Jenny Fields is on a crusade – she’s trying to save an historic art building on her college campus, convinced saving it will get her into Columbia for graduate school. At a staff meeting one of her colleagues on the college newspaper suggests they try to get a famous artist alumni on-board to promote the cause. The gossip columnist suggests Emmanuel Curry, who recently had a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  To date, he’s been unwilling to be interviewed for the Examiner, but Jenny has an idea on a different way to approach him.

Matthew Townsend is a senior art prodigy, with a moody and solitary reputation.  More importantly to Jenny, he’s required to have a mentor advise him on his senior portfolio – and Matthew’s mentor is Emmanuel Curry.  Jenny needs Matthew to get to Curry and save the art building.

Unfortunately for Jenny, Matthew has no interest in saving the building or helping her get to Curry – he’s just trying to graduate. A straight A scholarship student with no family or resources to fall back on, Matthew worries about keeping his job, paying his tuition and getting Curry’s sign-off on his senior portfolio.  He’s also keeping a big secret about what he does to relax late at night and he doesn’t have time for Jenny, her perky personality or her crusade. Things change when Matthew runs across her late one night and saves her from being assaulted by a fellow student.

These two are so focused on individual success and the wrong assumptions they’ve made about each other, they have a hard time admitting they like one another.  But when Jenny discovers what Matthew’s up to late at night, and they begin to open up and reveal their true selves to each other – warts and all, sparks fly.  A sexy one night stand followed by a Big Misunderstanding – set the stage for a sweet reunion and HEA.

The Fixer needs more pages to develop the romance between Jenny and Matthew.  The transition from adversaries to friends to lovers is a bit too quick to be believable and the characters are underdeveloped.  Originally released as part of an ‘80’s anthology, The Fixer’s setting and pop culture reference make sense.  As a standalone novella, I thought they were distracting.