The Fixer Duology
September 17, 2020
The Fixer duology by Jennifer Lynn Barnes includes
The Fixer and The Long Game. I would’ve never heard
about this series if my sister wasn’t having a Jennifer Lynn
Barnes phase (she just finished the Naturals series…) since it’s
not particularly well known. I guess I liked it; Jennifer Lynn
Barnes’ writing style is consistent and pretty decent.
Unfortunately, other readers must have not felt the same way
because Barnes said that she wouldn’t be writing a third book
because there wasn’t a “broad enough audience to support
continuing the series.” I suppose people aren’t that interested in
a “political thriller” involving the government set in Washington
DC. But the second book ended on a cliffhanger and wasn’t a
satisfying ending at all, so :(
I don’t have a lot to say about these books—they were just decent,
not super good or bad. I didn’t expect to be interested in a
“political thriller” to be honest, but I think it did a pretty
good job with that. I just didn’t feel that strongly about it.
In true Jennifer Lynn Barnes fashion, there were many, many
betrayals and surprises. Some of them were from minor characters
the main character didn’t suspect, while others the main character
did have suspicions about. The only REALLY shocking betrayal was
Henry’s (Spoiler alert, oops), but for some reason it didn’t seem
that bad in general. I mean, he did take a bullet for Tess at the
end and it never really felt real.
Tess’s romantic interest was also developed very similar to how
Cassie’s was in The Naturals. In both books, the romantic
interest only became clear in the second book, and the series were
mostly devoid of romance. I think that wasn’t a bad decision in
these cases, and Barnes makes it work pretty well. I think we
needed more books in this series to really see Tess x Henry
develop.
I suspect in the next books Barnes would have planned for some
characters well known to the reader to turn out to be evil, such
as President Nolan, Georgie, or William Keyes. But I guess we’ll
never know.