Hi there, and welcome to my stop on the FIX YOU blog tour sponsored by AToMR Book Tours. For other stops on the tour click here. Today’s book is an adult contemporary romance from Beck Anderson.

Book Description:
When Kelly Reynolds’s husband died, he left her—the awkward, cautious one—to raise their two young boys. She’s pieced herself back together, barely. Now she takes refuge in her routine: running her kids around and running the trails near her Idaho home.

Two years after her husband’s death, a chance encounter on a run brings Andrew into her life. But Andrew is Andy Pettigrew, the Andy Pettigrew, famous actor. 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 paces in them if she did. Andrew oozes cool. She reeks of dork.

But despite this, they click. It may be inexplicable, but it works. However, it’s also becoming clear that Andrew struggles with the pressures of his fame. Kelly’s hold on a so-called normal life is already tenuous, and as much as she might want 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. She and Andrew both have secrets that seem impossible to keep.

Beck Anderson’s witty, engaging writing yields an emotional tale of love, loss, and all the little things that make up a life. In the end, what is it that really holds us together? Kelly must decide if love can fix two people who might be broken beyond repair.

My Review:

Sometimes we live life; sometimes we just survive it–and Kelly Reynolds is surviving her life. Losing her husband was a nightmare she can’t escape–and her dreams are often tortured by her guilt for moving on–or not moving on enough. See, Kelly was always cautious. Her life has been played by the rules and she figures she lost the game already. Kelly can only pull herself out of bed to take care of her two boys, Hunter and Beau. But even they know she’s dead inside.

Cue the intervention. A quick trip to Indio has Kelly moving. Or, at least running. She’s taking her daily jog when realization strikes: today is the second anniversary of her husband’s death.  Overcome, she nearly collapses in tears and is assisted by a tall stranger. He dashes off so quickly he leaves behind his jacket. Kelly’s attempt to return it opens the next chapter of her life.

The stranger is movie star Andrew Pettigrew, another lonely soul surviving life. Meeting Kelly–a grounded, caring mother–is somewhat of an epiphany for him. He meets her the next day and they chat. Then they go for a run and chat some more. Kelly keeps all of this so down low it’s practically down under–a trait Andrew seems to like. He takes her number in the event he ever stops in Boise.

What do you know. A couple months later he does stop. Pops in unexpectedly. Kelly and her sons put him up for the weekend. A weekend filled with discovery. And a bit of guilt. But mostly there is something Kelly hasn’t felt in good long time: hope.

Their strange romance is kept super-down-under-low in order to foster the image of a fake romance between Andrew and his newest co-star, a Hollywood device that seems to increase ticket sales. It’s nerve-wracking for both Andrew and Kelly bringing along some unexpected baggage–Andrew’s alcoholism.

Though Kelly and Andrew share a strong love, Kelly knows she’s broken, and can’t imagine how she can help Andrew through his disease. She’d kicked her husband out years ago for alcoholism and they’d reconciled shortly before he died. This new facet with Andrew is deja vu of the Worst Kind. But maybe together they can find a way…

This book hit me hard. Maybe it’s because I’ve recently lost my father and an uncle, but a story about moving on after losing a loved one is always going to touch its readers. The romance is so super-down-low we only get Fade To Black scenes–no super steamy interludes, but that’s okay here, I think. Keeping the focus on working through grief and learning to trust in another love is amenable to a quiet love affair. At times I wanted to shake Kelly and give her a Cher-Snap-Out-Of-It smack, but she manages to right the ship and find the best course in time.

Interested? You can find FIX YOU at Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

About this author:
Beck Anderson believes in the power of perfectly imperfect women and in the healing power of love. Her new novel, Fix You, grew out of those beliefs and the time to write afforded by the worst Thanksgiving blizzard she’s ever witnessed in West Yellowstone.

For Beck, the path to published novelist has taken lots of twists and turns, including a degree in anthropology, a stint as a ticket seller at a ski resort, a much-loved career as a high school English teacher, and a long tenure as a member of the best writing group ever, hands down.

Beck balances (clumsily at best) writing novels and screenplays, working full-time as an educator, mothering two pre-teen males, loving one post-40 husband, and making time to walk the foothills of Boise, Idaho, with Stefano DiMera Delfino Anderson, the suavest Chihuahua north of the border. You can find Beck on her website, Facebook and twitter.

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