The Christmas Fix

First of the Christmas romcoms. Loved it. Lucy Score is the queen of this genre. 9/10

“The Christmas Fix” by Lucy Score is an enemies-to-lovers, small town romance. Despite being labeled on her website as a standalone book, “The Christmas Fix” is the second in the Fixer/King’s Construction series. While Gannon and Paige are sprinkled throughout the text, this novel focuses on Catalina “Cat” and her reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the devastation a hurricane wrought on Merry, Connecticut. Unbeknownst to her team, Cat travels to Merry during the storm and, with the help of a local, uses a small boat to travel through the flooded streets to help rescue the townsfolk. She joins up with a stranger to help a local wheelchair-bound woman. During their rescue attempts, the stranger is caught in the flood waters. With all of her strength, Cat helps to pull the man to safety and flees the town to return home shortly afterward. Days later, Catalina contacts the town mayor to request town admittance for her construction and TV crews, in order to participate in disaster relief. Noah Yates despises Catalina for a fight she initiated during her last renovation in Merry. The residents still talk about the bar fight. Noah doesn’t want a TV star diva waltzing in and capitalizing on Merry’s devastation. Cat, determined to win any fight, bulldozes her way into the town, strong-arming Noah, and forcing his hand to accept her offer. It just so happens that Cat’s offer to renovate the town in time for the annual Christmas Festival comes with a hefty budget and a massive crew. Noah is a single, overprotective dad. He wants to protect his daughter, Sara, from idolizing a life of glamor and makes decisions for his daughter without her best interests in mind. Noah’s pride and self-doubt are believable. His character is flawed and his passion and priority to the town are evident throughout the novel. Despite his anti-feminist views, his initial disapproval of TV star Cat is understandable. Noah’s character makes assumptions first and then asks questions. His character isn’t blameless and he does have a slow, redemption arc towards the end of the novel. There are several red flags with his character, especially his controlling tendencies, but I honestly enjoyed how ignorant and damaged his character is. Early on, the reader understands through Cat’s observations (if not before that with the context clues) that Cat was the savior on the day of the hurricane and the stranger she saved was Noah. It is only later in the novel that Noah realizes this when he sees Cat’s tattoo. I would have really enjoyed this storyline more if it was the focal point of the novel and not a side portion that doesn’t amount to anything more than a paragraph. Both characters suffer from PTSD from the stor; Noah more so with his near-drowning. It would have been great if Score had written the revelation later in the novel with both of them understanding the significance of that moment, but Cat just shrugs that information off and so does Noah. Having lived in Florida for over twenty-five years with my fair share of hurricane experiences, the story of destruction wasn’t emotional or vivid. The town isn’t described in enough detail and the loss isn’t heart-wrenching. While Score’s focus on making this a light-hearted, surface-level read succeeds, it fails every portion that tries to evoke any sadness or sympathy and the reader has no cares of what happens to the town and its festival. This was republished with a newer cover in time for Christmas, yet the grammatical errors and spelling errors were still prevalent throughout. Basic capitalization of names was the most laughable offense. Page 244 cat is spelt without capitalization Overall, it was an okay read for my December Romance book club. I certainly liked it more than “Maggie Moves on”, which is also another construction romance novel, and it was better than its predecessor “Mr. Fixer Upper.” If readers enjoy HGTV home makeover with some sex scenes sprinkled throughout, then this is a novel for them. I just wanted more. First sex scene chapter 49 page 214

Was this book life changing? No. Did I binge it in a day? Yes. 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is read sometimes at the middle of January, I absolutely love how lucy writes so this book fits perfectly with me, I wasn’t hooked on the love story. It felt like every other love story out there.

Remodel/Reno TV Star meets grumpy city manager. City manager hates her, she is diabolical. The banter is **chef's kiss** and the tension builds perfectly. This was such a cute seasonal read <3