Lights, camera, action! Wow!!!! I freaking love this story.


Hannah, the sister from It Happen One Summer’s heroine, learns how to be the leading lady in her life while slowly stepping out from the sidelines. She works as a lowly Production Assistant with a desire to become a film composer.


The main theme is friends to lovers. Fox Thorton, is a heart-wrenching hero who blames his past for his womanizing. His self-loathing as a manwhore has created a life void of relationships. Like other king crab fishermen in the Northwest, his love is the sea. Together they create a perfect storm in romance.

I had to put my kindle down and create a music playlist to continue reading. The nostalgia of music and life is so personal for me. Like Fox and Hanna’s story with music, I relate moments in my life to movies. This is probably why I loved Hannah’s blossoming journey. She found her life’s calling and a happy ever after. The epilogue was epic (pun intended).


If you can believe sweet, heartwarming, and seriously hot and dirty sexy banter can coexist, you have yourself a Tessa Bailey romance. This story is really hot.
Bailey is a great storyteller. The writing is so descriptive and engaging, I could hear the raging storm through her words and the music selections. Right now, I am listening to The Doors‘ Riders of the Storm as I write this review.

Hook, Line, and Sinker is a deeply emotional standalone story in The Bellinger Sisters series. If you love a seductive slow-burn with small-town charm, then you’ll love Tessa Bailey’s sizzling rom-com romance.

This was a great addition to the first book! I really enjoy Tessa Bailey's writing and the adventures she takes us on.

This book was an emotional roller coaster. I thought it was going to be the usual playboy falling for the sister-in-law of his best friend but it was so much more. Fox has so influenced by the societal pressure placed on him to be a playboy that he was breaking under it. When he wants more with Hannah, there is so much doubt in his head and comments from the town, that it is just heartbreaking. I didn’t expect Hannah to be the “strong” character in this book but she really was. She suffers from some confidence issues but with Fox’s support, she’s able to push through those and really shine. And then she turns that same confidence on Fox and pushes him to be more than his reputation.

Unlike the previous book with the rebuilding of the bar, this book was really just focused on Hannah and Fox. The way they interact with each other, the role music plays, all of that just works together to take the reader on an emotional journey. This book is almost a slow burn because it does take a while for Hannah and Fox to give into that simmering passion between them and there is a few almost moments. But the emotions you experience reading this story makes the slow burn bearable. And when it does happen, Tessa Bailey’s trademark dirty talk and sexy scenes are there.

Overall, I really loved the Bellinger sisters series. Hannah is an easier character to relate to from the beginning, unlike Piper but she still has emotional depth. I loved the role that music plays in this book, in Hannah and Fox’s relationship, Hannah’s job, and her new understanding of the father she doesn’t remember via sea shanties. This book really packs an emotional punch and I am here for it!

I truly enjoy anything that Tessa Bailey writes. This duology was no different. I loved the story of Fox and Hannah. I am not huge on friends to lovers, but something about their chemistry really jumped out at me. I also love the small story line about Hannah becoming more connected with her deceased father. If there was just one thing I wasn't over the moon about, it was that Fox's dirty talk was just a little cringe..

This book was exquisite. I enjoyed it so much that when my Kindle died when I was at 73% of the book I got upset. The characters are realistic, funny, and witty; the relationship that is built between the two main characters is so sweet; and there were no instances of the miscommunication trope which I was very thankful for since it's my least favorite trope ever. It was also easy to get into even without knowing what happened in book 1.
This book shows the reader what a healthy relationship is like: learning to communicate with your partner and sharing what is wrong to be able to work it out together. Additionally, the spice was magnificent.
I highly recommend this book.

Hook, Line, and Sinker brought me right back to Westport in all the ways I wanted! Hannah and Fox's story is much more serious than her sister's in It Happened One Summer, but the angst was believable and I loved seeing Hannah shine as her own leading lady.

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey is the second book in the Bellinger Sisters series and gives us Hannah’s story. We met Hannah and Fox in the first book. They hit it off when they met and have been friends. Good friends. Fox is known as a player and living his life as he wants. Hannah is sweet and caring but has her own insecurities. They are friends. Nothing more. Right? But when they find themselves sharing space together lines begin to blur. This friends to lovers story was sweet and charming.

Happy reading!

2.5 ⭐️
Friends to lovers is my kryptonite... but I didn't feel like they were truly friends from the get go. Hannah was just a non-hookup for Fox and their interactions weren't swoony at all. My chat messages to my college classmates were more passionate.

While I appreciated that they didn't jump into bed the moment they started living together, it was just another scenario of "let's see if this is truly romantic feelings we're feeling without the distraction of getting physical"

Fox was my main problem. I felt like his perception of his self-worth being a hindrance was too exaggerated and he was way too focused on other people's perception towards his behavior, when he could've proven them wrong by being with Hannah? Him self sabotaging the relationship (and that third-act breakup, THE ACTUAL BANE OF MY EXISTENCE) felt a tad too ridiculous.

To quote Hannah: “You’re wonderful, and I love you. Okay, you stupid idiot? So when you’ve done some thinking and pulled your head out of your stubborn ass, come and find me. You’re worth the wait.”
Lowkey I wanted her to just leave and let Fox grovel his way to LA.

Hannah was a gem though. I needed more interactions between my faves Hannah and Piper, we didn't get enough! But that epilogue was cute, I have to admit.

Hook, Line, and Sinker is the second book in the Bellinger Sisters by Tessa Bailey. A captivating romance with equal parts swoony and angsty friends-to-lovers that will leave you wanting more. I can't wait to read in the Bellinger Sisters.

Considering all the rave reviews regarding this book, I think it was probably just not a good fit for me.

I review lots of books, and this didn't fall into the rom-com subgenre for me. I just didn't feel those vibes. It really felt more like a coming-of-age YA (I mean no offense with the age level), let-me-talk-about-sex-continually book. Sex inuendos were throughout.

I didn't click with the characters. At. All. They were both annoying and I had a hard time sympathizing with the baggage they each brought to the table.

I won't elaborate further, but the writing and plot were a no-go for me.

My thanks to NetGalley for an ARC and the ability to review this without stipulations.

The second book (and I assume, final) in the Bellinger Sisters series focuses on Hannah and Fox. She ends up returning to the small Washington town when the movie she's working on decides to film there, on her suggestion. She stays in Fox's guest room as things begin to heat up between them in this slow-burn contemporary romance.

First of all, I am in love with this series. I am sad that we probably won't get to visit them again. The relationship progresses realistically and believably. Both Fox and Hannah have baggage to unpack and work through before they can finally get their HEA. The epilogue was perfect!

It's no secret that It Happened One Summer was one of my favorite books last year, I think I've recommended it to near everyone I know. I was beyond excited to read Hannah and Fox's story in this second installment.

I loved the friendship between these two from the jump, their story was teased out beautifully in IHOS (when he bought her the album <3). After becoming closer friends, and being thrown together when Piper's in-laws visit and Hannah needs a place to stay, the tension between them builds. The character development of both of them is great in this, but it's Fox that really shines, as he goes from a self-conscious playboy to someone who is confident and knows his self-worth.

As is common with this friends-to-lovers trope, the romance is a bit of a slow build, but it's not without Tessa Bailey's signature dirty talking spice. A great finish to the duology!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 4 stars

This book is so much fun and I love Hannah and Fox!

It's a friends to lovers romance that will have you laughing and with just the right amount of angst and sexual tension.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ✩✩✩
Audience: Adult
Length: 400 Pages
Author: Tessa Bailey
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: March 1, 2022

Synopsis: King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he’s a guaranteed good time–in bed and out–and that’s exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.
Now, Hannah’s in town for work, crashing in Fox’s spare bedroom. She knows he’s a notorious ladies’ man, but they’re definitely just friends. In fact, she’s nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport’s resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker’s eye… yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can’t deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.
Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she’s walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and… and… man overboard! He’s fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he’s all in, she’ll choose him instead?

Things I liked: Friends to lovers is consistently one of my favorite tropes. I like seeing relationships grow and evolve and friends to lovers is perfect for that. I think Tessa Bailey does a good job with it. In addition, it’s very evident that she does a lot of background research into her books and different plot points, such as when Fox works on his boat. The extent of fishing terminology that was used really indicated the extra effort Bailey put into making this book as true to the characters as it could be, beyond just their relationship.

Things I disliked: I couldn’t stand how heavy the sexual tension was in this book. Don’t get me wrong, I love some sexual tension. But for the love of god, this book, everything was sexual for Fox. Any time he saw Hannah he was like wow she’s so beautiful, I love her personality, she makes me hard. I’m over here like, bro chill out? Like you don’t have to sexualize her every waking second. If you like her like you say you do, it doesn’t inherently have to be sexually driven EVERY WAKING SECOND.
It also felt a little too drawn out. I love a good slow burn but this felt like 75% of the book was spent with these characters having obvious attraction to one another and them just refusing to do anything about it. I get Fox has his own personal issues with commitment but my goodness.

My Review: Far too over-sexualized of a romance for me to enjoy it, and when the romance was finally given time to shine it was luke warm at best. Overall this book was fine.

Would I Recommend It?: Meh

3.5-3.75 stars. This was a pretty good book. Hook, Line and Sinker is book two in the Bellinger Sisters series and is Hannah and Fox's book. We met Hannah in book one, It Happened One Summer, when she spent the with her sister in the small fishing village of Westport, where deceased her father grew up. After the Summer, her sister Piper fell in love and stayed in the town, while Hannah moved back to LA and continued working as a PA to a movie director (Sergei) and dreaming of making movie soundtracks. But she misses Westport, her sister, and Fox, who she met that summer and kept in touch with ever since. Fox is Piper's boyfriend's best friend, a fisherman, laid back guy and decidely a "just one night" kind of guy. He never plans on settling down. Hannah and Fox have a connection and attraction that develops into friendship, but can't be more because she is a forever kind of girl. When Hannah convinces Sergei to film his latest movie in Westport, she is excited to return to town for work and to see Piper and Fox again. Their friendship continues as she stays with Fox and develops into more quickly. But Fox has a lot to face about why he is the way he is and insecurities to overcome before they can begin a relationship.

This was a good story. I liked Hannah. She is very sweet and giving. She did have her insecurities about being a "leading lady" in life and not just a bit player. But she was brave and willing to try to get what she wanted. Fox was a good guy and I wanted him to be happy, but he had so much to overcome to start believing in himself and to know that he was deserving of happiness too.
While I liked this book, I didn't quite love it. It was not quite as good as the first book in the series to me. Fox's insecurities were sad and overwhelming at times. I felt bad for him, but it did get old by the end. I wanted him to be a bit more assertive and there to be more sincere chase in him, instead of him constantly thinking he wasn't worthy of Hannah. I liked Hannah and I felt bad for her that she had to deal with that. I am a big fan of Ms. Bailey's books. Part of what I like about her heroes are how assertive they usually are, but Fox was a bit different. I guess I need him to pull his head out of his rear end sooner. Because of this, the romance just never quite got there for me. I also wanted to see a scene where he stood up for himself to his rude crew members and the townfolk that treated him poorly. Still, there were lots of cute moments. I liked the music theme woven throughout and Hannah's connection to music. The book kept my attention and I enjoyed it. I was happy Hannah and Fox took the risks needed in their work lives and in their romantic lives to have a happy future together.

Overall, I liked this book. While it isn't my favorite Tessa Bailey book, it is worth reading and a satisfying conclusion to the Bellenger Sisters duet. I look forward to more from Ms. Bailey in the future.

Hook, Line, and Sinker
By Tessa Bailey

In the follow-up to It Happened One Summer, Tessa Bailey is back with another fun rom-com about a Casanova king crab fisherman named Fox Thornton who finds himself falling in love with his best friend Hannah Bellinger.

In the small town of Westport, Washington, Fox is the resident flirtatious player. Women love him, men are jealous with envy, he is the life of every party. So much so that Fox has fully convinced himself and the ones around him that he is not capable of being anything more than this.
Until he meets Hannah and strikes up a friendship, bonding over their shared love of music. When she returns to Westport for work as a production assistant for a film production, suddenly Fox’s life is turned a little upside down and sideways because Hannah needs a place to stay. Instead of staying with her sister Piper, Hannah stays in the guest bedroom of Fox’s place and this is where the story gets interesting (interesting is a loaded word here).
Initially, Hannah finds that she is head over heels for the director of the movie she’s working on and needs someone to help her get the guy—and of course, Fox assumes he can step in and be of service. Yet as the story unfolds and the more time they spend together living in the same apartment, the more the boundaries between Hannah and Fox blur and perhaps the one true love is right in front of her.
What I really loved about this story is how both Hannah and Fox truly believe they are better off being supporting roles in others lives as opposed to stepping in to the role of lead actor. They are comfortable in the role of lifting up others and supporting other people’s careers. Hannah almost felt like the “hype girl” for not only her sister but for the one’s she worked with as well and because of this, her dreams have taken a backseat. Now that she is back in Westport and with the support of Fox and her family, Hannah is ready to take bigger risks and make the most of her gifts. In the short period of time that she is in town she discovers a great deal about herself and what it truly means to have courage and believe in yourself.
This is also true for Fox who is way more complicated than I initially thought and suffers a great deal from imposter syndrome amongst friends and family. He has grown up to believe that his looks are the only thing going for him and that he’s nothing better than a good hook-up. This is also a classic example of toxic masculinity and how the weight of cultural norms and expectations were placed on him early in childhood. This is then reflected in his relationships and also how he views his worth as a fisherman and the reluctance to take on bigger and better opportunities.
Within these two characters and their personal struggles the reader can sense their wonderful connection mixed with enormous messy tension, and a love that runs deeper than a simply hook-up. I love how the author carefully and sweetly allows their friendship and love to blossom (in-between the explosive, steamy love scenes, hubba hubba).
Funny, heart-felt, romantic, and endearing, Hook, Line, and Sinker is a delightful, slow-burn rom-com that showcases the romance between two likable characters struggling to find the best version of themselves.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books for the advanced reader copy!

I LOVE THIS DUOLOGY. Hook, Line and Sinker is a wonderful story on its own. The relationship between Hannah and Fox is sizzling hot but be forewarned you need to have patience for these two to finally give in. I can’t say enough about these books - Tessa Bailey has the formula for the perfect rom/com.

I received a copy of this book for review from NetGalley. I have been waiting for this book from the moment I finished the first book. That is a lot to live up to, and this book did not disappoint. While not as funny as the first book, Hook, Line, and Sinker is very emotionally satisfying.
Fox and Hannah are so, so good together. I love a friends to lovers, and this balanced that tension very well. Fox rather badly needs therapy, but Hannah does her best to prove to him that he is more than what everyone believes him to be. I really wanted to smack all of his friends, because they continually underestimate him.
Overall, this book was sweet, deeply emotional, a bit angtsy, and very hot. While it is never not weird to read about someone with your name, I got attached to these characters, and I enjoyed getting to know them. It's a good book with a good message, and I will be reading it again.

Aah sigh. Fox. Is. Fabulous.

The first book was all things wonderful in a year where everything was awful. This second story is like the flaky crust of a perfect pie. I’m talking the full piece.

Hannah Bellinger, younger sister to the previous heroine, is back in the crab town of Westport, but this time she’s brought a film crew and is here based on a movie directors’ vision. Same director she’s been pining over for years. Not wanting to barge in or intrude on her sisters happily wedded bliss she decides to stay with consummate ladies’ man, Fox.

Fox has his own rocky backstory, but he’s starting to come out of his shell and even venturing into territory he’s never attempted before. Sharing a living space with a woman. Nope. Captaining is own ship. Nope. The journey is half temptation, and half overcoming is own issues.

The two in the months since the end of book one, It Happened One Summer, have cultivated a friendship between these two through text and music. No one expected it would go anywhere, except for me and other readers, of course. Let’s just say it’s amazing how interaction with a single person can change how the other engaged individual acts and reacts. In the case of Hannah and Fox, it’s all about re-invention and becoming more like the people they are instead of what they’ve always thought they needed to be.

Fox was such the bad boy in book one and he makes this complete 360 I did not expect to happen. I honestly wasn’t sure Fox could be redeemed from his typical one-night stand, lothario status. But Bailey found a way and that way is Hannah. She’s everything unexpected and different with her tendency to rely on music to guide her way through life and emotions, she teaches Fox how to open up.

Add in a little jealousy, a crazy bingo night, and plenty of interference from friends, grandma’s, sisters and more… Bailey gives us another rom-com romance with plenty of laughs, heartaches and swoons. If you love Jill Shalvis or Lauren Layne you would enjoy this one. Note: This book is a standalone, but is better enjoyed if you read book one.

~ Landra

4.5 stars!

This is a friends to lover romance.

This was the cutest thing ever! The chemistry that these characters had was insane. I loved them.
The writing was good as always when it comes to Tessa Bailey.

I loved that the characters, Hannah and Fox communicated often and things weren’t left off unsaid most of the time. There were so many cute moments that made me blush and squeal and that’s how you know that the author know how to write a cute romance.

Please read this book! You need it.

Want to thank the publisher and netgally for the opportunity to read this copy. Thank you!