Review: Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
Thank you Avon Books for my copy of Secretly Yours! All thoughts are my own.
It’s no secret I’m a fan of Tessa Bailey’s books. I like that they make me step back and get completely lost in the Romance because they’re a little absurd and always a good time. I was excited to dive into a new series by here and while I liked this book some, it won’t dethrone any of my other favorites. I didn’t vibe with the characters, I wish the plus size rep was a little more thought out, and things didn’t align for me.
Synopsis:
“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 Napa 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 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 grey-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. “ —NetGalley
What I Liked:
The Setting—Napa always makes me think of Nick Parker from The Parent Trap so I loved the setting so much. I haven’t explored much of the West Coast and this book made me want to book a trip to a vineyard ASAP.
Hallie—I liked Hallie! I found her fun and a little relatable, but the story was still aspirational. She definitely felt like a classic Tessa Bailey heroine in some ways, but she also felt a little two dimensional to me.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
The Tropes—Maybe it’s because I read another book that used letters so well, but I just didn’t buy into this second chance romance.
The Tone—Everything felt a little flat to me. Like, ultimately I just didn’t feel like what was happening made any kind of sense. I’m all for the suspension of disbelief, especially in a Tessa novel, but I couldn’t get into it.
The Structure—I think it came down to the structure and just feeling like the whole situation was just a little confusing to me. And I didn’t vibe with Julian at all!
Character Authenticity: 2/5 Spice Rating: 3/5 Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Content Warnings:
panic attacks, anxiety, PTSD, fire, grief, death of a parent