Fix Her Up & Love Her Or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey | Reviews

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

“Fix Her Up ticks all my romance boxes. Not only is it hilarious, it’s sweet, endearing, heartwarming and downright sexy. It’s a recipe for the perfect love story.” â€“ Helena Hunting, New York Times bestselling author of Meet Cute
A steamy, hilarious new romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey, perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Sally Thorne!
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...

I know it sounds cliche but the illustrated romance covers have really caught my attention. Seeing the cover for Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey immediately made me want to read it. The cover is purple and quite eye catching. Plus, we have the whole renovation aspect and really this book just had my must read it attention. I finally picked it up off my TBR cart in November. Ultimately, Fix Her Up was okay – enough for me to read on to the second book in the Hot & Hammered series.

Georgette Castle’s family business is renovations. They flip houses, stage houses and do contracting. As it turns out though, Georgette “Georgie” the youngest of the family does not care one whit for the family business. Instead, she is a children’s entertainer — a clown. And she is working on getting her business off the ground. As she’s been so focused on her own business, she hasn’t really had time for love. In fact, she only has ever had eyes for her older brother’s best friend – Travis Ford. Travis is back in town after leaving the pro baseball team he was on and he is working for Georgie’s brother.

As it turns out, Travis has a bit of a reputation for being a player on and off the field. He is now hoping to get a new job as a stadium announcer. Travis needs to clean up his reputation and prove that he is family friendly. The most family friendly person he knows is Georgie. And so, the two embark on fake dating that eventually becomes real.

So, Fix Her Up was a quick read at least. However, I just felt really awkward while reading this book. I guess it made me feel kind of like a prude. This book is very bold with its adult scenes. Which is fine, and I thought I was down with. However, it’s just not for me at this point. There’s a lot of dirty talk and Travis is very much an alpha male. At one point though, there’s a scene where they’re in a public baseball field, I think at the school, and just can’t resist and I was like — THAT IS WHERE CHILDREN PLAY YOU OWN A HOUSE and eh. However, I thought this was okay enough to read Love Her Or Lose Her.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Named one of the Best Romances of 2020 by Insider and Oprah Magazine's + Marie Claire's Best New Books of 2020
New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey returns with a unique, sexy romantic comedy about a young married couple whose rocky relationship needs a serious renovation...
Rosie and Dominic Vega are the perfect couple: high school sweethearts, best friends, madly in love. Well, they used to be anyway. Now Rosie's lucky to get a caveman grunt from the ex-soldier every time she walks in the door. Dom is faithful and a great provider, but the man she fell in love with ten years ago is nowhere to be found. When her girlfriends encourage Rosie to demand more out of life and pursue her dream of opening a restaurant, she decides to demand more out of love, too. Three words: marriage boot camp.
Never in a million years did Rosie believe her stoic, too-manly-to-emote husband would actually agree to relationship rehab with a weed-smoking hippie. Dom talking about feelings? Sitting on pillows? Communing with nature? Learning love languages? Nope. But to her surprise, he's all in, and it forces her to admit her own role in their cracked foundation. As they complete one ridiculous--yet surprisingly helpful--assignment after another, their remodeled relationship gets stronger than ever. Except just as they're getting back on track, Rosie discovers Dom has a secret... and it could demolish everything.
"Her voice feels as fresh and contemporary as a Netflix rom-com." --Entertainment Weekly

Love Her Or Lose Her is the second in Tessa Bailey’s Hot & Hammered series. I decided to give this book a chance even though I wasn’t super keen on Fix Her Up. You see, I was suckered in again by the illustrated cover. Plus, the concept is one I like – which is a second chance at a marriage that is failing. It seemed like this would be a good end of month pick me up kind of read.

Love Her Or Lose Her follows Rosie and Dominic Vega. The two have been a couple since middle school. They used to be best friends and so connected and close. However, now they don’t really talk and just kind of exist and orbit each other. Rosie is fed up and has had enough. So, she leaves Dominic. With the support of the Just Us League, she begins to make moves towards achieving her dream of opening a restaurant. Dominic is adrift without Rosie and will do anything to get her back. In fact, he agrees to go to couples counseling with Rosie. She’s chosen the most hippie counselor she could find. Dominic is all in and Rosie learns that maybe she has a role to play with their marital troubles as well.

Well, I think this is the last I’ll read of the Hot & Hammered series. It isn’t that this book was bad, it wasn’t. However, I am just not invested enough to continue on. Granted, I didn’t have the third book on my shelf, but I do not feel compelled to seek it out. Dominic is just super alpha and it kind of blinds him a little bit to Rosie’s needs. The adult scenes continue to be a little bit much. I would have rather read about them working out their issues without every single scene being so sexually charged. On the other hand, I did like how much this book delved into the love languages, as to me, it is something that I do really believe in. Overall, Love Her Or Lose Her wasn’t terrible but I also wasn’t too upset about accidentally kicking it into the bathtub. Also, the two main characters are of color and as far as I can tell, the author is white, and IDK, that just seemed a bit weird to read now in this day and age.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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