Member Reviews
I have really enjoyed this series and wish there was more! The characters all drew me in right away and while Bethany is my favorite, I really loved seeing how the previous main characters in this series have continued to grow and change and have their storylines develop. Bethany and Wes make such a good team and individually I loved them both as well. Both are dealing with insecurities in their lives, but yet they dive in when they need to. There is so much more to this story as we learn of Wes's sister and their childhoods and how they both have struggled and what has gotten them to this point in each of their lives. One of my favorite parts of the story is Bethany coming to the home to help when Lauren has friends over, the pure joy and excitement the girls feel and how Bethany is more of a natural than she thinks, when she allows herself to just respond and interact instead of overthinking. Such a great series!
What a comeback! This book is actually the third installment of a series that I had a rocky relationship with. I enjoyed the first book, Fix Her Up, and the relationship between Georgie and Travis. But, I just didn’t enjoy the second book, Love Her Or Lose Her. I felt like it was too much in some areas, but not enough in others. So why did I request this ARC of the third book? I just really felt like Bethany and Wes would have a great story, and - spoiler alert - they did!
If you are anything like me and had a rocky relationship with this series, I would still recommend picking this one up! Bailey did such a good job finding the balance between creating tension, conflict, romance, and humor. The banter between characters was spot on, and hands down the best banter of the series. I also liked how even though Bethany and Wes had instant chemistry, that didn’t necessarily mean they had insta-love. Throughout the book they work towards earning each other’s trust, respect, and ultimately love. This book didn’t have as much steam as previous books by this author, but it definitely still had p l e n t y of steam!
Before you ask, yes, this book does still contain some unusual word choices. My favorite was probably when the author compared kissing to “a mating of their tongues” LOL. BUT, the closest she gets to pet names in this one is darlin’ , which was actually pretty cute. The word choices didn’t stop me from enjoying this story! Overall, a solid romance!
What a fun conclusion to this series! I enjoyed the tension between Wes and Bethany and loved the sweet relationship between Laura and "Elsa". I loved seeing Georgie & Travis and Rosie & Dominic and where they were as this story was unfolding. The competition between Bethany and Stephen was just plain fun, and the epilogue was so sweet!
This was a very sweet romance! A bit raunchy for my tastes as it’s very descriptive and almost erotica. However, the love story was beautiful and the character development was fantastic. The plot was unique and I enjoyed the storyline. This was executed fabulously and left me smiling! My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.
Everything is Bethany Castle's life is perfect, except it's not. A string of failed relationships has pushed her to focus on her career goals, namely flipping a house on her own after years of working with her brother. The only problem is she doesn't really know anything about the construction end of the business, also, she doesn't like to get dirty. Enter Wes Daniels, he's had his eye on Bethany since he came to town to look after his niece for his sister. Always going through life never wanting anything serious, Wes jumps a the chance to help Bethany with her flip. Unfortunately for them, their timeline has just gotten a whole lot tighter when Bethany and her brother Stephen agree to make house flipping a competition for a reality show.
Tools of Engagement is such a great read. It has so many of the tropes I love, age gap with an older woman, single dad, enemies to lovers, it has great banter and it's funny and full of heart. Bethany was so relatable in her insecurities and need to appear to have everything completely together, I could feel her anxiety. Wes was a little bit of a surprise and absolutely perfect, learning to distract her when she started to spiral, yes he's a bit alpha, but really sweet and patient where it counts. I also loved that they were each on their own journey, Wes taking on his niece and Bethany learning how to corral her anxiety, but in the end, coming together and taking on those things as a unit. Really my favorite out of the series, definitely recommend.
This is the third book in the Hot & Hammered series by Tessa Bailey. They should be read in order because the author references some information from the other books in the series. This one revolves around Bethany and Wes. Bethany wants to prove herself to her family that she came branch out on her own, so when a local tv show gets wind of a house flip they create a show about Bethany and her brother both flipping houses. A Flip-Off is born. Bethany takes the challenge but needs a staff. Enter Wes and his skills. Cute rom-com that I enjoyed reading.
Tessa Bailey course-corrected after the drama-heavy H&H #2 and once again finds that perfect line between conflict, fun, and romance. Add in some fantastic banter and you can't help but love the relationship developing between Bethany and Wes.
It was fun to read about tightly wound Bethany finally taking on the flip she'd been wanting to since book 1 and slowly learning that perfect isn't always necessary while super cool Wes is there to support and encourage her. I also (surprisingly) really enjoyed the extra element of a little kid being in the middle. It adds that element of sadness that only makes the HEA that much sweeter, plus, some of the sweetest moments of the book center around little Laura and her interactions with both Bethanie and Wes.
I will say that it was a tad light on the super-hot, smexy scenes that I so enjoyed in previous volumes, but it fits with the overall tone of the book. It's not as much as I've come to expect from Bailey, but it's the perfect amount for the plot. If that makes any sense.
Overall, it's a truly satisfying rom-com that's heavy on the romance and the banter and a fun, distracting read that's definitely worth your time.
Also, we get to see Georgie and Travis' wedding!
Many, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to get an early peek.
I am sad to report this one only ranks as 3.5 stars for me.
I am very disappointed with this one.
I absolutely loved the first two books in this series, but I had trouble staying in this story. Bethany drove me nuts. No matter how hard I tried, I did not like her. She didn’t seem so bad before as a supporting character... Wes and Laura were great characters! And I loved seeing my favorite characters from the two previous stories.
This one can be read on its own, but I recommend you read the first two first. Don’t let this story turn you off this author.
This book was great! It was so easy to lose yourself in the story, and kept you turning pages to see what happened next! Will definitely be recommending!
This enemies-to-lovers romance is set in the house flipping world, much like the author's previous books in the Just Us League. With this one, Wes and Bethany have so much banter together which is what I love, so it's won me over. It does awkwardly flip between the two Point-of-Views, but the voices are drastically different so it's not that confusing. It's very cute, but does escalate very fast, which is good because a slow burn wouldn't have worked as well between these two characters and their chemistry and attraction. It does feel like just another cutesy, steamy romance and that's about it. There's some very detailed language and lots of steamy scenes, so if that's not your style, FYI. It's a romance, nothing more or nothing less, it is what it is and just what you'd expect in the genre. It's a fine, easy romance read. That being said, the HEA at the end is sweet and adorable, I can't ignore or brush over that. Since it is the third book in the series, it definitely is meant for an audience that knows the other two books since it has the same characters. Having not read the others first, it's just fine, but had I read the others, I'm sure I'd like even more.
Such a great finish to the trilogy. The characters are well realized and the emotional arcs started in previous books carries through very nicely. A fun sexy read.
The witty banter is top notch, and the growth arcs of the main characters were beautiful. I liked the unconventional single parent aspect, as well as the heroine learning to embrace imperfections. Won't be my last Tessa Bailey book!
Really great books! I got a little bit of Bethany in Georgie & Travis' story but I wish we would have gotten a little bit more of Bethany & Wes' bickering aka flirting in real-time instead of just the characters remember things that happened in the past before they were forced together. These characters were GREAT. Nothing they did felt dramatic for the sake of the story or a forced problem it was all realistic, understandable, and smooth. The ending felt a little too perfect for me but it didn't ruin the book. Great ending to the series!
I have been a fan of Tessa Bailey for years and this latest series of books have all been crowd pleasers. In this book we get a nice rivals to lovers trope with some forced proximity to make it a little more fun. Tessa knows how to write a good hero and Wes is close to becoming my favorite. I'm also a fan of any book where the buttoned up girl falls for the charming rogue. This is a fun read for any HGTV fans!
Wow what a great book!!! I think this was my favorite one in the series. I'd always been really interested in Bethany from the first book so I've been looking forward to this book for a really long time and it did not disappoint. Also, hints were dropped in the last book that it would be Bethany and Wes and they already seemed like a great match so I was really ready to start this book. I really liked the plot of this book I thought it was really different even from the other two books and I literally couldn't put it down. Wes was so sweet and it was incredible how we would talk Bethany off the ledge. I think it was such a positive to have a kid involved in the plot as well it really added to the whole story and gave their relationship real depth as well. I really liked the fact that Bethany was venturing out and doing her whole house versus just the staging part. I felt that it was a little unrealistic how they got the tv show but oh well, it really added to the plot. I just also feel like all of us can relate to Bethany in some way with all the internal demons and I think that's what set this book apart for me. Overall, I absolutely loved this book so I give it 5 stars!
This books I seriously better than sliced bread and QVC in the middle of a sleepless night!
Bethany and Wes are #couplegoals! Their banter, lust filled hate and messy perfection hook you immediately! I loved the steadfast determination of wes to land his woman! He dived in head first and didn’t just talk the talk no he walked it in right jeans that had Bethany melting! Bethany didn’t make it easy for him but it showed him and her that this “chase” was more than a fling and as they spent more time together and peeled back each other’s layers they found their home!
I loved not only the hero and heroine but the whole dang town! I love that there wasn’t a “villain” everyone was redeemable and relatable! It was a swoon worthy romance that had me laughing, crying and falling in love with love all over again!
I've the two previous novels by Tessa Bailey in this series and this one did not disappoint. It's nice to read about couples you don't usually see in other romance novels. Bethany and Wes's relationship has the perfect build up, they seem to not like each other at first, but when they end up having to work together, Wes gets to see the crack in Bethany's perfect facade. The ending was very satisfying.
I loved this book so much. Wes and Bethany were great together even though the had a large age gap (she was 7 years older than him). We read older than 23–probably because of his past. My only issue is that I don’t think they talked through their problems enough to not end up having the same issues again over and over.
This might be my favorite of Tessa Bailey’s books. Bethany and Wes work together on flipping a house to prove her talents to her family and win a television competition. The basis of the story is a hate to love relationship and the main characters have great chemistry. I will say that there were times when I wanted Bethany to believe in herself more and stop trying so hard to prove herself to others. That seems to be a common character trait in women in romance books, women too driven to allow for other sides to their personality. Her development throughout the book was fun to see and I did root for her as a character so that aspect did not get in the way of my enjoyment of the story. Wes is caring for his young niece and that relationship added a lot to the character’s personality. It would have been easy for him to come across as just a flirty cowboy but his devotion to Laura showed a deeper side of his character. All in all, this book is fun, sweet, and entertaining. It’s a perfect book for the beach or an easy summer night.
Thanks to Tessa Bailey, Avon/HarperCollins Publishers, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Loved it! Anything Tessa Bailey is an auto buy for me. Her books are a perfect escape! It is the perfect balance of drama, character development, and sexiness.