The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Also by this author: Little White Lies, The Lovely and the Lost
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA on July 7th 2015
Genres: Family, General, Law & Crime, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Siblings, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.
And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess's classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.
Perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars and Heist Society, readers will be clamoring for this compelling teen drama with a political twist.
I sped through The Fixer in less than a day… one of my challenges for myself this last part of the year is to read 6 books that have been on my shelf for way too long. This fell in that category. I’d heard how wonderful they were so mostly the delay in reading was just time related.  Now I’m just kicking myself that I waited so long. After devouring The Fixer, I grabbed The Long Game and now I’m a huge mess of feelings.
You know what the first sign of a good book is for me? I finished this series 24 hours ago and I’m still thinking about it. I believe the main reason I’m still thinking about it is because I feel like I still don’t have all the answers I want. That’s certainly isn’t to say that the story doesn’t wrap up nicely (because word on the street is that there will never be a 3rd book), it’s just to say that my heart is cracked in pieces and sneaky people are sneaky and OMG just give me more!
So… spoilers abound after this line so I’m warning you, if you haven’t yet read these books (WHICH YOU SHOULD) then don’t read ahead.
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Barnes did an amazing job of creating a story filled with political intrigue, betrayal, suspense and friendship that I just don’t know what to do with myself now that it’s over. I loved Tess. I loved Bodie. I loved Adam. I loved Vivvie. I loved Asher. I loved Henry…. And I even loved Ivy.
I’m just going to be straight, I figured out the twist between Ivy and Tess in the first book pretty early on, so I wasn’t surprised about that. It didn’t affect my feelings about the book, it just meant that wasn’t a huge twist for me. Do I understand Ivy’s motivations? Sure. Do I understand Tess’s frustration and feelings of betrayal… definitely. So I’m glad that Barnes didn’t just sweep that under the rug and say well, this issue is resolved now, because that certainly isn’t how I would feel, so I’m happy that this was still something that they were both dealing with in the second book.
The politics you guys… all the moving pieces and the drama were just exactly what I wanted. I will say this… Barnes does not hold back on the violence that Tess witnesses so I hope that girl ended up with a good therapist in the end. BUT – none of what happens in this book seems so far-fetched, especially in the world we’re living in today.
The one twist I wasn’t expecting… Henry. My heart, my heart, my heart. I am seriously confused about how I am supposed to feel and the way that this story ended is crushing my soul because I feel like Tess and Henry’s story isn’t done yet. I feel like there has to be more. Again, not because the story doesn’t resolve in a way that works, but more because does taking a bullet for someone release you from the guilt you should feel over things you have done… does no forgiveness actually end what was building between two characters? Honestly, I feel like I know the answer after having gotten to know Tess, but my heart wants something so so different even though I know how it went down was exactly how it should be.
My immediate comparison while reading this series was to that of AKA and Going Rogue by Robin Benway… though this is a bit LESS fluffy. A lot of shit goes down you guys, but the overall feel of it was similar to me… a suspense filled YA with intriguing and amazing characters and just an overall engrossing and fun read. If you haven’t picked these books up yet, I highly suggest you do and then come back and chat with me about EVERYTHING.
Seriously though… maybe I can pay Jennifer Lynn Barnes to write me some futuretakes? Anyone want to kick in? Now excuse me while I go get the rest of her backlist off my shelves.
About Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado. She's been writing for as long as she can remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a "practice book" and which none of you will ever see) when she was still in high school, and then wrote Golden the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen.
Jen graduated high school in 2002, and from Yale University with a degree in cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought) in May of 2006. She'll be spending the 2006-2007 school year abroad, doing autism research at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
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