Book Review: "Fix Her Up" by Tessa Bailey

Wow, I might need some aloe to cool down after the steaminess of this one!!

When she was younger, Georgie Castle was in LOVE with Travis Ford, the handsome best friend of her older brother. Those feelings didn’t diminish when he went to play major league baseball; in fact, she was probably his biggest fan. No one could talk to her during his games, she knew all of his stats, and she even was well-versed on all of the gossip about his exploits.

But when an injury forces his retirement at 28, and he comes back to town to wallow/plan his next steps, he’s not interested in dating any of the women who throw themselves at him (and they even have a competition to see who can land him first). Georgie tries her best to make him feel better but he’s not so interested in his best friend’s kid sister hanging around either. She wants to help him cope with the issues he's dealing with, but it doesn't hurt that he's gotten sexier in the meantime.

However, as Georgie starts to prove she's more than his best friend's little sister, the more he starts to see Georgie as an adult (something no one in her family seems to do), and the more he realizes there’s so much more to her. Suddenly he's finding it hard not to think about her, especially sexually. But he knows her brother will kill him.

When he needs to project a stable, family-friendly image in order to land a commentating job (he once asked out a reporter during a press conference), Georgie suggests they pretend to be dating. This, too, will help her get the respect she needs from her family since they’ll see her as a woman and not a kid, and it may carry over into her professional life, where she's looking to expand her children's party entertainment business into a full-scale operation.

As you might expect, the charade becomes more complicated when they can’t keep their hands off each other. And then feelings get in the way, but before they can deal with that, there’s some baggage that has to be dealt with on both sides. (Not to mention her brother.)

This was a fun, immensely hot rom-com, but it also deals with self-belief, self-esteem, and not letting people interfere with your dreams. Nothing really earth-shattering in terms of the genre (although this may be the first book I’ve read where the female character is a clown for children’s parties) but that doesn’t matter one bit.

I'm super excited for her next book to come out in January, as it will feature characters that played a bit part in Fix Her Up. Tessa Bailey definitely knows how to create sexual tension between her characters, that's for sure!!

Book Review: "The Grand Tour" by Adam O'Fallon Price

Richard Lazar was once a writer with promise. His first novel garnered some acclaim but his subsequent work never quite connected with the public, and quickly disappeared. After two failed marriages and a disastrous relationship with his daughter, Richard finds himself fat, old, and drunk, and living in a trailer in the middle of Arizona.

"The nice part about being young wasn't really being young; it was not being old."

It's as much a surprise to him that his memoir of his time as a soldier in Vietnam has received some of the best reviews of his career. People are suddenly paying attention to him for the first time in his life, and more than that, they want to hear him read. His publisher sends him out on a book tour, although given his penchant for indulging in more than a healthy dose of "liquid courage" before a reading or interview, often with less-than-stellar results.

At a college in Washington, Richard meets Vance Allerby, the awkward young president of the Richard Lazar fan club. (There's currently only one member, but that could change at any time.) Vance's admiration of Richard borders on hero worship, and he is hoping Richard will read the novel Vance has been writing and give him advice, possibly open a few doors for him, so he can stop living with his troubled mother, working a dead-end job, and wondering if he will ever amount to anything. But his meeting Richard, and Richard's behavior during and after his scheduled reading, not to mention the advice he gives Vance, couldn't be further than what Vance had hoped.

To make it up to him, Richard invites Vance to drive him to the rest of the West Coast stops on his book tour. Vance jumps at the chance to spend more time with someone he admires, but he has no idea what he's in for. He doesn't realize that driving Richard means caring for, practically babysitting, Richard, and watching his self-destructive behavior continue declining. Richard never seems to learn his lesson, despite the toll this self-abuse is taking on his health, his relationships, and his literary reputation. But it's possible, too, that Richard isn't the only one in need of rescue.

"In a general sense, Vance felt he'd spent his whole life around adults who acted like children, who needed constant tending to and worrying over, and a glance at the passenger seat didn't help to dispel the feeling that he might easily take on the same role with Richard."

The Grand Tour is an interesting look at two men who couldn't be more different and yet who are strangely the same in many ways. This is a book about coping with lifelong disappointment no matter how long your life has been, and how even when you know what path you need to take to change things, you're often unable or even unwilling to follow it. It's also a book about the relationship between parent and child, both biological and surrogate, and how easy it is to let down those who care about us the most.

Adam O'Fallon Price does a good job in creating these characters who are definitely more than meets the eye, although that doesn't mean they're particularly sympathetic. The book takes a while to build up steam, and in some places reminded me of many other literary or cinematic road trips. After a while, though, the book really becomes a bit of a downer, because the characters never seem to make headway, and you wonder just how much worse Price can make their situations.

While somewhat predictable, Price does throw in a surprise or two. He's a talented writer, and despite their faults, he keeps you interested in his characters, even if you're not sure whether it's an empathetic interest or a can't-look-away-from-the-trainwreck kind of interest.

NetGalley and Doubleday provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Movie Review: "Whiplash"

Whiplash is an intense, fantastic film that asks the question, how far is too far to push someone to harness their talent?

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory of Music in New York City (standing in for Juilliard). He's a talented yet cocky drummer who dreams of being a true great in the jazz world. While practicing one day he is spotted by Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the black-clad hardass who rules the school, and handpicks those he believes to be talented to join his studio band.

But while Fletcher would love to find the next Charlie Parker or Buddy Rich, what he seems to be even better at is terrorizing his students, hurling slurs, curses, even furniture at those who provoke his wrath. (His philosophy is not knowing the answer can be worse than being wrong.) But does he do it because he likes to break these students down, or because he believes this is what separates the truly talented from the pretenders, those who truly want it from those who are lazy and squander their gifts?

Fletcher takes an interest in Andrew, but that interest is tremendously fickle. Andrew is determined to prove himself worthy of Fletcher's faith, even if that means practicing until his hands bleed all over his drums, and closing his emotions and his life to anything but his music. (The scene where Andrew explains to his girlfriend why they shouldn't see each other any longer reminded me a little of John Malkovich's breakup with Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons.) He doesn't have any friends, and his father (Paul Reiser) doesn't quite believe in him, but Andrew only wants to be great.

The road to greatness, however, is a tremendously difficult one, and Fletcher exposes every one of Andrew's vulnerabilities, pushing him to the breaking point. Andrew has to decide whether to try and see if he really is as talented as he believes he is, or if he should simply believe what Fletcher has been telling him, that he just doesn't have it. But what do you do when your single-handed pursuit of a dream doesn't end the way you hope it will?

I've been a huge fan of Miles Teller since he appeared in Rabbit Hole a few years ago, but it was his performance in The Spectacular Now, one of the best movies I saw last year, that truly demonstrated his acting prowess. He is terrific in this movie, simultaneously cocky and desperate for Fletcher's approval. His dogged determination to get the chance to play during a music festival was painful to watch yet utterly mesmerizing.

If all you know J.K. Simmons from are his comic role as the father in Juno or his Farmers' Insurance pitchman responsibilities, you will be utterly bowled over by his performance in this movie. He is a drill sergeant, a bully, a heartless bastard everyone is aching to deck, yet Simmons occasionally lets glimpses of the man's vulnerability break through his a--hole exterior. Simmons has complete command of nearly every scene he is in, even without saying a word. If there is any justice, he will be among the nominees for Best Supporting Actor at this year's Oscars—this is far from a lovable performance, but it is totally riveting.

Running less than two hours, Whiplash puts you through the ringer, but like Andrew and Fletcher's other students, you willingly take it all in. While the plot of the movie may not surprise you, the performances—and the heart—of this movie will wow you. See it.