New Release: Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey + Review!

 

Secretly Your by Tessa Bailey is now available!

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.

Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3czZ70h

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/3cwUN1u

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3OpaDIM

Review:

4-4.25 stars

****

This was a good book. Tessa Bailey has been hit or miss for me as a reader, and her hits are her older books for me with the newer ones being misses. But I would put this book in the hit category. Secretly Yours is Hallie and Julian's story. Hallie is a gardener/landscaper who specializes in out of the box, unstructured designs and lives in her small, winery town in the Napa Valley. Julian's family owns a winery there where he grew up, but he now lives a few hours away, working as a professor. JHe is back in town on a break from work, staying in his mother's guesthouse and writing a novel. Hallie had a crush on Julian as a teen and has spent the years since wondering what could have been between them. For Julian's part, he doesn't recognize her at first, but soon wonders how he could have forgotten someone who enchants him so. When Hallie is hired to do the gardens at his property, she begins writing him secret admirer letters, in a completely harmless not creepy way, not expecting him to ever be interested in her, but wanting him to realize how amazing she thinks he is. Meanwhile, as she works on the gardens, Julian and Hallie soon find themselves forming a connection in person as well and falling for each other.

This was a good book with a cute story. I liked Hallie and Julian. Both of these characters are quirky and unusual. Julian is very structured and can't deviate from his very strict daily routine or else. He keeps to himself and doesn't have close friends or relationships. Hallie is funny, scattered and endearing. They are very much opposites who attract. Neither can quite believe that each other could be interested in them. The book had lots of romantic, swoony, poignant moments and the couple was very sweet together. Their relationship was a slow burn, second chance one with some super spicy moments. These two adored and worshipped each other. They had great chemistry and connection, both being each other's first loves and Hallie is a virgin. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Napa Valley small town and the descriptions of Hallie's gardening. I would have loved an epilogue and a glimpse into the future for these two.

Overall, this was a good book. Hallie and Julian's relationship journey was sweet and romantic. I really enjoyed this story and I look forward to more from this series and Miss Bailey in the future.