Quick Synopsis

Georgie Castle has always been the odd one out in the family, choosing to opt out of the family renovation business. But she is tired of not being taken seriously. When an opportunity to fake date her childhood crush, who happens to be her brother’s best friend and a former professional baseball player, come along, Georgie decides to use the opportunity to show she is an adult.

Publisher’s Synopsis

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…

Book Review

After reading Fangirl Down, I decided to give Tessa Bailey another shot (so long as I was not paying for the book). The library had Fix Her Up available, and I thought an HGTV-inspired romance sounded great. But it seems Tessa Bailey loves problematic stories infused with misogyny and cringey pet names (“baby girl”).

Fix Her Up is a fake dating romance between a former professional baseball player and his best friend’s little sister, who is a party clown. Travis, the former baseball player, must downgrade his playboy status to land a commentating job. Meanwhile, Georgie just wants respect from her family and thinks dating Travis will convince her siblings that she is an adult.

I think it is safe to say that no one is picking up a Tessa Bailey book for the writing. The woman pumps out at least two books per year and surely does not put much thought into the prose. For example, Bailey loves using similes and metaphors that do not objectively make sense. In addition, the nickname of the male protagonist is honestly “two bats” in reference to the size of his *ahem*. You cannot tell me that anyone spent any time dreaming up that nickname, especially considering that one bat would be plenty. Sadly, the writing is just the start of many eyerolls while reading Fix Her Up.

The story starts out with Travis feeling outrageously sorry for himself after retiring from MLB due to an injury. It is both pathetic and infuriating. And he mopes on his couch drinking while the entire town worships him. Gag me. Lucky for him, his biggest fan and best friend’s little sister, Georgie, is determined to cheer him up and take care of a full grown man. Hurray for feminism.

But Travis does not give her a second thought beyond being his friend’s sister and a potential sex object until she gets a makeover. It is amazing how a haircut, a new wardrobe, and interest from another man ignites Bailey’s male protagonists into raging, overprotective assholes who see women as their property. I realize some people find this charming, but I cannot see past its problematic nature.

Georgie is a bit of a sore point for me. She is a 23 year old adult woman who owns and runs a small business. Meanwhile, her two older siblings depend on continuing in the family business for their incomes. Yet, Georgie’s siblings belittle her, discount her opinion, ignore her existence, and think of her as a small child. While Travis also sees Georgie as the kid sister initially, he (supposedly) eventually sees her as a woman in her own right. However, that does not stop him from infantilizing her and sexualizing her simultaneously at the start. Oh, did I mention that she is OF COURSE a virgin? If you thought for a minute Bailey was not going to fetishize virginity, you clearly have not read one of her novels. I raise you the phrase “the first man to claim her mouth.” And yes, the punches keep coming. Travis never stops being weirdly over protective of her like she is a damsel in constant danger and distress.

Now, Tessa Bailey is lauded for her sex scenes and dirty talk, as basically all promotions of her works reference. If you completely turn off your brain and only imagine the actions she describes, I guess I could may be see why. But I am not able to get past the dirty talk and dialogue to glean any enjoyment. Travis actually says, “You’re about to meet your God” in reference to his penis. (He is a walking red flag). And that is just one line. From describing Georgie’s breasts as “little sister tit” to the rest of Bailey’s absurd descriptions, I was gagging or cackling during every “sexy” scene.

While I think there is less outright misogyny in Fix Her Up compared to Fangirl Down, the sexism is still pervasive, and this book is still an insult to womenkind. How Tessa Bailey is somehow finding success writing problematic “romance” novels is beyond me. But I beg women out there to read with a critical eye, even if you want to be swept away. There are so many swoonworthy romance books out there that do not glorify misogyny and the epitome of walking white flags.

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