In a Fix (in a Fix #1) by Linda Grimes

Posted by Guest Reviewer Melanie 
Release Date: September 4th, 2012 

Finished Date: October 5th, 2012 

Publishers: Tor Books 

Source: For Review 

Format: Paperback 

Pages: 336
Buy : Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

The start of an original new urban fantasy series starring human chameleon Ciel Halligan

Snagging a marriage proposal for her client while on an all-expenses-paid vacation should be a simple job for Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire. A kind of human chameleon, she’s able to take on her clients’ appearances and slip seamlessly into their lives, solving any sticky problems they don’t want to deal with themselves. No fuss, no muss. Big paycheck.

This particular assignment is pretty enjoyable... that is, until Ciel’s island resort bungalow is blown to smithereens and her client’s about-to-be-fiancé is snatched by modern-day Vikings. For some reason, Ciel begins to suspect that getting the ring is going to be a tad more difficult than originally anticipated.

Going from romance to rescue requires some serious gear-shifting, as well as a little backup. Her best friend, Billy, and Mark, the CIA agent she’s been crushing on for years—both skilled adaptors—step in to help, but their priority is, annoyingly, keeping her safe. Before long, Ciel is dedicating more energy to escaping their watchful eyes than she is to saving her client’s intended.

Suddenly, facing down a horde of Vikings feels like the least of her problems.

The Review: In a Fix is a great new urban fantasy that is bringing a new kind of ‘gifted’ person to the table in the form of human chameleons, who can use individual peoples energy to become that person and once having used it, can retain the shadow of that energy and become that person at will. This is what our main character Ciel is able to do and has made it into her livelihood – running a business, helping people through their lives by becoming them and dealing with certain situations – her latest assignment is to obtain a proposal from a lady’s boyfriend. . . . . easy right? I mean, he has the ring – she finds it – but then their holiday bungalow being blown up and her client’s boyfriend being kidnapped weren’t really part of the assignment. Ceil desperately needs this job to keep her business afloat so she decides the only way to play it is to find Trey and return him along with, along with his ring to his intended. The only thing is, she’s just stumbled across an investigation involving her pesky ‘cousin’, her major crush – Mark and some Vikings! Can things get anymore weird? – well….YEAH!

I really liked this book, it wasn’t something that I’d read about before so I was a bit dubious at the start but once I got down to it – it was surprisingly great!

Ciel is a human chameleon who runs her own business helping people overcome/face some obstacle in their lives – she’s an awesome character, desperate to prove herself in her male dominated world because she is surrounded by men – brothers in particular who then delegate their protective duties to other men- so she feels the need to do everything by herself, but seriously – you have no idea the lengths some people are going to, to keep her safe and it makes you wonder why? On her latest assignment she gets into some hilarious situations and is helped along the way by her ‘cousin, but not her cousin’ Billy and her long term crush Mark. Now, I’m not a fan of love triangles and this is set up for a biggie – but. . . . I actually found that I liked this – there is a lot of sexual tension between them and I love reading about the flirting and the innuendos and how uncomfortable things can seem and as long as no other women are brought into the mix, I think I will be ok.

The storyline was good and definitely my type of book – Ciel just couldn’t keep herself out of trouble which brought on disastrous scenarios for her and those trying to keep her safe. What I loved most about this book though (apart from the sexual tension) was the humour, I don’t know how many times I laughed out loud at some of the situations and the dialogue which made it more of a UF/comedy and turned the book into a really light, fun read. I thought I would be confused about the whole ‘human chameleon’ thing, but I wasn’t – it was explained plainly and simply. I liked the idea of it, what they did with it & how they did it – I liked that the enemy wasn’t your ‘usual’ kind of enemy, although what they were ultimately planning to do left me scratching my head but even still, this is an excellent debut and has the potential to be an awesome, fun series that I have a feeling could become a favourite and a must read for me. 4.5 out of 5!