Review: The Fix Up (First Impressions #1) by Tawna Fenske

Uncovering this sexy geek's charm is easy. Keeping her hands off of him is impossible.

While he may look like the love child of a movie starlet and an NFL linebacker, Ben Langley has the people skills of a half-drowned porcupine. Why socialize when there are chemistry labs and bad sci-fi flicks? If he has any hope of taking the helm as CEO of the family business, Ben needs an image makeover. Pronto.

Enter Holly Colvin, owner of First Impressions public relations and branding firm, and the woman who just saved Ben from the clutches of an over-attentive sales clerk. Holly's rebranded hundreds of companies in her career, but she's never rebranded a person. The guy clearly needs help, though, and she's just the woman for the job.

With the clock ticking for them both, Holly and Ben face off over wardrobe malfunctions and business jargon that sounds a lot sexier than it should. But can Holly make Ben into the man he thinks he should be without losing the man she's starting to love? ~ Goodreads


Source: ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Review:

I’ve always enjoyed Fenske’s romances. They’re on the lighter side with plenty of humor thrown in. The Fix Up was another fun read and nice start to the new First Impressions series.

Ben is the brains behind Langley Industries, working in the chemistry lab, until his father pushes him into the CEO role of the family business. Unfortunately, Ben’s nerdy, shy side isn’t compatible with his father’s sexist, alpha, schmoozing style of doing business.

Ben hires Holly, owner of PR branding firm, First Impressions, to bolster his leadership skills for a big presentation that will prove Ben is ready to take over his father’s position as CEA.

Sparks fly, geek foreplay ensues, as Ben and Holly try (& mostly fail) to keep their relationship professional. Holly, more than Ben, tries to resist after a disastrous marriage to a controlling man who wanted her to stay home, be his trophy wife and make babies and has left her in danger of losing her company.

The main conflict is Holly’s fear of turning Ben into the alpha man that she’s trying to steer clear of. To be honest, I couldn’t see how Ben was even remotely alpha. I understood her hesitation in general, but teaching Ben public speaking skills or how to make eye contact while speaking are just general business skills – hardly the mark of an alpha man out to control your life.

Most of Holly’s hesitance due to her past experiences was explained and resolved on her own without any big talk with Ben which felt kind of odd and Fenske could have cut down on about 1/2 of the double entendres and there still would have been too many.

But meh – minor quibble to an otherwise cute romance with a nice hero. Yay for nice heroes!