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In a Fix (Ciel Halligan, #1)

Linda Grimes

Start date: November 1, 2012

Finish date: November 30, 2012

Discussion: Book of the Month

Why we're reading this: Voted as our "Most Popular Books Published in September 2012" November BOM …more
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Aug 08, 2012 Francesca the Fierce (Under the Covers Book Blog) rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-urban-fantasy, books-read-2012, dropped-series

This review was posted at Under the Covers

Just when it seems that every urban fantasy book out there is starting to seem like they are all the same, here comes a book with a fresh new world and story to shake things up. IN A FIX introduces us to Ciel Halligan. She has a special ability, she can adapt into someone else's aura, making her look by all intents and purposes as if she was that other person. She works on her own private office taking up the jobs that people don't want to do themselves This review was posted at Under the Covers

Just when it seems that every urban fantasy book out there is starting to seem like they are all the same, here comes a book with a fresh new world and story to shake things up. IN A FIX introduces us to Ciel Halligan. She has a special ability, she can adapt into someone else's aura, making her look by all intents and purposes as if she was that other person. She works on her own private office taking up the jobs that people don't want to do themselves.

This time around, she has to adapt into a beautiful woman's body and try to get her very hot boyfriend to propose. But things don't go as planned when Trey, the boyfriend, gets kidnapped while they were vacationing. To make matters worst, not only does she have to rescue him but she has to uncover what is it that these bad guys wanted with him in the first place.

To do that she calls in the backup, in the form of her aura adaptor buddies. Billy, her friend whom she's always seen as a cousin because they grew up together but are not really blood. Mark, the teenage crush who now runs the agency for aura adaptors that she couldn't seem to work for. With their help, or more like Ciel as the assistant, they embark in a wild adventure that takes them through crazy situations and even a pirate ship ran by mobsters.

Things are never what they seem in this book. The story was full action packed and very funny. Maybe the humor and the originality of this story were my favorite parts. Billy was probably my favorite, everything he did and said, his whole attitude and persona. Love him. I mean, he was walking around with the aura of Queen Elizabeth, wreaking havoc and spreading rumors while people thought they really did have royalty amongst them.

However the one thing that got to me at times was Ciel herself. She's very immature, and quite frankly not the most kickass girl to have watching your back. I think she needs more training. And then there's the fact that she was drooling over almost every guy around while claiming to have "feelings" for one. She was more than willing to jump at any and all opportunities for making out with whomever was available.

Here's to hoping we see her growing up as this series goes on. I am excited to see what's their next adventure!

Favorite quotes:

"When you grow up with a bunch of guys and a propensity for eavesdropping, crudity is the deafult mode when sex is on your mind. It's a situational hazard. Still, I tried hard to stomp it down, along with other vestiges of my real identity - Ciel Halligan, Facilitator. Intrepid Fixer of Other People's Problems. (Yeah, I know. Goffy. What can I say? I read a lot of comic books as a child.)

The trouble with borrowing somebody else's aura is that you get their level of fitness along with it. Not that I'm one to talk. My favorite aerobic activity is reading steamy romantic thrillers. I figure an increased heart rate is an increased heart rate. Why quibble about methodology?

"So I've seen your raspberries. Who cares? What's a little fruit between friends?"

*ARC provided by publisher ...more

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Jun 26, 2013 Diane ~Firefly~ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, pb-also, paranormal, kindle

It is really probably only 2.5 stars as I really wanted to like the book and the heroine, but she kept doing stupid things, then insisting people treat her like a grown-up and then doing something stupid again and needing rescued. Hell, even her apartment and office were owned by her brother. She seemed at multiple times to not have even a shred of common sense, which caused me to have to put the book down after becoming very frustrated with Ciel, but at the same time I wanted to see how it woul ...more

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Aug 19, 2013 Kate rated it it was ok

Shelves: paranormal, fantasy, series, contemporary, romantic-elements, fiction, series-1

TSTL is a kind way to describe the heroine of this book. Ciel is whiny, childish, and rarely thinks any single thing through. Add to that a ridiculous love triangle and a nearly incomprehensible plot and this book was nearly a DNF. The small glimmers of humor and a hope that the story might end up somewhere close to coherent kept me in it until the end but I doubt I'll be continuing on with this series. I don't need all my fantasy to be dark and gritty, but I do need them to make sense and to h ...more

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Aug 20, 2017 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An interesting g first book a fairly new method of changing your appearance by adapting the aura of the other person...for a first novel it was a good...the characters were likable and the mission they were on was noble if a little silly to me world domination by Vikings using body products well there is a book 2.

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