Fix Her Up is a funny, surprisingly steamy romance between a literal clown (she does birthday parties) and her brother's best friend. Georgie's the perpetual pesty little sister and wants to change the town's perception of her. Travis is a former playboy baseball player, back home to lick his wounds after an injury led to his being traded between several teams before being effectively booted out of baseball for good.
On a personal level, I related to Georgie's younger-sibling status in her family. I'm also several years younger than my siblings and it's always been hard to be seen as anything other than the little sister. Did I decide that fake-dating my childhood crush/famous baseball star (known as "Two Bats" for the one on the field and the one in his pants) would fix my rep? No. But let's just go with it for the sake of this story.
Travis's parents divorced when he was young and then used him as a tool in their ongoing fights. His dad is a real piece of work and Travis hasn't spoken to him since he left for baseball fame. Needless to say, coming home is not a pleasant prospect for him, and it's Georgie who shows up at his apartment to throw old food at him to motivate him out of bed. Virginal Georgie's had a crush on him since forever and her trusty vibrator (Dale) knows her fantasies about him quite well.
The cute cover hides some d/s dynamics and steamy as hell scenes, which sometimes felt jarring, like the two of them had this cute relationship with banter and then *wham* let's go straight to real filthy dirty talk. I was a fan, but the book was tonally kind of scattered. Travis has a bit of a jealous streak and Georgie's brother does a lot of that "don't touch my little sister" thing. Travis also calls Georgie "Babygirl" throughout the book, which I hated. This is my mother's name for me and it hit me wrong every single time. Your mileage will obviously vary.
Overall, this was a fun read and I look forward to the rest of the series. The cast is diverse than Bailey's previous books and I didn't see any obvious red flags, so I'm optimistic about the next book, which features a marriage in trouble between two PoC.
Final note - this is a pricier romance, but my library bought it in digital, print, and audio, so check yours! (It's also on Hoopla.)
Suzanne received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher but ended up reading it on audio through her library.
Content Warnings: d/s dynamics, jealous boyfriend, emotionally abusive/neglectful parent, hero is slut-shamed a lot - including gross propositioning at the neighborhood bar and a bet between all the women in town who can get the first date with him (Georgie calls them out on this), alcohol abuse
