#BookReview: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfathers 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 Tesss classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.



My Thoughts

Since I read Heist Society and Gallagher Girls (both) by Ally Carter, Ive been fan of YA thrillers; theyre fun, entertaining and give me that rush of adrenaline that full fill my long time desire of been a spy or an international white collar criminal. At first glance I thought The Fixer would be kind of HS, a very short novels with a lot of action but once I started to read I found that actually, was a very complex story with lot of twist. The thing that Im certain the most is that it accented JLB as one of the best writers of YA thrillers that I had the pleasure to read.

The Fixer tells the story of Tess Kendrick; at the beginning of the book she is a normal girl living in a ranch with her grandfather, however, she then face the difficulties of traveling to Washington D.C. to live with her sister, the infamous fixer Ivy Kendrick. Following the steps of her sister, she finds herself (sometimes unwillingly) fixing the problems of her fellow classmates. Deceiveness and secrets run deep into this school that is the perfect mirror of the political society of D.C. which will cost Tess plenty of things.

Ive read The Squad series by JLB before and, when I really enjoy it, it wasnt like it was the perfect story out there, so I thought this would be the same way. I never thought I would like this book so much, I wasnt expecting this much developing or the so well portrayed characters. It was so fun to read from Tess perspective, she really carries the weight of the story with a charm that is difficult to find in other characters, of course, she wasnt the happiest campiest but she was able to evolved and made the best with what she have. I like she was true to her persona from the very beginning and Im very satisfy with her.

I enjoy the dynamic between the two sisters; Tess and Ivy have plenty of things going on but I like how everything was really put together to make this relationship grow in the most assertive way. Adam was one of my favorites in this book but I also love how other minor characters like Asher, Vivie and Henry stand up and leave a mark with me.

I enjoy three thing the most inn this book: a) the fact that theres not romance, everything is about the intriguing, deceive and scandalous part of politics, and how Tess and her friends deal with it. b) All the twist of the plot; I havent found myself more fascinated by a book in a long time and I was devouring it. And c) I absolutely love the fact Tess was a total bad ass and she was so walling to use her witty and cleverness to step up for the unfortunates; we need more characters like her in books.

OVERALL, this book have been one of the best Ive read this year so far, definitely it gets into my all times favorites. Jennifer Lynn Barnes created a wonderful plot with the most outstanding characters, and I cant wait to get my hands in the next installment, The Long Game. I super recommend this book.

About the Author

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. Shes 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.

Shes th author of The Squad, Tattoo and The Fixer duologies, The Raised by Wolves trilogy and The Naturals series.

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