It has been a long time since I’ve picked up a Tessa Bailey book, but with a cute cover like this and a the start of a new series, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to return to this author and read SECRETLY YOURS.
I don’t know if it’s because I had expectations going into this book, but unfortunately, it didn’t resonate with me the way I thought it would. I didn’t immediately fall in love with the characters and their narrative, which caused me to go through this book slower than expected. Not sure if it’s the writing style or just the concept of this series, but it didn’t spark joy the way Bailey’s books have in the past for me.
Nevertheless, I continued to read SECRETLY YOURS and thought the ending was pleasant. As this is a new series for Bailey, I’m looking forward to seeing if things improve or if it’s just a case of "first-book" syndrome. Overall, I enjoyed the cute history the two had together as kids because it made their meeting in this book so much more special. Plus, you can’t go wrong with a vineyard setting.
SECRETLY YOURS shows a promising start to a new series. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the rest of the books in the series.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and TikTok favorite Tessa Bailey comes a steamy new rom-com about a starchy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...
Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small Napa town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she’ll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless—and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.
On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt—and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s grey-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down.
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