Fix You by Beck Anderson Published by Simon and Schuster on March 3rd 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Women, Fiction, General, Romance, Suspense, Thrillers
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
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In this modern-day Cinderella story with a charming twist, a young widow with two rambunctious sons falls for a gorgeous movie star. But can she handle life in the limelight?When Kelly Reynolds’s husband died two years ago, he left her to raise their two young boys. She’s barely pieced herself back together and takes refuge in her routine, running her kids around town and running the trails near their Idaho home.A chance encounter on a trail run brings famous actor Andy Pettigrew into her life. He’s clearly interested in her, but Kelly hates risk, and a love affair with Andrew is certainly tempting fate. She doesn’t fit into his Hollywood world. She doesn’t own a pair of Louboutins, and she couldn’t walk five steps in them if she did. Andrew oozes cool. She reeks of dork.Despite this, they click. But Andrew struggles with the pressures of his fame, and Kelly’s hold on a so-called normal life is already tenuous. So as much as she wants to indulge the fantasy, she doesn’t know how either of them is supposed to cope with stalkerazzi and tweet-happy fans with camera phones. Especially when she and Andrew both have secrets that seem impossible to keep…
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How much do you believe in luck? What are the chances Kelly Reynolds would be out running and have a meltdown at the exact moment when a famous film star would be passing by? And what are the chances Mr. Hotness, Andy Pedigrew, would literally run across a woman who is so connected to his soul? Author Beck Anderson shows remarkable insight into the ambivalence Kelly feels as she struggles to move on from “living in the land of widowhood” and into a relationship with a man who is not her beloved husband. She also takes a perceptive look at the high price of fame through the eyes of Andrew the man, who is also Andy the star. The subject matter is often painful, but is handled with humor and sensitivity and I could not put the book down. The fact that I still think about the characters every day puts Fix You on my 5 star list.
This is such a sweet story! I loved reading it for so many reasons. It’s every ordinary person’s dream of the lightning bolt striking when he or she will meet and fall in love with someone famous. Kelly can’t believe that the man she knows as Andrew would want her because she views herself as being ordinary. Andrew, on the other hand, wants and needs to be ordinary despite his stardom.
“I’m a non-famous, nondescript woman dating a handsome, charismatic, famous person. It’s ridiculous.” ~Kelly
“Don’t look for reasons why this shouldn’t be, or why this shouldn’t work.” ~Andrew
As Andrew and Kelly move cautiously toward loving each other, we learn that both have demons from their pasts which will threaten their fledgling relationship. From the first chapter of this beautifully written book the author creates a subtle tension which makes her readers keep waiting for the other shoe to drop just as Kelly does.
“I see a flash in the corner of my eye and look up to see a bald eagle swoop down from the canyon rim. He cruises past me, flying downriver to who knows where. He doesn’t seem too worried about his destination. I wish I could say the same.” ~Kelly
And the other shoe does drop. When it does, a past Kelly left behind suddenly becomes the present and she doesn’t feel strong enough to relive it with Andrew.
“Andrew, I am so beyond fixing. I can’t fix you, and you can’t fix me.” ~Kelly
Yet…what does she do when the joy she has found with Andrew is suddenly sucked out of her life?
“Depression is a terribly mundane way to exist. It’s like death by paper cut. Or non-death by paper cut. There’s nothing as dramatic as an end. It’s just a dusk, a dimness to what used to be bright and in focus.” ~Kelly
I held my breath all the way to the end of this book because I wanted so desperately for these two characters to find a way to make an implausible relationship work.
“What am I here to do, anyway? Love. I can love. I can’t fix, but I can’t run away from it either. Love might not heal. Love might not last. But it might.” ~Kelly
This is a story that will break your heart, heal your heart and break it again as Andrew and Kelly struggle to keep a tenuous grip on the love they’ve found. And the ending will hinge on whether or not these two people who really want to be together can accept the facets of their lives which can not be changed.
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