology latte, the wardrobe makeover, and the tear stained face make-up job. Lots of caring in this book.

Travis is one sexy baseball player. And the attraction between them starts quickly. As Travis begins to notice what's under that ball cap Georgie has on, he's definitely interested. But she is his best friends little sister. So he resists. I love a guy resisting. It's so much fun to watch. And when he quit resisting? That was HOT.

The pace of the book and the writing are awesome. I just didn't want to put it down. The story pulled me in and held me there. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next until....okay there was this point. I'll admit that when "the mistake" was made and I cringed, I was flipping to the end, just to quickly check. Yeah, it was good, so I could go back and read some more. I don't feel bad that I did this. It just means that I was so invested in these characters that I couldn't stand the idea of them not getting a happy.

There is more coming and I have questions. There is a flip I want details about. There is a relationship that I need to know what happens next with. There is a sister that I need to know about. And more. I'll be waiting for more.

The read is incredibly good contemporary romance with that excellent side of chic lit to make it better.

Cringeworthy

I guess enjoyed the first few chapters but the rest is absolutely trash, couldn’t even finish it. This will be the first book that I’ll be returning, it’s THAT bad.

Not what I expected

I really liked the beginning of this book, I liked the story, I liked the characters....until.... I like a good racy romance as much as the next girl but this went from racy to straight up porn. I didn’t finish it.

not for me

Travis's personality ruined the book for me. I couldn't wait for it to be over. If his personality wasnt that of someone who thinks hes gods gift to earth, I might've enjoyed it.

Disappointed

The story is a literal clown female who often feels like she is not treated like an adult and her older brother’s best friend whom she has had a thing for since she was young. It sounds like a really cute story but unfortunately I could not finish. In my opinion, I did feel like the story was more of a situation instead of a solid plot. Also I found myself physically cringing during their sexual encounters due to the dirty talk. I think this would appeal to someone looking for a book that is hot and heavy and somewhat raunchy. I felt like there was a lack of character development and the men in this book are behind on the times. Disappointed I spent hours of my life listening to this.

Mouthy... finger-y... and .... grindy

Update 2023: all three books are available for 1 credit in a collection.

Original review:
I’ve got to pay more attention when reading book summaries. When it mentioned Georgie being the town clown, I thought they meant Georgie was a big goof-ball. But no, Georgie dresses up as a clown, a lot, and does clown gags, with children, in face paint. Shudder. I hate clowns. HATE clowns. Also, the cartoon cover art and summary led me to believe this would be a perky Pollyanna winning over Mr. Pity Party when he comes back to town. What the cover and summary didn’t say is that Travis was a complete man-slut and Georgie is a virgin, two extremes I only tolerate in regencies. And there’s F bombs galore, but the profanity is still more tame than the nooky, which is mouthy and explicit (so much grinding, and fingers, and weird trash talking / domination considering the innocent Georgie). Only I’m not sure in the end if the writing was bad or if it was the narration that had me cringing as the female narrator tried to sound like a 28 year old Travis talking dirty to his 12 year old girlfriend. I kind of feel like I would give this 4-5 ⭐️ if the book had been narrated by Jacob Morgan, or if I had started off listening expecting a mouthy, raunchy romance instead of a perky Pollyanna rom-com.

I couldn't finish.

Oof. Where do I even start with this one.

It reminds of a fanfiction, but not in a good way.

Its giving y/n Wattpad written by a 14 year old vibes. Not joking. Not over exaggerating. Everything was so fast and very unrealistic and honestly, very, very cringy.

From the over protectiveness to the pet names, just all very cringe.

I love clichés and silly tropes... if they're done well. It makes me mad that I paid money for this when I could have found this exact story, written just as poorly, on Wattpad.

There's an age gap because of course there is but I have never noticed an age gap more. I've read stories where there were 20 years between the love interests, but this relatively small 5 year gap between the two main characters feels like there's miles between them.

She's a virgin and he's a player (because of course they both are, Wattpad remember?) And that's something I could get on board with because I've read that trope a million times before, BUT the fact that he constantly seeing her as a little sister while sexualizing her... just yikes.

And I know the plot is supposed to be Georgie wants to be seen as an adult so she's making changes about herself to feel more like one and to be treated like one (totally fine with that, that's not a problem) but is it possible for a 23 year old to be groomed? Because that's what it felt like.

There were so many times where I wanted to reach into the book, grab Georgie, and run away screaming.

Also the fact that Georgie's a virgin in the first place came across very unrealistic and, surprise surprise, VERY Wattpad-y. Even though she's gorgeous, because she wears overalls from a thrift store, guys just don't see her that way and constantly friend zone her 😐

Then *fake gasp here* she takes off her baseball cap, gets bangs, and wears a skirt and waddya know. Men are attracted to her.

Yeah. There's literally a makeover montage in this thing.

Georgie and Travis, oof. It's cringe. Random heartfelt, serious conversations come out of nowhere and feel extremely out of place. Their conversations consists of those weird serious ones and Travis manipulating her and constantly pointing out the age difference while Georgie tries to fix his problems. It's weird. And I didn't care about their relationship at all.

It's just???? The attraction came out of nowhere. Georgies attraction at least kind of made sense as she'd idolized him since she was a child (yet another reason it's not the best idea to get into a relationship with him.) But Travis went from thinking of her as a kid to wanting to sleep with her in one page. This happened multiple times. And his thought process was explained by "for some reason, Travis saw her as a woman now." Like the author couldn't make sense of why he'd be going for her either.

"For some reason" was used at least 20 times in the book. Because why bother with plot when you can excuse it all away with unexplainable "chemistry". There was no built up. No actual falling in love. Just they weren't together and then "for some reason" they were. That's literally it.

Time and time again I kept forgetting that this book was published in 2019. If this was a book from 2014 or earlier it would have gotten a bit of a pass but this poor writing has no excuse.

I feel like it's set back romance novels. Using every bad stereotype that MOST romance authors know better than to use by now.


The internalized misogyny is STRONG in this one.

Georgie herself was surprisingly, not totally unlikable, just naive. But again, that's kind of the plot so I'll let it slide. However, one of her major goals in the book is to make sure "Travis knows his worth." To any younger reader reading this, please know that it is not your job to be your boyfriends therapist. Which is what Travis needs severely. A therapist. Can we please stop writing books that encourage the "I can fix him" narrative?

It was SO prevalent in this book that it was borderline Manic Pixie Dream Girl. And if this book was just from Travis' POV, focusing on his career, I would say that Georgie IS a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But she's not because she has valid troubles and concerns of her own.

The only real complaint I have about Georgie is the fact that as a 23 year old, she's ready to have kids and it's constantly brought up. Which of course, is in exact contrast with Travis, who has extreme commitment issues and doesn't want that at all (or so he thinks 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄)

I hate this cliché. It's okay for women to not want to children or at the very least, a TWENTY THREE YEAR OLD, not have her heart set on kids. Jesus Christ. I wish that her wanting kids wasn't brought up so much. It'd be fine if it was mentioned once or twice but that wasn't the case here.

We get it.

Woman = want to make babies.
Man = doesn't want that at all.

Yet another reason why I'm shocked this was written in 2019 and not the early 2000s.

More examples of internalized misogyny:

No one takes Georgie seriously until Travis, an *older man* comes in and "saves the day" by pointing out that maybe, just maybe, a 23 year old should be treated like an adult. He's practically a God in Georgie's eyes after that. I'm not exaggerating.

And, oh boy, the other women of the book.

We have the stereotypical manipulative mother who as seen as not being able to do any wrong while emotionally abusing her children.

(Again. It's now 2022, not 2005. Let's not encourage unhealthy relationships just because they're our family)

Her sister Bethany is vain and says rude things without thinking. Basically her whole personality is fashion. I do genuinely like how she decided she wanted to take a more serious role in her family's house flipping company, but when she was making rude comments every other time she spoke, it was hard to root for her. She also got offended when Georgie pointed out that they didn't have a great relationship. It was hard to feel bad for her.

Sister in law is catty and mean. Completely passive aggressive which everyone is aware of but when she actually says what's bothering her, her problems are pushed aside as over dramatic and unimportant?? I couldn't decide if the author wanted us to like her or not.

The only friend of Georgies that isn't terrible is Rosie and her problem (because of course, all the women in this book are unhappy with their lives in someway) is marital problems. And ya know what, I'll give the author this. It was really realistic and well done. Rosie and her husband were married far too young (he proposed at their high school graduation 🙄) and her concern is that they've grown apart and no longer know each other. Bravo. Perfect example of why. people. shouldn't. get. married. that. young.

These are just the main and secondary characters though.

Throughout the entire book, the constant narrative of "I'm unhappy with my ball and chain of a wife" is pushed from EVERYWHERE.

Like, some random Joe comes up to Travis at a bar and talks about how he was his wife's hallpass. And he continues to joke that if Travis sleeps with his wife, maybe he'll have some peace in the house.

The men are always complaining about their wives in the book. Especially when it's Travis' POV and no women are around.

Going away from just the women, Georgie's whole family just sucks. And AGAIN, I know that's the plot, blah blah blah.

Her bother is dismissive then protective? Make sense of that. I'm not even sure what his personality is, it jumped around so much. He was just a very poorly thought out character. I literally can't even remember his name.

Her father is just a stereotypical as the mother, a sexist traditionalist who passed down the family business to his son. Technically he passed it down to his other daughter as well but everyone in the family knows the sons in charge. When his wife asks if she can't be apart of Georgie's and Bethany's club because she's too old (haha queue emotional manipulation here! it's so funny!) Dad says something like "You're not too old. You're just not unhappy." Implying that women can only form support groups to better themselves if they're unhappy? He also is a king manipulator himself because when Bethany says she's leaving the family company to do her own flip (something she asked to do multiple times within the family company and was shut down) he made a huge deal of it and said it was a mistake to leave the company with his children. And of course "let the adults talk, Georgie." When Georgie stands up for Bethany. Again, I know it's the plot but she's 23. It's unrealistic for people to be saying that to her. And if they did anyway, she should be cutting off her relationship with her family because no one says that to anybody over the age of twelve without it DRIPPING with condescension.

So what is it, Tessa Bailey? Is this book unrealistic or are all the characters terrible, terrible people?

Both, I think.


I read this because I've been seeing praise for this author everywhere. Having read it, I genuinely don't understand the hype. Really. I'm not trying to be a hater here just trying to understand.

All together, replace Travis with Harry Styles or Draco Malfoy, and this could have been a y/n Wattpad story written in 2011 by a 14 year old. If you're into that, no shame, we all have our thing. But do yourself a favor and go read it for free on one of the many fanfiction sites. Don't waste your money.

Really steamy!

This was a good story. I enjoyed the characters and
the love scenes did not disappoint. I will say by the 50th time Travis called Georgie “baby girl” I was ready to scream. Pet names agitate me, especially if used too often. And they beat that one to death! That’s my only complaint. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys books like “The Hating Game!”

She does it again

I’ve listened to this one twice now as once just wasn’t enough. Tessa bailey has the hottest men who know what they are doing in life and the bedroom. Add in a good dash of humour and quirky females and you have a Tessa bailey book. This one was just as amazing as all the rest of her books

cute and simple

sweet little story and adorable couple. the writing was a little odd at times as it moved from first to third person so difficult to tell what was thought and what was spoken.


but overall really nice.... even if all the "baby girls" were cringe-worthy.

and definitely just a me thing but I got strong Twilight ~vibes~

Tear streaming

Beautiful story line and beautiful plot I absolutely loved this book.
I recommend it 100%

boring story with unlikeable characters

I really had to force myself to keep listening to this one and in the end couldn't finish it. it was predictable and boring. the two main characters were very unlikeable and immature and there was little to no chemistry between them.

the performance was also pretty bad. it was like she was reading the story instead of telling it which is a strange nuance but makes a difference.

too many sex scenes for me but good story

I liked it because there was too many sex scenes for me but the story was good 👍

A reread

I found books two and three so reread this one first, I'm glad I did as each builds on the last and I love books and characters that continue to develop.

Not funny or romantic for that matter

This was complete garbage, the story cringy and predictable, the narrator just as terrible, actually managed to make it worse. The sex scenes are a bit worrying. Not remotely funny not once did I laugh but I did do a lot of cringing.

Amazing book

Such a great audiobook, finished it in only a few days. I highly recommend it

amazing

i have never been able to listen to audiobooks but this one... this one i gobblet up in a day and night!

Inner monologues were basic and very annoying

I thought the ramblings inside Georgie’s head about how great Travis was would stopped as the story picked up. They got longer and became so annoy I couldn’t finish reading.