Release Reviews: Hook, Line, and Sinker: Tessa Bailey
Hook, Line, and Sinker
(Bellinger Sisters Series #2)
(Bellinger Sisters Series #2)
Tessa Bailey
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Expected March 1, 2022
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King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he's a guaranteed good time--in bed and out--and that's exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She's immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his... personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.
Now, Hannah's in town for work, crashing in Fox's spare bedroom. She knows he's a notorious ladies' man, but they're definitely just friends. In fact, she's nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport's resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker's eye... yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can't deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.
Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she's walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and... and... man overboard! He's fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he's all in, she'll choose him instead?
In the follow-up to It Happened One Summer, Tessa Bailey delivers another deliciously fun rom-com about a former player who accidentally falls for his best friend while trying to help her land a different man...
We saw the spark between Hannah Bellinger and Fox Thornton in her sister's book. It Happened One Summer. And after summer faded and Hannah left Westport and returned to California they have become text buddies...but now she is coming back for a while and needs a place to stay.
Hannah has always felt like she has lived in her sister's shadow...always second best and takes more of a supporting role in life. She is a production assistant but dreams of moving up in the movie industry on her own merits and incorporating her love for music. She is smart, funny, sassy, and talented. But she seems to always be overlooked and becomes awkward at times. And that has kept her crushing on her director in secret for years.
Fox is a king crab fisherman on his friend's boat. He is known as an easy-going ladies' man that does not take anything seriously. He has already been warned off of hurting Hannah multiple times by his friends. But Hannah seems to be able to see through his cocky and charming facade to the damaged, scared, and vulnerable man beneath. And the more he lets her see, the scarier it gets because then there is hope involved. He sells himself short and that is usually reinforced by other people's perceptions of him. It is easier to push people away than risk getting hurt.
This is the story of two people not living up to their full potential and letting other people influence their own self-worth. It's time for Hannah to be the leading lady in her own life and fight for him to make him feel worthy and also for what she wants in her career. And Fox will have to figure out how not to let his past and people's opinions make him unsure. It is all about finding trust and faith in themselves and each other. And then figuring out the rest of their external obstacles.
This is a sweet, sexy, emotional, inspiring, forbidden, friends-to-lovers romance. But it is also about them empowering themselves to feel, trust, and take ownership of their lives. This brings back her sister, Piper, and her love/his best friend, Brendan as well as the colorful characters and setting of Westport.
I loved the friendship formed in the background of It Happened One Summer between Fox and Hannah and was looking forward to finding out what happened after Hannah went back to LA (and maybe getting more details than what Piper and Brendan knew).
For the first time in his life, Fox isn’t out trying to catch any and every beautiful woman who crosses his path. His coworkers still expect him to maintain the party boy ways he is known for, but it has lost his luster and all he wants is to text and talk to Hannah.
Hannah has returned to her LA life, continuing to play the role of 2nd fiddle but dreaming of leading lady. Her love of music has her wondering if a career in soundtracking could be possible, but she worries about asking for more at work. When her director wants a change of location on their latest movie, she suggests Westport, which he agrees to immediately.
With Hannah and Fox back in the same town and sharing an apartment (Piper’s guest room was already in use), their friendship rekindles. But Fox has been warned off Piper, so even as they both feel sparks flying they try to keep things platonic as long as possible.
I loved these two, as I mentioned before, and this story lived up to everything I hoped for. I never would have guessed there was so much to Fox’s behaviors and loved as each layer was revealed. Hannah had her own development, and though she was a strong independent personality before, the events of this story required that she make some tough decisions and stand up for what she wanted. I loved the arc each of them took and the way their story resolved.
This was a small town meets big city continuation from the first Bellinger sister story, but it also added forbidden romance, mistaken expectations, and reaching for dreams. I flew through the story, devoting most of 1 day to it and finishing wishing there was more to this family so we could go back to Westport in the future.
It Happened One Summer
Our reviews
Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girl” who is cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong.
Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.
Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.
Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.
Tessa Bailey
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New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Bailey can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk,” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon and a guaranteed happily ever after. Catch her on TikTok at @authortessabailey or check out tessabailey.com for a complete list of books.
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