Review: Not your typical Tessa Bailey novel - you really need to enjoy New Adult in first-person-present tense POV to love this one
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2014
Not every book by an author is right for a reader, even if you think you're a superfan.  Here's why...I straight up salivate over Tessa Bailey's Line of Duty series - all those buff, commanding, confident men in uniform with their demanding bedroom personas and the flash-fire sparks of lust practically shimmering of the pages... mmm, sexy! Going into Unfixable, I expected more of the same and was REALLY looking forward to it. This book, however, reads and feels vastly different from the stories in that series, so much so that I actually looked it up to make sure the author was indeed the same Tessa Bailey.For starters, Unfixable is told in first person present tense rather than the traditional third person past. This is a writing style that evokes very strong reactions in me, most of them on the not-so-positive end of the spectrum, unfortunately. The main character, Willa, has a very negative perception of herself and I find it tough to be in the headspace of someone like that, especially in the first person POV.  Sure, she has some entertaining snark and humor (usually self-deprecating, or used to redirect an uncomfortable conversation path), but her general outlook on life is that she's broken and doesn't want to be fixed. Despite the charisma and mystique of her love interest, sexy Irish boy Shane, I had a hard time enjoying the storyline with all the negativity floating around in her/my head.Race car driver Shane is closer to Ms. Bailey's other heroes than Willa is to the other heroines and has that brooding, mysterious, smokin' hot bad boy attitude, so I did grow to like him and appreciated the emotional weight of his back story. Their chemistry is intense and well-written and the supporting characters are all memorable and unique. That said, and even though they were 'memorable and unique', I disliked some (most) of the supporting characters.  Perhaps it was the neediness of Shane's mother or the duplicitous nature of his sister's new boyfriend (who is first introduced as a pick-pocket preying on tourists) or even the over-the-top energy and changing moods of his sister.  All this, combined with the angsty personality of the heroine, just really put me off.Even so, there is a subtle undercurrent of humor in Unfixable, which made for some great laugh-out-loud moments and helped balance the heavier atmosphere of the story itself. Overall this was a good read with a turbulent story arc that fans of tightly focused first person romantic narratives will probably enjoy. The end was a whirlwind of breathless romance and wraps up tidily just when you think all may be lost (kind of reminded me of that scene at the end of Twilight New Moon where Bella is running toward Edward to keep him from throwing his life away. Hey don't hate, Twilight has its moments too!).  Personally, I can't get past the first person present writing style and the angsty personality of the heroine to want to re-read Unfixable or any potential other books in this series, but it ended well and had a good emotional arc so I'm glad I gave it a shot.  I actually had to let this review sit for nearly a month before I could separate myself enough from the disappointment and negativity I felt about it. There are a lot of readers out there who loved Unfixable, but I am not one of them. (This makes me very sad because I honestly wanted to love this. We named as Tessa one our GraveTells 2013 Debut Authors of the Year!)Lesson learned? The New Adult genre and first person present tense point of view are just not for me, no matter how much I like the author.