Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

Secretly Yours

By: Tessa Bailey

Series:

A Vine Mess # 1

Genre:

Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Rom-Com, Fiction

Pages:

384

Release Date:

February 7, 2023

My Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Spice Rating

🌶🌶🌶/5 spice

Synopsis:

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 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 gray-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.

My Thoughts:

Tessa Bailey is an author that never fails to disappoint me. I absolutely adored this new book that's the first in another great romance series.

The MCs were funny and as always there was a good amount of spice in this book. I liked that it took place in Napa Valley and the small-town charm/residents that I hope we will get to know more about in the next book. Bailey always has a way of writing that makes it so hard to set down a book and this one had no exception. I started it late one evening and had to force myself to set it down only to devour the last 70% the next day. Julian and Hallie were complete opposites and I liked this aspect. They had funny banter and especially the way Julian spoke to her just had a chokehold on me. Bailey has an exceptional ability to write the fictional man we all wish we had in our lives.

There is that slight mystery element with Corked and I hope that continues in the next book to and we get to watch this cute wine store thrive better than stupid UnCorked. I agree with Hallie that it's just tacky. especially in a wine shop. I also adored Julian's sister and cannot wait to see what happens with her in the next book. PLEASE BAILEY MAKE THIS MORE THAN JUST A DUET!

Overall, easily another 5-star read from Bailey and I highly recommend it to those who are fans of her books. I quite literally had a hard time putting it down and loved every minute of it. If you haven't read a Bailey book - pick this one up when it gets released!

Huge thanks to Avon Books, Tessa Bailey and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!