A review by witcheep
Mr. Fixer Upper by Lucy Score

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this book if you want to see an evasively grumpy man and an icy professional woman, just to have them both soon revealed to be something – not different, but instead – more, imperfect and well-rounded human beings stumbling into a situationship together.

Said situationship shows both the FMC Paige and the MMC Gannon that they have potential for so much more together, but they have different approaches to this revelation:
Gannon is locked on getting a lasting relationship out of this, whereas Paige tries to build up walls and take space to protect herself from potential hurt
.

Paige's approach frustrates me so much, and while reading I just wanted to grab her by shoulders so many times to shake her up and shout her to just get out of her own mind and have an actual talk with Gannon about her worries, and not to refuse to listen and work up solutions (mis-/noncommunication tropes are heavy here). Gannon is the one doing the
heavy lifting in this relationship, working for it
, yet Paige makes it seem like he has something to prove. Paige might be a little toxic in the way her insecurities make her act outside of professional settings, but I'm glad that she
at long last realizes her shortcomings and tries to come around
.

"Make me a list, and I'll fix or remove every single obstacle."
– Gannon

The plot around reality tv production irks me on-and-off in this book. On one hand, the main character and some others call out unjust, money-hungry, and sexist ways the the reality tv industry might have, but on the other hand, they also personify a lot of those issues on themselves and other characters (which is not great). This personification happens by internalizing the issues (
this is a huge obstacle for the romantic relationship
) as well as having a dedicated "clingy bitch" character who doesn't seem to do anything but cause harm by being toxic.

If an author wants to comment on an issue in an industry, they should be consistent, and also offer up a fix for it. The way the plot personifies these wider industrial issues feels just cheap. As Gannon puts it in a similar context:

"I think you'd be doing a disservice to your audience if you only show them how to identify a problem, not solve it."
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