Review: Tessa Bailey’s FIX HER UP.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Edelweiss+, but all opinions provided are my own.
 
I have zero chill when it comes to Tessa Bailey and/or her books. They’re so, so good. Intense and sexy (nearly fatally so), but also with some kind of buoyancy that prevents them from feeling too dark, no matter what subject she’s tackling.
 
So please keep my reviewer biases in mind.
 
But Fix Her Up is her latest offering, and it’s wonderful. Best friend’s little sister / fake romance / tomboy dresses in oversized secondhand clothes and voluntarily gets a makeover for herself and puts herself out there in relationships and work…magic. It works on so many levels, from the first moment when Georgie, said tomboy, throws a carton of old ice cream (yuck!) on our down-and-temporarily-out hero’s back, to the end, when Georgie and hero…you didn’t think I was going to reveal a spoiler, did you?
 
Our down-and-temporarily-out hero is Travis Ford, who, after a debilitating injury, has been released from his last baseball team and returned to Port Jefferson to wallow in takeout containers and alcohol. Georgie Castle, his best friend’s little sister—and also the woman who has loved Travis since she was a child—is the only one capable of scaling the castle walls (definitely not looking at his naked body), and bringing him back to life by throwing aforementioned old ice cream at his fantastically sculpted back.
 
Billed as a rom-com, Fix Her Up is definitely funny, especially the opening scene when Georgie really lets things fly. It’s approachable humor, but no less smart for it.
 
But as funny as it is, the book hit me more on an emotional level. What we have in Fix Her Up is a story about two people who want others to see them differently—as something more than an annoying little sister or a baseball has-been. For people to see them as worth it, and Bailey explores their vulnerabilities beautifully, even as they grow throughout the book.
 
They’re also two people who have vigorous, athletic, sizzling sex. No one writes a sex scene like Tessa Bailey. This is a fact of life.
 
If you haven’t read Tessa Bailey, you must. Then you must read another.
 
TNW arbitrary rating: 5 stars.
 
Q: Do you watch any sports? I occasionalllllly watch football, but only enough to pester my husband with questions, like what’s happening and I still don’t understand what a down is (not a question, I know), and also to impress people with the random trivia I know about players (which I learn from Ellen and also tasteful pre-game interviews).