Ok, I both liked and disliked this one.

I enjoyed the premise - a woman learns that she is the reason past boyfriends level up basically and become better versions of themselves. With a couple friends, she starts fixing up other men for their significant others. When she’s hired to fix up a childhood friend, she finds that she is unsure if this work is necessary.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, second chance romance does not always work for me. And this one didn’t. I didn’t buy that Aly and Dylan held onto their feelings for each other for 15 years. And the fact that they hated each other due to a huge misunderstanding then we’re just able to let it all go… I just couldn’t really buy it.

And I simultaneously felt for Aly and also wanted to shake her. She was so focus on controlling/fixing everything but didn’t see that it’s not possible. Basically I wanted to tell her she needed therapy to address things.

Despite the things I didn’t love, I was still engaged and invested. I wanted to see how things unfolded. And one of the things I enjoyed was Amy’s relationship with her friends, Eric and Tola.

Let me start off by saying I generally enjoyed this book as a whole. It was sweet, believable and relatable. But I feel like that spark of something special was missing for me.

Aly is always trying to be helpful, to fix things for others. There’s a lot of people who depend on her which is nice, but she clearly has a lack of boundaries. For the most part, people in her life are draining her and she’s not getting anywhere while they are. Sound familiar? I know I can relate.

The other miss for me was that it was billed as a romcom and I can’t remember any points at which I laughed or smiled. I sure was rooting for Aly to get it together and have a breakthrough though.

Overall, it felt like your standard contemporary romance to me. It wasn’t unpleasant to read, but it also didn’t stand out.

Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. The review expresses my own personal opinions.

I absolutely adored this book from beginning to end. It was so cute and I just found myself continuously wanting more. Highly recommend picking up a copy of this

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Man, I did not like this. The TL;DR is that our MC has "fixed" every guy she's dated, so she and her friends start offering her services around. She reunites with "the one who got away" in this manner, as he's stalled in life.

The problem with this premise? Its attitude towards men as helpless babies who only have any success in life because of the "unpaid emotional labor" put in by their girlfriends. Because apparently in this world good dudes and shitty ladies don't exist.

Now, the character arc includes the MC coming to the realization that you shouldn't need to "fix" the people in your life, but my dislike of her was so strong by then I just didn't care.

Giving 2 stars because the writing was fine.

I LOVED this book. It was a quick and easy read. I loved the banter. I loved the friendship. And of course... I loved the love story.

You kind of have an idea of how it will end by the 3rd chapter. There's really no secrets. No surprises to make you question your life choices. No smut. Don't worry... There is tons of emotion and drama to take the place of smut.

A happy ending. Friends to enemies to lovers.

Aly is a fixer. Without even realizing it, she has always been the one to try and fix her parent's marriage, colleagues' work, and her boyfriends. Turns out, she's really good at it. So good, that her work friends have convinced Aly to start a business that helps women "fix" their significant others. Things seem to be going great until Aly is hired to fix what turns out to be her child-hood best friend and her first crush. Fixer Upper is a great romance with just enough humor, conflict, and miscommunication to keep you wanting to turn the page.

Thank you to Putnam for the gifted copy of this ARC.

Aly is in the business of fixing people up - namely, men who need to kick it into gear in some aspect of their life to get to the place their girlfriends or wives need them to be. When Aly's next client is a high-paying social media influencer, she's EXCITED... until she finds out the guy she's supposed to fix up is her childhood best friend and love.

It took me awhile to get into The Fixer Upper - about 30%. Aly isn't the most likable character because, as her friends say, she is a "master manipulator" as she fixes those around her. I did really appreciate her character growth by the end, though, and her modern woman energy throughout the book. The friends (Ben!!, Eric, and Tola) were the best part for me. I love how they pushed Aly to be more authentic and vulnerable and to stand up for herself. The social media influencer, Nicki, was the WORST. Honestly, she was way more manipulative than Aly! Dylan, the love interest, grew on me by the end, but he definitely crossed some lines in the middle of the book while he was with Nicki. Overall, I really liked how this book had narratives on not letting people walk all over you, opening up and being vulnerable instead of trying to control everything, and communicating with honesty. This was a really solid debut from Lauren Forsythe and I am definitely interested in seeing what she writes next!

Failure to Launch in book form. This book is exactly like that movie. I adored the movie and adored this book just as much. It was a sweet, adorable clean rom com perfect for summer beach reads

A cute and easily readable rom-com, but felt a little rushed at the end. For me, I felt like I needed higher stakes, or more of a climactic disaster moment - instead, it fell a little flat with things working out too easily for the characters. Still an enjoyable read!

loved this book! the romance in the office after reading so many thrillers was so cute and I loved it!! Nice change after reading thrillers and it was soooo good!

This book is such a fun, quick read! Aly is really good at fixing things for other people, but it can often mean putting the needs and wants of others instead of her own. Aly grows so much over the course of this book as she reconciles with what being a fixer means for her professional and personal life. Dylan and Aly were best friends growing up, but some unfortunate events made it so that they haven't seen each other since they were teens. Aly has been tasked by a reality star, Nikki, to do her "fixer upper" work on Dylan to get him to propose to Nikki by the end of the month. I really love both Dylan and Aly. They are both going through their own troubles, but are also so selfless and really want what is best for everyone around them. The supporting characters were also really great, making it such a fun read! Overall, I highly recommend picking this book up!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded interesting to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

I can't remember the last time a book, especially a rom-com, resonated quite so much as "The Fixer Upper." This book had a slow start for me but it was absolutely worth powering through. As soon as Aly and Dylan reconnected, I was hooked (at about a quarter of the way through). In some ways, this rom-com is unlike any romance I've ever read before. It's a bit bittersweet, it's feminist. It doesn't follow the traditional romance arc while still having some wonderful tropes. And it is all the better for it.

I have a hard time imagining any millennial woman not being able to relate to this book on some level, hetero or not. We have a long, long, way to go in terms of equality, and reading this book was a validating balm to my heart.

This book had some fabulous lines, witty dialogue, and wonderful relationships across the side characters, coworkers, friends, and family. I really adored everything about this one. Highly recommend for fans of Beth O'Leery, Alexa Martin, Alyssa Rae, Meg Cabot, and contemporary rom-coms. Thank you so much to NetGally and Penguin/Putnnam for providing me an e-galley of this fantastic book. I cannot wait to see what Lauren Forsythe does next.

this was sweet! twas an arc so as always, no spoilers. have you ever read a book and thought about how fantastic of a movie it would make? this is how i feel about this book. it had such a sweet message and such an original premise. i love a romcom main character that you’re not necessarily rooting for even when there is a clear villain. FINISH overall this was such a fun and quick read, i finished it in an afternoon, def would recommend!

SPOILERS FOR NETGALLEY:
i just wish there had been an epilogue!! i would have liked to see what exactly tola and aly did with fixer upper and how they changed both fixer upper and aly’s public image in order to do so! i loved david and aly’s relationship and it was so sweet to see them finally work out years of miscommunication and regret. loved it all :)

In this story we meet Aly who realizes that all of the men she has dated have gone on to do bigger and better things since dating her, some of which even credit Aly herself for their change. Reeling from this revelation Aly and her friends go about testing to see if Aly is able to “fix up” other people’s relationships too. It’s all going great until someone asks Aly for help “fixing up” their boyfriend Dylan... who just happens to be Aly’s childhood best friend and first love... I think we all know what happens next.
This was a really good book! The only thing is- if you are looking for a book that is super romancey this is not it. Think Mariana Zapata style slow burn in the sense that our hero is dating a different girl for almost 90% of the book. It’s more so about self discovery than the actual romance. I also would have really loved an epilogue where we can see a little more into the future of their relationship, since we don’t get to see too much of it in the actual book. Overall it was good and a fast read. 4.5 ⭐️

Contemporary romances have been a very crowded field this year, this wasn't title that blew me out of the water but I liked it.

This was just okay. Not my favorite book. It had a lot going for it but it just fell short. It felt a bit rushed and silly in all the wrong ways.

This was a quick and enjoyable read for me! The main character's development was on point and the story line was unique.

This is a banter filled rom-com. Although i feel that this book didn’t personally jive with me as a reader, I undoubtedly know that it’ll hit the spot for others.

The trope is friends to love to strangers back to lovers. An intriguing trope intensified by the MC’s job and ethical boundaries. The premise of the relationship indicated cheating and that’s a no go for me.

The character development and writing style were great. Secondary characters were active within the entire novel and were also fully developed.

I had preordered this book before finding it on Netgalley. I LOVED the cover and my obsession with HGTV drew me to the title. I was SO excited to be able to dive in and read before my copy comes in from Barnes and Noble. This was not a home/remodeling book like I had expected but i loved it so much! It was such a fun concept for a rom com. Aly is such a relatable character and I really related to her and her quirks. The second chance romance pulled at my heart strings and I ended up flying through this is one day!