Review, Excerpt & Giveaway:The Fix Up 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?  

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Excerpt

“Look, Mr. Langley—”

“Ben,” he said.

“Ben.” Slipup number one. Yet another sign she needed to back off. “I have to be honest. This is a little outside the realm of my normal corporate branding work. I typically develop high-level campaigns to influence the public’s perception of a company or a product.”

“In this case, consider me the product. I’m the face of the company, and I need help. I’ve spent the last ten years working my ass off for Langley Enterprises, but my closest colleagues were protons and polymers.”

“I take it the protons and polymers weren’t concerned about your hairstyle?”

“What’s wrong with my hairstyle?”

“Nothing, if you’re into that whole rumpled ‘just got out of bed’ look.”

Which I kinda am.

Holly bit her lip, hoping she hadn’t offended him. Hell, maybe she should offend him. Maybe then he’d hang up himself and she’d be off the hook. “I don’t know that I’d be right for this job,” she said at last. “But if you believe First Impressions is the best PR firm for your needs, I can personally select someone from our staff to work with you.”

A silence followed for several seconds, and she wondered if the line had gone dead. Maybe he really had hung up.

“Someone else?” he said at last. “I was hoping it would be you. At least with you, I know we already work well together.”

Yeah. That was kind of the problem. If that kiss was any indication, they worked a little too well together.

“Besides,” he continued before she could voice another objection. “I reviewed the bios for your whole staff on the website. There’s no one else on your team with the same mix of skills you have in corporate branding, public speaking—”

“Ben, I’m sorry, the situation would simply be too…unusual.”

She let the word hang there between them for a moment, hoping he understood what she was driving at. Then again, even Holly wasn’t sure what she was driving at. Why was is so terrifying to imagine mixing business with a guy she found so attractive?

You know damn well why.

He cleared his throat. “If it’s a matter of money, I can assure you, I’ll pay whatever fee you think is necessary. Triple it if you think the assignment is unusual enough to warrant it.”

She grimaced and tapped her pen on the desk. The money was tempting, but she wasn’t that desperate. Was she? She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. But I’m sure you’ll find a PR firm that’s more suited for your needs. Good luck to you.”

Then she hung up before that sexy voice could talk her into something entirely more dangerous than a job.

Like his bed.

What I thought about The Fix Up

I'll admit that I had a little bit of a struggle getting into this story at first, but Ben and Holly eventually won me over and I got invested in their story.

Holly is a career woman, business owner, and an ex-wife to a husband who saw her as eye-candy.  When she meets Ben, she's extremely attracted to him, but her past history has her very shy about getting involved, not to mention he wants to be her client.  There's a lot of reasons for Holly to not get involved but the attraction between them is strong.

Ben doesn't really want to be in the limelight as CEO, but he takes his position seriously.  He's cute, slightly socially awkward, and the kind of guy who is easy to love, because he's easy to get along with.  He's attracted to Holly and does a lot to convince her to give them a go.

This was a very sweet love story between two established professionals.  I liked that about this story, it does a nice job of showing the trade-offs made for a career. But what really got me interested in this story was the relationship between Ben and Holly.  The conflict ended a little too quickly for me at the end, and that's why I didn't give this another star on the rating.

If you are looking for a sweet contemporary romance, you might want to check this out.  

ARC provided for review.    

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

 

Tawna Fenske is a romantic comedy author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Her offbeat brand of romance has been praised by Booklist as “A tame Carl Hiaasen on cupid juice,” and RT Book Reviews nominated her debut novel for contemporary romance of the year. Tawna is a fourth generation Oregonian who can peel a banana with her toes and who loses an average of 20 pairs of eyeglasses per year. She lives in Bend, Oregon with her husband, step kids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. 

Author Email: tawnafenske@yahoo.com 

Author Website: http://www.tawnafenske.com 

Author Blog: http://tawnafenske.blogspot.com 

Author Twitter: @tawnafenske 

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TawnaFenskeBooks/?fref=ts