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. You can find more of my reviews of Tessa's works here.
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 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.
I read and reviewed an e-ARC of this novel. Thank you to the publisher for the e-ARC!
I love how this book tackles grief and anxiety. Both main characters, Hallie and Julian, are complete opposites of one another in every way; and yet they're both battling inner demons while working their way closer to one another. I love inner turmoil, because it makes the romance at the end all the more rewarding, but there's something especially special when the inner turmoil for the main characters comes from their knowledge that they need to grow, and not knowing how. Mental health is especially important, and so it was great to see some of that representation here in the form of Julian's panic attacks and anxiety. Bailey handles this, as well as Hallie's journey through grief and growth, with compassion and care.
The romance is just the perfect storm—Hallie, a wild gardener, paired with Julian, the timely professor. Both of them have to learn how to meet in the middle with the other, while also holding onto the things that make them uniquely them. It makes both characters extremely relatable, while also sending that important message, that love comes with compromise, while also loving yourself and someone else for exactly who they are. Bailey balances these truths incredibly well, and it makes the ending of this novel so sweet.
This book is perfectly set up to be another duology, with Julian's sister Natalie's story in the forefront. The way Bailey focuses on Hallie and Julian is perfect, but I also love how that expands into a focus on Natalie and Julian's family and Hallie's friend. Not a single character is introduced and forgotten; every single character has an important part in this novel, which makes the world Bailey creates one that I can't wait to see again.
There's so much more I could probably say about this one—how I loved the secret love letters; the wine events Hallie and Julian attend; the way the main characters slowly reveal themselves to the other; the steaminess—but what I really want to end on is that I think this is Bailey's best yet. She is able to combine everything fun about It Happened One Summer with everything super emotional from Hook, Line, and Sinker. This absolutely makes Secretly Yours a gem of a Tessa Bailey novel, and I can't wait for what's to come!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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