The Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe was a book that, while reading, I didn't become lost in the story. I had some high expectations as the blurb sounded interesting, but about 50% through the book started losing the plotline and everything became very smushed together. This was not a cute second chance romance. The way we hear about how he treated the main character made me rethink why he was being given a second chance. Also, the writing style wasn't something I was a big fan of either. It was choppy, and the flow wasn't there. I found myself looking forward to the friendships most, not the romance. Aly and Dylan felt a bit flat at times, and the whole.
"second chance" wasn't the right troupe for this book. I also thought the main idea was somewhat simple, and the author stretched it too much. The plot is that men are broken, and when a woman comes along, she "fixes" them; I was disappointed how much the story skewed away from this and more into a rekindled romance that wasn't it! Also, when reading, you realized that Aly and Dylan are better when they're not together, and everything was just so TOXIC! I would say that if you want you can give this book a go, but it wasn't the greatest.

Thank you to #netgalley and #putnambooks
for this #giftedcopy of The Fixer Upper

This book was sassy, bold, and full of fun! The characters show growth and occasionally tore at my heartstrings! This novel also touches on workplace discrimination which will hopefully, inspire in-depth conversations! Perfect for book club!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! THIS IS THE BLUEPRINT ROMCOM! The characters were hilarious and the dialogue was ON POINT! The idea was not overdone and the way Lauren wrote this book was fantastic, and dare I say, tubular!?! I would read more of this author and would read this book 100 times over.

One day Aly realizes she fixes every man she dates. She decides to use this to her advantage and start a business to fix up by request of their significant other. She gets an opportunity to fix up a man for a well-known influencer. But, the boyfriend of the influencer is no other than Dylan James, her childhood best friend, and first love.

I am a huge fan of second-chance romances, it feels like they’re all I read these days. While I loved the story and the angst in this book, it did not play out the way I wish it would have. I know it was a slow burn, but it was a little too slow for my taste. I wish they would have gotten together sooner and we could have seen more of them together and navigating their new relationship. I thought this was such a good story though, and nothing like anything I’ve ever read! I really enjoyed it!

Thank you Netgalley, Putnam, and Lauren Forsythe for this advanced reader's copy!

The Fixer Upper was a cute second chance Romance. This book features Ally and her super fun group of friends. They start running a fixer upper business and are hired by women to give their significant others the push they need. When they are hired by a social media influencer Ally reconnects with her best friend from the past. This book was a little slow in the first half and did not get really interesting until around 65%. This was a fun and quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam, and Lauren Forsythe for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

The plot of this book sounded so cool, but I wasn't a fan of how it played out.

Ok. So the main storyline of this book is that guys suck until they have a woman come along and "fix them" for their future relationships. I didn't say it, it's literally the main plotline of the story.

This lady, who has had like 12 exes runs into her ex-bf and sees that he's a completely changed for the better man. He's married and has a good career, Yada Yada and he says it's all thanks to her goding him and leaving him.
Actually, all of her exes are now very successful wouldn't ya know.
So, naturally her bffs decide to make a business outta that where they help a woman push their men towards being better for them.

And I just, can't.
It's unbelievable simply put.
I liked the idea enough but it could have worked out better in a different way. Maybe teach these women to either enjoy the man they chose or leave him and find what they are looking for?

I get that's where the author was going eventually with the love interest, but it fell flat.

And speaking of the love interest, yikes. I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole. After hearing about their pasts and how he treated her and also just how immature he seems. I honestly wanted hunter to be the love interest just saying.

I liked the idea of it and I enjoyed The side characters.

Loved this rom-com! This would be great for any Christina Lauren fan. I will be recommending this rom-com to all of my friends!

second chance and childhood friend tropes are promising. aly is an incredibly comforting and refreshing character. i truly admire her realness + foremost opinions about dual personas and self doubts. there’s no question that she isn’t relatable, relationships or not!

on the contrary to being a romance lover, i found myself looking forward to the friendships most. aly and dylan felt a bit flat at times, therefore this may be an underwhelming romance for some.

thanks to penguin group and netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review! The Fixer Upper is a really fun rom-com and I highly enjoyed it! It was a fast read and the author did a great job getting me interested and hanging on! I loved the roller coaster the protagonists relationship went on and I liked that they truly knew each other!

This book was not what I was expecting. I went in for cute fluffy romance and ended up crying over long lost beat friends calling you out on your bullshit.
Her struggles with her mother and finally letting people in. Loved it.

If you've been here a while, you'll know that I'm a sucker for romantic comedies with the enemies to lovers trope. Even better if you have a vibrant group of friends and some forced proximity. But before I dive in, I wanted to thank G.P. Putnam and the author for the advanced copy for review!

Aly was a fun, complicated character. Her relationship with her parents (Mom, really) has had a huge impact on her life and relationships. Aly has coped by becoming the ultimate team player. I'm talking people pleaser to an extreme with an ability to read the motivations/hopes/desires of the people around her. Mostly anyway. She uses this well-honed ability to slowly make her way up the marketing chain and she is so close to attaining it. Her (terrible) manager has been dangling it in front of her for a year. So she a lady with a plan and she has worked herself into the ground trying to attain it only to be shaken by the discovery that she seems to be running on a hamster wheel while her previous paramours have moved on to become successful in whatever form that may be.

I liked this book and I liked Aly and her little vibrant group of friends! I know this is labeled a romantic comedy, but it leans more toward chick lit/women's fiction for me. The main theme of the book is Aly changing and finding her new "why" or purpose. Shifting away from her people pleasing, setting boundaries, and becoming comfortable with herself. This is all great and I love to see it but with a romantic comedy I'm expecting the relationship with the MMC to be front and center. This isn't to say the book isn't funny. There is some fantastic banter between Aly, Eric, and Tola. But the bulk of the story is Aly finding herself and becoming comfortable. Learning to advocate for herself and not bend over backwards to please everyone. She's learning to love and appreciate herself. ALL good stuff. So why just three stars?

I'm just not swooning over the romance even though it has some of the tropes that I would usually enjoy. This is more a: friends that have a big miscommunication (le gasp)-> which leads to ghosting -> which turns them to apparent enemies (?) -> to friends with shit to hide -> to eventual romance but we don't even get to see it! I'm not bitter, you are.

For me, the romance was the weakest part of this book. I knew going in that the MMC was going to be in another relationship for a bit of the book, but once it hit 75% and he was still in that other relationship I started to riot. Aly and Dylan were stronger characters apart than when together.

I didn't particularly like Dylan. There is a point where he mocks Aly for being a people pleaser. That's awfully rich considering his superpower is being a chameleon in relationships; shifting to become what the other person desires. Their miscommunication was an easy fix in the end, but it didn't feel particularly satisfying. Especially with the grand gesture happening right at the end that kicks off the romantic part of the relationship.

The Fixer Upper was an enjoyable debut with some really great, feminist "you can do it" messages that I always enjoy seeing in my romances! I didn't love the romance, but the friendships were solid. Fair warning, there is no steam.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a very cute romance! I enjoyed the main characters and the plot, which felt very original.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was amazing! I was shocked by the amount of real life advice I found. Reading Aly's story felt like I someone saw me and understood me for the first time. Five Wonderful Things is going to be a staple in my life now. This is an absolute must read!

I really enjoyed this novel. I chose to go into this book blindly after only being intrigued by the cute cover and fun, inviting title. Aly was an inspiration, and I found her relatable and realistic. The side characters were also great. This book has HEA which I adore! I binged through this book because after about 20% of the way through, I could not put it down! This was so much more then a typical rom-com, fun and different story!!

Aly has always been fixing something for as long as she could remember. Fixing her parents' relationship, her coworkers' work and even her ex-boyfriends apparently.
After discovering that all of her exs have done better after dating her, she and her friends decides to start the Fixer Upper.
The Fixer Upper is an exclusive underground service for women who are tired of having to do more emotional labor than their significant others.
After a series of successes, they're hired for a famous Instagrammer's boyfriend who ends up being Aly's long lost childhood best friend.
The two of them seems ill-matched to Aly.
Nicki wants to change everything about Dylan meanwhile Dylan doesn't seem to like her anything about her.
As the Fixer Upper job on Dylan goes on, Aly can't help but try to understand and help her old best friend.
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This was such a fun read!

It's a quick read and I liked all the personal growth Aly did.
She was realistic and her issues were relatable.

I also really enjoy her and Dylan's relationship dynamics. Things built-up nicely and their relationship progress didn't feel out of the blue.
When I requested this book from Netgalley, I didn't read the last sentence about Dylan so when I got to the part about Nicki and Dylan, I was a little apprehensive.
I hate it when a relationship starts while another one is on-going, but this novel didn't really do that.
It was made clear since the beginning that they weren't happy with each other and weren't a good match.
It's fairly light and the romance parts of the novel doesn't really start until after Dylan breaks up with Nicki.

I really did enjoy this book and it was a nice read to relax with while I was studying for midterms.
Thank you Putnam Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Two quick thing that I didn't include in my review.
I think you guys should maybe hint at the fact that Dylan's and Nicki's relationship is a little rocky somewhere in the summary. Also there were a few times where some sentences felt weird and off to me.

4.5/5

This one struck a little too close to home with me, I related to Aly soooooooo much. If only I had a guy best friend I could fall in love with. I would have loved to have a little more romance in the book, but I loved the friendships and Aly and Dylan were amazing - I just wanted a little more. It would have been amazing to get a chapter or two of flashbacks to them as teenagers.

This book just didn’t do it for me. I hate to leave less than shining reviews and someone else may love it. But for me I had to force myself to read it and I didn’t like the man getting introduced 25% into the book and pretending not to know or. Or the weird random setup up she and her friends came up with tie randomly fix people’s relationships. Like a version of Failure to Launch. (And I loved that movie). Sorry.

This was definitely a slow burn romance. It took quite awhile to get to the good stuff. I could have done without the first few chapters. In my romcoms I like to get to the meet cute right away without all the build up. I did really enjoy all the friendships within this book, and I was happy with how the book ended! This was a creative and refreshingly new storyline!

The only thing missing was a pov chapter or two from Dylan!

Thank you Putnam for my gifted copy!

Childhood friends to lovers is my absolute favorite trope and I also really enjoy a slow burn - this book completely fit the bill! It took me about 15-20% in to really feel invested, but after that I couldn’t put this one down! I loved the writing style, I the characters were wonderful and realistic, and the plot kept me absolutely captivated. I haven’t read a book quite like this one, so that added to the fun. Definitely a book I want on my shelves and will recommend to all my rom com lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

The romance....well there just didn't seem to be much. I didn't mesh well with the characters and the topic itself was a little odd and cringy at times.

While it wasn't for me I don't discourage anyone from reading this book if you are a rom com fan.