In case you are new here, LiteraryHypewoman is a Tessa Bailey stan page. I will read whatever that woman writes.
Her newest romance romp is coming at us hard and fast with two novels in 2023, the first being Secretly Yours [Buy Bookshop Amazon] and Unfortunately Yours [Buy Bookshop Amazon] coming in the summer. I’ve been waiting for this for a long dang time, since she told me about her series set in Napa during a TV news interview about a year ago. Publishing is slow, y’all!
Secretly Yours is finally here, and is the classic Tessa Bailey grumpy X sunshine you know and love. Hallie runs a landscaping business that was her grandmothers, but she took over following her grandmother’s death. While she’s good at the job, she’s a smidge unreliable when it comes to showing up at a specific time or having a plan for the plants at all. She lets them speak to her.
Julian was a few years older than Hallie when they first met, and nearly kissed, back in high school. Now, he’s a teacher at Stanford and is kinda in his head about schedules and the overall value of time. He’s back home in Napa for the summer to write a book, and of course, the pretty landscaper is throwing his plans and process into chaos. But, he kinda doesn’t mind… too much.
Secretly Yours has the steamy scenes you’re looking for in a Tessa Bailey book, and it’s a fun read. No doubt there. A few of the details didn’t completely work for me. I love a protective male love interest, but I feel like Julian jumped into that vibe way too quickly for someone who doesn’t remember the girl. Overall, the characters aren’t as well developed as we are used to from Tessa. And in case you didn’t catch that this was a grumpy X sunshine trope story, you will see the word sunshine describe Hallie repeatedly throughout the book. While this isn’t my favorite Tessa book, it’s still enjoyable and I’m debating jumping into book two now. Why wait, right?
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Literary HypeWoman 