Secretly Yours

✮✮

Feb 19

Secretly Yours - Tessa Bailey

my review : ✮✮

Let me preface this by saying I am a HUGE Tessa Bailey fan. It Happened One Summer is one of my favorite gateway BRADs that I use to get people hooked on BRADs. But.. this book was… not good. I felt like the characters were caricatures and not real people? Does any human man in the world talk like Julian? The premise is one of my least favorite of all time, and I honestly thought only happened in Hallmark Christmas movies (I’ll outline the premise below). The best thing about this book is the setting, I loved daydreaming about living in a lush & gorgeous wine country and thought it was the perfect backdrop for a romance novel.

The book is about Hallie & Julian. Julian is a hot, brooding professor who is in love with all things organized & orderly. Hallie is a bright and bubbly gardener who colors outside of the lines in every aspect of her life. Hallie has been harboring a crush on Julian since high school, and when she hears he’s back in town at his family vineyard writing a book, she decides it only makes sense to both start a gardening project at his house and… anonymously write him love letters? Julian starts conversing with this secret admirer via letters while also getting to know Hallie in real life, which is endlessly confusing and, IMO unnecessary!!

There are cute moments in the book, and Tessa is the queen of steamy scenes, but overall this book was not for me.

Best paired with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from St. Helena 🍷. Trust me… you’ll need the whole bottle.

Have you read this? Am I being unbearably harsh? I was so excited for this book, so maybe I’m the victim of unrealistic expectations. I’ve heard the sequel to this book is a lot better, which is great but gives me pause. How is the sequel already written?!

*a BRAD is a Beach Read After Dark. It’s a more explicit romance! Proceed with caution; check my highlights for more.