I received an electronic advanced reader copy of this book in return for my honest opinion. Thank you to Lauren Forsythe and Little Brown book group for giving me the chance to read The Fixer Upper before it’s release.

Overworked and under appreciated Aly comes to a startling realisation after running into an ex boyfriend; every man she has dated has grown 85% more successful after their short lived relationship. When she and her two friends Eric and Tola come to this realisation they begin a new pursuit out of work ; The Fixer Upper. The group give men the push their partners think they need, be it to step up and be a better dad, or to finally start that new career path.

Soon they’re drawn into the orbit of celebrity Nikki, and are offered life changing amounts to improve her boyfriend on both a work and romantic level. The only catch? Her boyfriend is Dylan- Aly’s ex best friend and the man she had a huge crush on!

This was a fun, quick, childhood friends- enemies-lovers book that also delves into gender discrimination and people “settling”. I loved the way that a large part of this book was Aly realising not only her worth, but the worth of all women; if you have to go out of your way to manipulate and change someone, is it even worth it?

This is for sure one of my new go to clean romance recommendations!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. I really did enjoy this book, although it isn't a five star read for me as I found Nicki unbearable and I found The Fixer Upper program to be a bit manipulative and toxic but I'm glad the characters saw that by the end of the book. Dylan is great, and I really enjoyed his character as well as Priya!

I have mixed feelings about this one. I liked the writing style and the growth and development Aly had especially in relation to letting people in and the evolution of the friendship with Tola and Eric from being work friends to actual proper friends. I liked that Aly learned to stop trying to fix everything and be all things to all people, was brutally honest with her parents and set boundaries with her work. I appreciated that she realised she needed to take better care of herself overall and not just give everything of herself without getting anything back.

The fixer-upper business was an interesting premise for the book but as the story went on felt more and more manipulative. As for the romance, I just was not rooting for the main couple in the way that I should have been. We got almost 90% into the story and Dylan was still with his girlfriend and then when certain things came to light his part in why the relationship with Aly got messed up was glossed over. I acknowledge Aly’s mistakes in what happened but Dylan expected her to be brave about her feelings without being brave himself which did not sit right with me at all. An interesting read but I think some elements could have been handled better (low 3 ⭐️)

'The Fixer Upper' is a shining example of feel-good, feminist fiction. It was a perfect summer read for me, and I particularly enjoyed the shifting focus of the Fixer Upper mission. I loved the premise of this novel from Lauren Forsythe and can't wait to read more of her work.

The Fixer Upper has a great premise, interesting characters and is a fun read. Ideal beach read for your next holiday!

I picked this up because I really related to Aly in the synopsis; problem solver extraordinaire who sets up a secret societal ‘fixer-upper’ service for women who are tired of coaching and mothering their boyfriends. I mean, how appealing does that sound?

“‘Well, we were thinking about starting a business outsourcing female emotional labour,’ Eric told her. ‘Apparently it might be the final puzzle piece in the dismantling of the patriarchy.’”

“These were women who went to therapy and worked with career mentors and ran big companies while setting up side hustles. Women who invested in themselves. And still, they needed to look after their partner. They worried about his happiness, whether he was content, whether he was bonded with his kids, whether he was satisfied in his choices. They left endless Post-it notes and set alarms and wrote on calendars. They ran their shared lives with the efficiency and diligence of an army general. And still, they worried about being a nag–the worst thing a woman could be, after a spinster, of course.”

Except when Aly is contacted by Nicki to fix-up her boyfriend to propose to her, Aly is shocked to see her boyfriend is her first and only love, and childhood best friend Dylan.

Whilst the premise intrigued me massively. The writing was good. Unfortunately, the only characters I liked were the side ones that acted as moral support and had no real bearing on the plot.

I literally got 30% of the way through the story and was already desperate for Aly to redeem herself. It got worse from there. It began to feel like everyone was trying to out-manipulate each other. Aly was trying to manipulate Dylan into marrying Nicki whilst Nicki was manipulating Aly into the scheme for money and Aly needed the money because she’s being manipulated by her parents, meanwhile Dylan is manipulating Aly into getting her to fall in love with him. With Dylan and Aly getting closer on a glamping trip organised by Nicki, I was stressed, needing redemption arcs, and wholly frustrated. The deceitfulness of Aly, Dylan and Nicki overshadowed the good that the other characters bought to the book.

”’Am I, like, some evil power-mad master manipulator or something?’”
Ummmm… Yes.

But on a lighter note, I do enjoy the second chance of love trope that feels like soul mates colliding. The miscommunication trope was slightly more frustrating but still reasonable and got me invested. The feminism theme I was absolutely cheering on.

To summarise, the characters weren’t my cup of tea, but the flower-power writing totally was.

🧚🏻‍♀️

A really amusing read. Aly has all the best intentions, but things don't quite go as planned. This book is so easy to read but covers some interesting topics from friendships to technology, misogyny to fake celebrity. Fascinating

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I adore Lauren and I was so excited to read this book after seeing all the hype on Instagram. I wasn't disappointed.

Although some of the techy/millennial stuff was a bit lost on me, I really enjoyed the heart of the story. The characters were mostly relatable and likeable and the banter was brilliant!

The ending was so much better than I had anticipated! No spoilers here but I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Aly, has never been lucky in love or in her career although she's the one helping everyone else. Her friends decide that she is a "fixer upper", someone who can help other achieves their goals. When she is asked to fix the boyfriend of a well known social media star she gets more than she bargained for!
This is a lovely, easy read that is perfect for the summer.

Really enjoyed this fast paced read!
An enemies to lovers but also childhood friends to lovers too!
I really connected with Aly and her feelings of loneliness and seeing everyone else move on with their lives while she was stuck in the same place.
I felt really proud of her when she stood up for herself and even though she made mistakes, she got there in the end and realised her downfalls!
Overall a good quick read with some funny and relatable secondary characters!

Thank you NetGalley and Piatkus for the ARC in return for an honest review!

I was lucky enough to be accepted for am e-arc of this. This is my first review so let's see how this goes...

This is a funny, fast read. Friends-enimies-lovers which to be honest I've never seen (clearly I've not read enough of this genre).

I found the premises of this intriguing, Aly is a mastermind and know exactly what to do or say to get someone to change their way of thinking about particular subjects. Following this premis the story unfolds.

I loved how the author made Aly into such a lovable goof but also relatable in the sense of a dead end, get nowhere, workaholic. And to see her develop through this book was inspiring.

The author also does a great job of bringing groups of characters together. The fixer uppers and the developers. Unlikely friendships (if you know the truth behind the meeting) that bloom into something beautiful.

I must admit at 1 point I was a little confused as to where this book was going, but for the ending romance you really need to stick it out and you won't be sorry.

An FYI there is mention if s*x but there are no explicit scenes in this book. If this is something you are looking for you will be disappointed. However, personally I think those scenes where not needed for the story arch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Piatkus for this eARC. All thoughts are my own.

Aly works for a PR company and is good at fixing up things. When her work besties notice that her ex-boyfriends all turned out to have a really great life after she helped them, they devise a plan—the Fixer Upper. They'll help men step up to what their women want. However, when Aly and her friends get called by a celebrity to have her boyfriend propose, Aly finds out that the men he has to fix is her ex best friend and her first love, Dylan. At the beginning Aly does it for the money, but when Dylan and Aly clarify what went wrong all these years ago that stopped their friendship, Aly needs to re-evaluate if it's worth losing Dylan for money.

When I read the blurb of this book, it was a no-brainer for me. I had to read it. However, when I started it, I wasn't able to get captured into the story as much as I had anticipated. I felt disconnected from both Aly and Dylan, and I'm not a huge fan of the ending as I believe there are still a few loose ends. What was really good about it though was the growth that Aly goes through. She is basically as a doormat, not willing to stand up for herself, but she learns and she wishes to change for the better, and that was really inspiring.

This was a fun, quick read that got me out of a pretty major slump! The characters were easy to relate to & likeable, the premise was really fun & unique.

If you dislike miscommunication tropes, this is definitely not the book for you, there’s miscommunication literally every other page, be warned!

I found this book to be a very easy, light hearted read.

At first, I didn't love the concept - I thought it was slightly misogynistic, with the idea that women should have to 'fix' men. However, later this became clear that it was the point. When I gave it a chance, I got through it in a matter of a few days.

I actually thought that the story did begin to have a more feminist feel, with it's (maybe slightly depressing) explanation that women are sometimes weighed down by men, in order for men to succeed.

I felt that this book had some powerful messages behind it, if you were willing to look for them - such as sexism in the workplace and how social media can be a toxic influence.

I liked the trope of second chance lovers, however I did miss the moments of tenderness that are typically evident in books such as this.

An all round decent book - 3.5/5,

Thank you NetGalley and the author.

Wasn't one of my favourite reads unfortunately. I really struggled to get into this story although this was partly due to it being a PDF read rather than an actual ebook. Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend this book

3.5 stars rounded up. Aly is a fixer: people, work issues, relationships. When she takes this a step further with her friends and starts setting up elaborate ‘fixes’ for those who ask, it triggers a chain of events leading to her childhood best friend and first love.

First off: as other reviewers have said, this is not really a romance. It’s more women’s fiction with elements of rom-com, because the romance itself is not the central point of the story. For me, Dylan is not a leading man: too flat, too undefined - maybe because we never get his point of view, maybe because I’m comparing him to Aly.

Because this is principally about Aly: her development, her learning from her mistakes. The premise of the story might require rather too much suspension of disbelief, and its execution might be a little too chaotic, but Aly is a character that makes me want to shout at her, cry for her, shake her and cheer her on when she develops a backbone. I might not agree with the way she goes about things (although I don’t actually mind the mis-communication thing too much: many a novel wouldn’t exist without it and goodness knows it happens enough in real life because it really isn’t always easy to “just talk about it”), but a character who elicits that strength of emotion in me doesn’t occur too often.

Overall the author writes well: as well as the creation of Aly, I appreciate her turns of phrase and ear for dialogue, and she takes on some valid and perennial themes (women doing the emotional heavy lifting in a relationship, looking after everyone except yourself, the facade you show to the world). This is an interesting debut that grew on me, and I’d definitely read anything else she writes.

This was a really enjoyable read, for the most part. I really liked the way Lauren Forsythe writes and I also loved her character development. I loved that we got to see so much growth!

Overall I'm glad I picked this up and would recommend this to those looking for an overall lighthearted read.

Thank you to the publisher for kindly providing me with an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the romance between Aly and Dylan. i love these kind of romances. I love friends to lovers stories as well so this was perfect to me. The only thing i didn't like as it's one of my pet peeves is the language used - if i hadn't googled the author i would have assumed it was written by an American author trying to imitate British slang and language with the odd phrase. I hate when American authors try to talk British in books but this was written by a British author so it was strange for it to sound like a book written by an American trying to be British.

Love a good fix men up book and this one was cute, funny, and really enjoyable to read. It was nice to see the fixee find love instead of always being the fixer.