I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella – a Review

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Description:
Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.” But since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in her nature to say no to people.

So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees—she ends up saving it from certain disaster. Turns out the computer’s owner is an investment manager. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But Fixie laughs it off—she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she?

Then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life and his lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons. She wants nothing for herself—but she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. And Seb agrees, until the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie—from small favors to life-changing moments—ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants?

Review:

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella is a standalone novel.  We meet our heroine Fixie Farr at the start, as she is always picking up on things her siblings miss or do wrong; hence her nickname Fixie.  The Farr family runs a local store that caters to their clientele with various items in demand.  The story focuses on Fixie, especially, when her mother decides to go to Europe for a few months, leaving Fixie and her siblings alone to run the business.  Everything begins to fall apart, as Fixie cannot even control her own life, let alone stand up to her family, who are ruining things with their inept ideas.

This story did have potential being family oriented, but from the start I had mixed feelings. We can start with Fixie), as she tries to prevent her brother and sister from implementing their ideas, and alienating their customers.   Then her brother’s friend (Ryan) returns to town, and Fixie has always had a crush on him since her childhood; she continues to gush all over him, being delusional into thinking they had a future, especially when he was here a year ago and she slept with him; but he went back to California leaving her hurt.  Now she does it again, allowing herself to think they had a future; she also goes to bat for him to get a job, which in a short time after he is fired, and she learns some truths about him; it took her awhile for her to open her eyes and see what a creep he really was.  

In the meantime, she met a guy at the coffee shop, and happened to save his important laptop and he gave her a voucher  “I owed you one”.  A friendship builds between Seb and Fixie, but she is too dense to see that he is a good one, not the douche bag Ryan.  I did like Fixie, but at times she was annoying, especially in the first half of the book. 

I thought other then Fixie,  the secondary characters, her sister, her brother, her uncle, and Ryan were totally unlikable.  Seb was nice, but between her fixation with Ryan and his involvement with another girl held back their romance, until later when they finally made it work.

In last quarter of the book, Fixie became stronger, with her self- confidence improving, standing up to her family to put her foot down on their inept shenanigans.   I did like when Fixie finally stood up to Ryan once and for all.  It was nice to see Fixie bring her brother and sister together to work in harmony to help get the store back on track.

I Owe You One was a good storyline.  However, I feel that having characters you like (with the exception of villains or a bad person),  allows you to enjoy the story; in this case, many of the characters were just not likable.  I do enjoy reading Sophie Kinsella, though this was a good read, it was not one was not one of her best.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher