I love Tessa Bailey and (most of) her books, so when I heard she was dipping her toe into the romantic fantasy waters, I was highly intrigued to see how her romcom chops handled the challenge.

Broken Rival [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] centers on a girl named Magnolia who is a timetraveler. She’s from 50 years in the future, where food and water are hard to come by. She and her parents, who developed the technology to timetravel, went back to warn people of the risk ahead. However, too many started going back and caused problems, leading to a lot of hate against Magnolia. With her parents killed, there’s a plan to kill her too, but a preacher’s family intervenes. She gets twisted up in a tale of love and hate with the preacher’s two boys, her high school sweetheart Fallon and his merciless military leader of a half-brother, Ramsey.

I won’t go too much into the plot because this book is perfection and deserves to be savored with all it’s twists and turns along the way. I found myself at multiple points thinking, how is this Tessa? It felt so different, that I almost forgot she wrote this book. But Tessa’s classic banter and humor pop through on occasion, which brought me great joy. A little touch of, ‘oh, there she is’, for a writer that I love.

I cannot stress enough how much I loved and devoured this book. It pulls on your heartstrings in just the right ways, with plenty of tension and so much chemistry.

At one point while reading, I text one of my friends, “BETTER BOOK BOYFRIEND THAN XADEN” and I stand by it. There are definitely some Xaden vibes from Ramsey, but there’s a lot less deception and politics in the way. He is delicious. This feels like a healthier vibe, and I definitely want to hear what you think after you read it.

I was so nervous going into this since it’s not Tessa’s usual vibe, but she proved my concern was not based in reality. She can still deliver a book that will have you giggling and kicking your feet while also stressing you out with action and tension.

It’s definitely one of my favorite books of the year thus far.