I Owe You One

December 15, 2018
An IOU from a cute stranger gets complicated in this fun story about family, loyalty, and taking charge of your own life.Fixie Farr, as her nickname suggests, has always loved to fix things. Most of her fixing is confined to her family's West London store, Farr's, which she's run with her mother since her father's death. Her siblings, Jake and Nicole, are mostly useless, and Fixie knows it's up to her to protect her dad's legacy. When she's at a coffee shop one day, a man asks her to watch his laptop. While he's away, the ceiling above his table caves in, and Fixie can't stop herself from leaping into danger to save the computer. Shocked by her willingness to save the day at the risk of her own safety, the laptop's owner, Seb, promises her a favor and writes an IOU on a coffee sleeve. Fixie never intends to cash in the favor--after all, she doesn't know Seb at all, and she's perfectly capable of handling everything herself--until the love of her life, Ryan, needs a job. Ryan was Jake's best friend growing up, and Fixie's had an enormous crush on him her whole life, even after he moved to LA to become a movie producer. But now he's back in London, and she wants him to stay...so she musters up the courage to contact Seb and redeem the IOU for a job for Ryan. However, it turns out that she and Seb aren't quite done with each other, and they keep finding more opportunities to owe each other favors. As Fixie tries to work out her feelings for Seb, assert herself to her siblings, and save her family's store, will she finally be able to stop fixing other people's lives and start focusing on her own? Kinsella (Surprise Me, 2018, etc.) creates a charming story full of quirky characters and laugh-out-loud dialogue. Fixie is a likable character, one readers will root for as she learns to take control of her own life.Kinsella's many fans will devour this warm and hilarious read.

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December 15, 2018
Kinsella's latest recounts the misadventures of Fixie Farr, a young woman trying to keep her family's home-goods store afloat. When Fixie's mother has to take an extended leave from work, she entrusts the operation to Fixie and her older siblings, slick businessman Jake and flaky yoga aficionado Nicole. While Fixie wants to keep things as they are, Jake and Nicole have grand and expensive plans to modernize. Further complicating matters are two attractive men in Fixie's life: Seb, whose laptop Fixie rescues from certain doom in a coffee shop, and Ryan, her childhood crush, who is newly returned from Los Angeles and finally interested in a relationship with her. Fixie decides to use the titular IOU that Seb gratefully gave her to get him to hire Ryan at his investment company, which she hopes will pave the way for her and Ryan to become a couple. Naturally, nothing goes as planned, leading Fixie to reconsider who and what she really wants. Kinsella (Surprise Me, 2018) again provides a delightful, irresistible romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)