**I dip my quill in the ink and swirl my letters across the page. I write a bit about the past few days and what has kept me occupied. I write about my recent outings, the time I have spent with friends and family, and what I have been reading as of late. I finally finished a book I was reading for quite a while. I write my thoughts on the book and have filled up two pages by the time I am done writing. I close the inkwell and leave my papers on the desk to dry.**

The other day, I finished The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is the first book in a young adult duology following sixteen year old Tess Kendrick who lives on a ranch with her grandfather. One day, her estranged sister comes and packs up Tess’s life to Washington D.C. where she enrolls at Hardwicke Academy, a school where the children of D.C.’s most powerful people attend. When Tess arrives, secrets and mysteries come out so Tess works as a “fixer” like her sister to solve their problems.

I started reading from Jennifer Lynn Barnes back in 2021 when I picked up The Inheritance Games and have been working my way through her backlist ever since. The Fixer was the next series on my list and I wanted to get the books before the new covers came out. Going into this one, the story was not one that overly intrigued me. I didn’t really know how I felt about the political mystery type of story that this book was offering. Even though I wasn’t interested in the idea originally, Jennifer Lynn Barnes always has a way of sucking me into the story and turning any idea into a good book and I do want to read everything she writes. I would say that the execution of this one was well done considering the idea wasn’t one I would normally be interested in. There was mystery and a family relationship as Tess is trying to reunite with her sister. There were a few reveals in this book, one of them being one that I did guess pretty early on but still a good one.

I thought that the characters were fine. I did get annoyed with Tess a few times though. Ivy, her sister, is always telling Tess to stay out of it and that it could be dangerous, but Tess just doesn’t listen throughout the whole book. This may have been done better if Tess was actually gaining new information that Ivy or anyone else didn’t already know. Since she wasn’t, it seemed like Tess was more just getting in the way than anything else and needed to respect the privacy of Ivy’s job. The side characters were all fine, but none really stood out. I also felt like Asher felt similar to some of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ other characters, such as a side character from the Debutantes series.

The mystery was well done as always. It wasn’t as shocking or thrilling as the other books I have read by her, but still a solid mystery in the end. I have book two on my shelf and hope to get to it soon to see how the story finishes out.

Looking at my overall thoughts on this, I don’t think the story was my favorite by her, but that is just personal preference as I don’t have much interest for more of a political mystery. This one did feel a bit slower with what felt like a smaller mystery compared to her other books but the writing was still good. I would say this is probably on the lower end of her books so far, but I did still enjoy it and plan to read the sequel.

xoxo,

Just another reader