I'd not read anything by Lee Winter before, but heard many good things - and I wasn't disappointed!
This was a fun read, it's slow burn in terms of sapphic romance, but nicely paced. With great characters and dotted with humour it's enjoyable throughout and has left me looking forward to the sequel.

I really enjoyed this book! A sapphic romance involving small town politics and someone good under the protection of someone who does bad things? Absolutely chef's kiss perfect for me! I really enjoyed the plot and loved all the main characters, they were all compelling and interesting.

I really enjoyed the pacing of the book and the dual perspectives of Michelle and Eden were both equally enjoyable to me; I didn't feel like the amount of either was unbalanced. I think there's more of Eden's perspective but it felt right!

The romance is much too slow burn for my tastes, but if you're into slow burn, this is the book for you!

Thanks for the free copy!

"I can forget I am mad with her for long stretches and live my life. The obsessed focus only on the object of their obsession."

I will die with love for this book!! Eden Lawless is the cuttest protagonist ever!! And Michelle Hastings made me curious about how would be to read a FF Romance in which we have an Ice Queen as the main protagonist, as I had never read one before reading The Fixer. The plot is very interesting because is somehow related to nature and I loved the whole idea! I may confess that I was rooting for the two women to be together as in together together.... like FOREVER, and I craved more romance, friendship and intimacy, but I am happy the story continues in book 2, which I am starting to read this evening! I am sooooooo glad every night I will cuddle up with my kindle and have the pleasure of getting to know Lawless and Michelle better. Let´s see what happens this time!
It is the first time I´ve read a book by Lee Winter and I am very satisfied. May check her other books in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Don’t read this book unless you have Chaos Agent ready to go! It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger but it does end just as things are getting interesting!

The love story is very slow burn, in fact the two MCs are not in the same room for most of the book. The intrigue and political mystery is the main focus and it’s very well done. The narrative is intelligent with lots of twists and turns.

I enjoyed it. wasnt too fast paced or too slow. kept me captivated every step of the way. there are those chapters when Winter delivered, it was so beautifully emotionally charged and I highly appreciate when authors can make their reasers actually feel something. If you have time check this book out!

I've read this author's books before so I knew there was a good chance I'd enjoy the read, and I wasn't wrong. It ran a little slow in some spots, but not enough to make me put the book down. I have the second in the series ready to go and I'm very interested to see how this goes.

The characters are well-developed and likable (even if they don't particularly like themselves). There's a bit of humor and enough to keep a reader interested.

Lee Winter has done it again. I was overjoyed to get Michelle's perspective. She was so captivating in the previous books as Catherine's enemy and this sealed my love for her. I will be endlessly grateful that Winter often does two parts for each love story. I very much hope there's another for Breaking Character!

I was very curious about this book, because I keep seeing Lee Winter’s book all over the social media, but I haven’t read any of them yet. I’m not disappointed by this book. The plot is really intriguing and the characters are very relatable and well written. I’m totally in love with Michelle, I love ice queens and she is so amazing!
However, this is a very good start, I can’t wait to read the sequel!

(Thank you Netgalley and the author for this arc!)

The Fixer was my introduction to Michelle Hastings and what a lovely one at that.

I am quite familiar with Lee Winter’s books but this one has been one of my favourites so far. Both Eden and Michelle were quite lovely as individuals and I’m excited to read about the romance aspect of this duology.

As I mentioned, The Fixer was my introduction to Michelle Hastings who is apparently quite disliked within Winters’a universe. I, personally, am a little enamoured. I found her kinder and softer than most “ice queens” and I was thrilled when she and Eden interacted.

I cannot wait for its sequel, Chaos Agent, and will undoubtably fall in love with Michelle even more.

I really enjoyed this book!
When The Fixers approach Eden (activist/organizer) about a job taking down her nemesis, the corrupt town mayor of her hometown, it's too intriguing to pass up. The job takes her back to her home, a place with a lot of baggage for Eden; family issues, friend issues, and said corrupt mayor. She reports directly nightly to Fixer CEO Michelle Hastings, a beautiful ice queen who Eden wants to know more about...
This book read so smoothly. It felt organic the way the characters got to know each other, despite their vastly different personalities/lives. I was eager to learn more about them, and see their fireworks with every turn of the page. And the storyline was engaging and fun, and so well executed.
Highly recommend for anyone who likes political intrigue, and of course ice queens!

I was able to read this cause of NetGalley and idk if they want a review or not so better safe than sorry lol

Anyway, I highly enjoyed this book. If you don’t know this book is kinda an add on from the red files series and in that book Michelle was an absolute twat and horrible bitch tbh. But no lie, this book makes you rethink that and look at Michelle in another light which like I knew to expect but not as much as I did. It was cool for it to reference the Sliced Ice mini story/ make a connection to that. I’m kinda confused on Michelle’s age which isn’t a big thing just l that Eden thought she was like 60 (sorry if that’s a spoiler??) but her grandmother is also alive and kickin, which I’m not sure if that’s normal (since all my grandparents died before I was born(but not a sad pity way just giving context way as to why im so confused on if it’s normal lol))??? Whatever, she’s older but not old lol
Anywho, onto the other character Eden. She’s kind of a badass in a different way than Michelle. To like quote Taylor Swift, Eden is sunshine and Michelle is midnight rain.

Highly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to the next book in this series!

Also sorry if my review was like unhelpful LOL, I’m a rambler and try not to accidentally give the book way

𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗦: 𝙰𝙶𝙴-𝙶𝙰𝙿. 𝙴𝙽𝙴𝙼𝙸𝙴𝚂 𝚃𝙾 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂. 𝙸𝙲𝙴 𝚀𝚄𝙴𝙴𝙽. 𝙾𝙿𝙿𝙾𝚂𝙸𝚃𝙴𝚂 𝙰𝚃𝚃𝚁𝙰𝙲𝚃. 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙺𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴. 𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡.

📚ᴀʀᴄ📖⁠

What to express? Because words escape me. That feeling after reading a book and you sigh deeply because everything feels so right, that serenity. I am emotional but blissfully. I just want to talk about Michelle. I really appreciate what Lee Winter had done with this character. Outstanding. The deeper sense of understanding that intrigues one to understand and sympathise with Michelle was what I was after. And my god, there are those chapters when Winter delivered, it was so emotionally charged and packed, I was gleeing because, yes, Queen. That stuff was so intoxicating, like mess me up so good, yes please.

Exceptional. Amazing. Just stunning.

𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙔𝙡𝙫𝙖 𝙋𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬.

When I read a Lee Winter book, I know I'm going to get a chilly ice queen and a sunshine and rainbows equivalent. And no doubt, Winter absolutely knows how to write these characters.

Michelle Hastings is a corporate villain who hires Eden, a naive nature loving activist, to bring down a corrupt politician. Eden, unknown to the activities of the company her CEO runs, has the opportunity to finally overthrow the person who ruined her life and made her move away from her hometown.

Over the course of her assignment and a cleverly devised treasure hunt, the two gradually begin to develop their bond, discovering the pull they both have towards each other.

Writing this review now, I'm actually in awe of Lee Winter's brilliance. Michelle Hastings, though, has to be the softest ice queen I've come across from all the Winter books I've read. She's icy and has done some questionable things in her life, yet she's so human, she's aching in wait for someone to just acknowledge and love her. And it doesn't take long for her to let down her walls when she's with Eden.

Personally, this book only had one con. It felt slow, really slow, and I didn't really feel the intense burn, tension, and angst that I normally love from Winter's books. Some parts were unnecessarily dragged for me or lacked the spark the two MCs were supposed to have. Though, that can also be because the romance came second to Eden's mission, understandably as The Fixer sets a solid foundation for Chaos Agent, given how complex both MCs are.

Other than that, though, I enjoyed getting my Lee Winter book fix and would definitely recommend this one!

4.5 stars. As one of those people who has to read everything in order, I started with the “On The Record Series” before reading this “The Villains” series. The latter can be read as a standalone series, but the previous series does provide extra insights which I appreciated. Plus, reading four excellent books back-to-back is no hardship at all, I can recommend it to everybody.

Since I’ve also already read the second book in “The Villains” series (Chaos Agent) I would like to make some remarks on the series first. These are not standalone books and prepare yourself for reading both books at once as it is almost impossible to stop in the middle. This series is all about Michelle’s (the villain) redemption arc, and this takes some time. So, while book one has a finished storyline, you’ll want to continue to see what happens between Michelle and Eden. There is a lot to love about these books, and I found that I liked them for different reasons. This first book was in my opinion the better structured and paced one than the second book. Although the start was a bit slow. The second book, however, revolves around the secret organization and their dealings, which was a more entertaining setting to me than the case they work on in this first book. And of course, there is the conclusion of the redemption arc of Michelle in book 2, which is so worth it.

Michelle is the CEO of an evil organization that fixes things that rich and powerful people need to become more rich and powerful. In this book, the fixers are tasked with bringing a corrupt mayor of a small town down and they hire Eden to do this. So, why Eden? She doesn’t have an evil bone in her body, always protesting and helping those in need. It turns out she has a history with the mayor and appears to be the perfect person to take her down.

You don’t have to like Michelle, but I think everybody will be interested in her. She has such a complex layered personality, and I loved discovering that and getting to understand her. I don’t consider her a true villain, she acts on how life shaped her, but she’s definitely a morally grey character. Obviously opposites attract, because Eden is so good that she’s a bit naive. I didn’t really take to her in this book, I thought she was a bit bland, but wait for my review on book two because my opinion will change there.

It was fun reading how Eden plans to bring the mayor down and it has a certain game element which was good to read. I’m one of those people who likes to puzzle along and that was unfortunately not possible here, but Michelle is able to do it though, which makes for some nice interactions between the two MCs. I like how Winter takes her time to slowly build their attraction, which is far from a completed romance when the book finishes, so you really want to read that second book. I also want to give a shoutout to Michelle’s safta Hannah, a great side character.

A wonderful book, it takes some time to reach full steam, but once it does it’s hard to put down. Plan some time to read them both.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always love getting the villain's story. Pair that with Lee Winter's phenomenal skill in writing the iciest of queens, and well, you get gold! I won't say this one was my favourite Winter book because for me, personally, the slow burn was a bit too...glacial. Still, it was a really enjoyable story with superbly written characters nonetheless. (After finishing the second book as well, I would say that I'd have preferred these to be one long book rather than two separate stories...and maybe speed that burn up juuuuuust a bit!).

This was a thoroughly engaging read. I hadn’t read the previous books featuring Michelle Hastings so I think I missed some of her backstory but I was able to follow the plot nevertheless. This is an extremely slow burn to the extent that nothing actually happens between the two main characters, but I enjoyed seeing their tentative friendship develop and the mayoral election storyline was engaging. Eden was one of the most interesting characters I had come across in a long time. I’d definitely recommend this book.

I rarely, and I mean rarely hope the evil character really does have some redemption BUT with this book, I couldn't help but want to see some sort of redeeming quality of Michelle-there is a glimpse but I feel like I need to wait for the next book in the series to get what I truly want (fingers crossed). I believe this Character is in an earlier book of Ms. Winter's but I will admit it I have not read yet, but I feel that The Fixer is a standalone read I highly recommend it.

I do love age gap romance, and with Michelle and Eden you get that, but not by a whole lot, I really loved their dynamics beyond the age gap. Ms. Winter's was very clear this is not your traditional happy go lucky characters, she is very up front about it in her acknowledgment, which just had me wanting to read this story line more. You just have a character that you love to hate but in the end you want so bad to see Michelle be somewhat redeemable.....Loved this story, loved Michelle and Eden, loved the supporting characters, just over all loved it-bring on Chaos Agent.....thank you Ms Winter for a brilliant story.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

➥ 5 Stars *:･ﾟ✧

Lawless swayed in, and suddenly, engulfing arms surrounded Michelle as that unmistakable voice whispered into her ear, “I’ll miss you, Michelle.”

━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━

Despite YLVA's kind provision of this arc, this is a tough review to write for me. Now, you might be asking, why Gloria? Is it because it's just too good? Hm...beyond terrible? Gives you memory loss??? Well actually, the real dilemma here is that there isn't a single saucy quote for me to display and gush about. I was going to say that was quite tragic, but I found I had an immensely, inexplicably enjoyable time without those elements, and that's telling enough, no? So, if a Winter virgin is wandering the streets and picked up this novel, I'd advise them to prepare for a slow burn, as there is not even a touch of the lips here, but for those who enjoy feeling like they've gone through something alongside the characters, those who enjoy high stakes (as high stakes as small town politics can be), and of course, those who enjoy the classic ice-queen paired with the embodiment of sunshine...well, what are you even doing if your hands don't hold this novel?

➥ Eden Lawless (h) also known as Michelle's panda (🥺❤) is a warm-hearted activist, who lives in a van named Gloria (I'm feeling special) and who doesn't bow down to the command of Michelle, her now boss. Eden left her hometown because of a conflicting upsetting past, but has now returned upon Michelle's order, and she is on a mission. She doesn't harden at Michelle's glare, and in return begins to crack her shell instead. Although she wasn't particularly remarkable, like other suns of Winter have been, she was still sweet, and she did have her moments of putting Michelle in her place.

➥ Michelle Hastings (h) is...well. She's mean and she's gay, what else can I say? 😊❤ I cannot WAIT for her to fully fall and weaken for Eden - it'll be perfect. She was one of the antagonists in The Red Files series, but I'm enjoying Winter's exploration of her character in a new light. I'm hoping to see a heartfelt apology and confrontation between her and Catherine. I enjoyed seeing her kind side with her grandmother.

➥ Hannah a.k.a. Safta, what an absolute gem! Winter never fails to write such awesome side characters. She added so much to the story and her heart and wisdom won me over instantly. We learned that Michelle is Jewish and why that had been a main motivation for her acts in The Red Files. I look forward to seeing more of Safta ❤

I had only minor complaint: the annoying use of 'goddess' as an exclamation instead of 'god. I get the idea but I'd just remove the exclamation in general.

Winter's books always have a strong side(?) plot going, so you shouldn't expect undeterred focus on romance, though it is a significant element for sure. The side plot was gripping and interesting: I loved seeing the girls work out the clues and Winter's general genius that was infused into the twists.

Although the plot is resolved at the end of this book, the romance definitely isn't (as I mentioned, not a single seductive moment) but I'm dying to see where Winter will take this story in the sequel. Thank you again YLVA for the arc!

━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━

The slowest of slow-burns is no lie for Lee Winter’s latest sapphic fiction. In book one of the Villain Series, black and white, social justice warrior Eden is the latest temporary hire for Michelle, the CEO for a company simply referred to as The Fixer, who only operates in shades of grey.

Although the majority of their interactions are set over video calls and messages, the tension is palpable throughout the novel. Their conversations are realistic; the flaws and strengths in both characters really move the story along. Winter is able to show a lot without stalling too long on the bits that don’t matter as much.

My only gripe was how neatly all the loose ends in book one were tied up. I was expecting a reversal of some sort, but there were no sudden surprises. This may be vital for the story’s continuation in book two; however, after other novels like Hotel Queens and The Red Files, I almost felt let down.

The Fixer was still a very engaging and enjoyable read and I would give it 4.5 stars if I could.

Eden Lawless is a crusader for good. She protests and organizes marginalized groups all over the world. Michelle Hastings runs “The Fixers,” an organization that makes things happen for people, for a price. When Michelle’s organization hires Eden to sabotage the election of Eden’s mortal enemy, the mayor of her hometown, it seems as if it’s fir the greater good, and Eden accepts, but she has to report to Michelle every night, and sometimes, she sees the woman underneath the ice queen façade. And she can’t help but be attracted to her.

I’m a big Lee Winter fan. She’s great at slow burn and building tension as well as building a bigger plot around the romance. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good romance, but I love it when there’s a larger plot around it and the author dives deeper into the characters than just who they are with each other and the context of their building relationship. This book is 284 pages, and I read it in under two days. It can absolutely be enjoyed solo and it wraps up the story nicely, but I highly recommend having a copy of Chaos Agent, the second book in this series (out February 16) if you want more closure to the story and to see where their relationship goes. See my next review for more on that.

This one’s out now, so get started if you want to be caught up before February 16.