Title: It Happened One Summer (It Happened One Summer #1)

Author: Tessa Bailey

Publisher: Avon 2021

Genre: Romance

Pages: 416

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR; Romanceopoly - Summer

Spice Meter: 5

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.

I finally found a Tessa Bailey book that I didn’t hate. I was hoping for a good enemies to lovers trope. We don’t exactly get that here, but I still enjoyed the story of Brendan and Piper. The story went a lot deeper than I was expecting and we get into issues surrounding grief. I was very on board with more serious relationship talk. Ultimately we get a nice romance with a great setting and fun side characters. The sex scenes felt a bit forced in places, but were ultimately decent. I was really just wanting much more banter. I may even read the next book.

It Happened One Summer

• #1 It Happened One Summer

• #2 Hook, Line, and Sinker

Next up on the TBR pile: