Miss Fix-It

ROMANTIC COMEDY

Title: Miss Fix-It
Author: Emma Hart    
Publication date: 10/31/17
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No

I have to start out by saying that I’m a fan of this author. I LOVED Being Brooke. But sadly, this one just fell a little flat for me.

But while my overall opinion was kind of “meh,” there were a few things that I really enjoyed:

• The idea of a “gender swap” romance where the traditional male/female roles are swapped is a great one. I loved it that Kali was the strong, competent builder and Brantley was a dude who couldn’t put together IKEA furniture. (Not that that’s anything to be ashamed of...that shit is NOT easy to figure out)​

• The banter between Kali and Brantley and the way he good-naturedly teased her, was freakin’ adorable.  
• This was a low angst romance, so it makes for great easy reading. (And y’all know I love me some easy reading)

And now for the stuff that irked me a bit:

• There were a lot of editing errors. Spelling mistakes, tense issues, misused words, time errors (i.e.: for example, Kali mentions a “foot-in-mouth” moment she had yesterday, when in actuality, 3 days had passed since that moment)...it was all a bit much. I’m not a grammar Nazi and usually overlook a few errors with ease, but there were so many here that even I was a little irritated.
• The kid’s phonetic baby talk got to be WAY too much for me. (If I read “Kawi” instead of “Kali” one more time, I was pretty sure I was going to scream) Maybe that makes me a grumpy old lady, but I didn’t find it cute after the first 10 pages or so.
• The name Brantley just made me think of the old Michael J. Fox movie, The Secret of My Success. (If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out. It’s cute and full of funny 1980s-isms that’ll make you nostalgic if you were around back then. If you weren’t around back then, watch it for educational purposes. Consider it a history lesson. But I digress…) So, in my head, every time I read that name, I pictured Michael J. Fox and had trouble seeing him as a sexy, muscley, alpha male hero. (No offense, Michael. Love you, though!)
• Kali strictly adhering to her “no fooling around with clients” policy in Brantley’s case seemed weird to me. What would the consequences be? You own the company, Kali. What are you going to do—fire yourself? This “policy” just struck me as a convenient plot device, which irritates me. It was lazy writing IMHO and the author is better than that.  
• As someone who has painted, re-floored and repaired nearly every room in her house several times over (and as someone who watches lots of HGTV), Kali took an extraordinarily long time to get the kids’ rooms done. Wallpaper removal, paint, flooring and putting together some furniture should have only taken 3-4 days at most. It’s not like anything was getting a serious overhaul. I’d fire her as my contractor if I was Brantley.       

All that said, it certainly wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read. Hell, it’s not even the worst thing I’ve read THIS WEEK. It was mildly entertaining and I finished it, which is huge, considering my reading luck lately. So, for those of you looking for light romantic comedy (and for those of you who don’t mind overlooking a bunch of minor editing errors), this one might be worth a read. But if you’re a grumpy old lady like me, you’ll want to steer clear.  

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
The premise crushes it. But the quality...doesn’t really help matters any, which makes it fall firmly into the “meh” category.

Other reading suggestions
Don’t give up on the author based on my review. I don’t intend to. Try Being Brooke. Or, for another light romantic comedy, try The Foxe and the Hound by RS Grey. You can check out our 5-star review here.

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