Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Romance
Blurb (on back of book):
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 OPINION: **
Despite some of my raving reviews from the past, I've decided that Tessa Bailey simply isn't for me. Sure, she has a few books I really enjoyed but I would not willingly pick up another one of her books for a while after this standalone series.
This was actually one of the most excruciating books to get through. This summer has not been summering because I was expecting to read quick, fun, cute romances and pass the time away. I have just gone through a series of misses this July, and it's made me lose all interest in reading, hence the fact that I've literally read four books this month when I usually read ~10.
Julian and Hallie were just so not my vibe. They had no chemistry and it was a relationship based purely off of lust. Everyone who knows me knows I hate insta-love and that's exactly what this was on both sides. I felt no sparks between them and I was not rooting for them at any point in this book. It just felt so on the nose and the romance felt more like lust than romance.
Hallie has been in love with Julian since high school and when they have the chance to reconnect ten years later (he is now a history professor at Stanford and she is a landscaper) she sees this as her opportunity to try to get the man. So she literally writes him some letters signed as a secret admirer while simultaneously getting to know him in real life. He doesn't know that she and the secret admirer are the same person obviously so he finds himself torn.
Please. The secret admirer thing was so stupid and if it had been cut out of the book, it literally wouldn't have made a difference. This man was so unaffected by it and honestly as he should be. Why is he reading letters left for him in a random tree stump outside? Like, be for real. And what was worse, he literally felt GUILTY for liking Hallie and the secret admirer. Like what??? He doesn't even know who the secret admirer is??? I feel like this was put in just so we could have the classic third act conflict (which was one of the worst ones I've ever read in any romance).
Speaking of Julian, this man was so. He objectified Hallie from like chapter one and he seemed to notice her body and her physical features more so than anything else. I feel like it's fine to admire someone physically but the way he described her before he even knew her was sickening (and trademark Tessa Bailey tbh). Also, they're complete opposites and he literally criticizes Hallie's ways but then is willing to be with her because he's just SO attracted to her. And also, she literally changes herself for him. I know it was played out as her changing for herself but be for real. It was all for a MAN. We have got to step up.
This book was set in Napa on a vineyard, which was a different setting from anything I've read.
Tbh this book was not for me. It had a bad plot, poorly written characters, and a boring third act conflict. If you were to read this without ever having read anything else by this woman, please don't judge her too quickly because this is definitely in some of her worst works for me. She has so much better out there and this was just so disappointing. I debated between rating it one or two stars but ultimately decided that it wasn't so awful that I would burn it, hence the two stars.
Main Character: Hallie, Julian
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Stalker energy!, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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