Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #476862 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Relationship PSTD - can it be fixed?
It's rare that a romance novel actually tries to touch on relationship post traumatic stress disorder. Seriously, once you're in your thirties, you tend to arrive at that age with a lot of trauma from past relationships, whether you're aware of it or not. This book is about two people who love each other enough to try and work through their individual PSTDs - and are literally in danger of failing. For real.

Khela Halliday is a fraud: she's a successful romance writer who doesn't believe the product that she's peddling to her target audience. That opinion has served her fine for the past decade, but now that she's been nominated for a prestigious award, Khela needs to accept it - with a man at her side.

With this in mind, Khela asks Carter Radcliffe- her building super- to be her date to the ball. It works for her, because he's handsome enough to keep the façade alive. Carter has his own issues re: relationships, since he's always been courted based on his looks, and not personality, and for him it's gotten real old, real quick.

The story is around our erstwhile characters taking on the issues, and managing in their own way. Most of the time, it's messy, and due to their own individual hangups. This book actually shows that love can be hard, which is an odd thing to find in a penny dreadful, and somewhat refreshing.

What works for this book is the narrative in that the writer's voice is strong, and Khela and Carter actually have chemistry. It helps that you can actually see what each character likes in the other: Carter thinks that Khela is fun and quirky, yet prickly. Khela likes Carter's comfort with himself, and his ease, although he's prickly too.

Another thing that I liked about the book were the strong background characters. They weren't just there like the blandly attractive backdrop of Ikea furniture, but actually interacting and challenging the protagonists; being sympathetic yet calling them on their BS at the same time.

The only thing that I found with the story was that it 'sagged' midway, when the characters were apart and groping towards each other. I guess that might have been the narrative licence, in that if the book had been tighter, their rapprochement would have seemed too rushed.

Overall, it is a good read, and I was rooting for them both. Bless.

Simply delightful
I admit a bias for Crystal Hubbard's books. She had me at Crush, and she keeps me with Mr. Fix-It. This book is more compact than her previous books Crush, Blame It On Paradise and Always You (her best AA romance) but it has all the ingredients I like in a romance: complex characters whose motivations aren't immediately apparent, secondary characters that hold my interest, and love scenes that leave me fanning myself. The story takes place in one of Hubbard's favorite settings, the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr. Fix-It is about a lonely romance novelist named Khela who thinks men, like her ex, love her for her money more than for herself. Carter Radcliffe, the maintenance man of her apartment building, is a happy-go-lucky guy whose good looks have given him an edge in life. Khela and Carter want the same thing, someone who'll love them for who they are, not what they have or what they look like. They passing attraction they've had for each other for a few years is full blown when Khela invites Carter to an awards dinner because she thinks she needs to have a date that completes the image she thinks other writers and fans have of her.

There are some real funny bits in this book, like when Khela meets eccentric aspiring writers at a convention, she makes a very unusual cake for a charity auction, her interactions with a cashier at her neighborhood market, and her best friend's reaction to an unexpected pregnancy in a bridal shop. There are very poignant moments, like when Khela tells Carter about her father, who is incarcerated, and her mother, who died from a drug overdose. I also liked the part when she shows her faith in a high schooler with a secret aspiration to be a writer.

Ms. Hubbard, I wish you a speedy and full recovery and all the best because I want you to write more books!

dull, dull, dull
This book is so dull and boring, I am actually writing a review to warn readers, if you want to waste your money buy it, if you don't avoid it. It is not as good as 'Crush'. I was sorely disappointed in this book. It is supposed to be a 'romance'. The female character is a romance writer, who writes steamy romance novels so that her readers can enjoy and find some escapism, well she should have taken some ideas from her character because this book lacked escapism, I wanted to hide it away, I only continued reading it because I spent my hard earned money on it! To be fair it is not all bad, the male character is lovely, the book itself is well written it just lacked sparkle, passion and yes well alot of romance. It would have been good if the love scenes she wrote were more descriptive, they were very tamed. I did not see a point to this story, the female character was standoffish, snobby and quite frankly not very romantic. There wasn't any real substance to this book. Normally when I finish reading a book I feel good and think wow what a fantasic book. However,with this I felt what a waste of my time. I think in future I will be very hesitant in buying any more of her work.