This was a sweet look at the less-than-perfect female protagonist (she seems to have ADHD, and is disorganized) with a heart of gold and a professor who seems to have it all together but who suffers from anxiety. This wasn't my favorite of Tessa Bailey's romances, but the characters had cute quirks and lots of charm. I definitely felt that the supporting characters were far less interesting and the idea that this took place in Napa seemed a little out of place. Overall, the romance was spicy and the plot was a lot of fun.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I don't typically read these types of books (thought I'd attempt to branch out), so take my review with a grain of salt. Firstly, did not know there was going to be a huge smut element here, so that was a bit of a shocker.

In terms of actual storyline, it had one, but I did not find it terribly interesting. I felt the anxiety B-story was not super necessary and it led to a lot of unnecessary miscommunication and confusion at the end. Likewise, I didn't have any investment in the characters either way. If they ended up together or not didn't really matter to me. They were kind of one dimensional (i.e. Hallie -> no method to her flower planting -> therefore a huge mess; Julian -> professor of something I'm not sure you can be a professor in -> rigid). The characters developed very quickly so I didn't think it fostered very much investment in the outcome.

I probably wouldn't pick up another of her books, but if you are just looking for something light and sexy maybe this will be a win for you. Not typically my wheelhouse so I'll skip going forward!

Tessa Bailey is usually one of my auto-buy authors, but this one fell flat for me. I didn't especially love the characters, and the story was just okay. I felt like she was trying to do a little too much here, especially with the character of Hallie

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyer Publishing, Tessa Bailey, and NetGalley for this eARC!
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Hallie & Julian are the epitome of opposites attract! He has the next ten years planned down to the minute, and she hasn’t thought about what’s she will do ten minutes from now.
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Read if you like:
✉️ Anonymous Love Letters
🌀 Calm meets Chaos
💕 Returned Teenage Crush
📚 Professor Love Interest
👩🏻‍🦰 Quirky FMC
👿 If Shes Upset I’m Upset

this was a typical Tessa Bailey book that was more focused on the sex than building a romance. I also thought the crush aspect was a little weird for how into him she was after all the years.

This was my first Tessa Bailey book and it was just okay.. I had high hopes since everyone loved her recent book, It Happened One Summer. This one just really fell flat for me. I didn’t connect with the characters, and I thought the storyline jumped around way too much. It was weird to leave him secret letters. I felt like she was trying too hard to create the perfect love story. Overall, it’s a decent cheesy rom com that doesn’t stand out. I personally wouldn’t be running to stores on pub day to buy it.

Secretly Yours was a cute romcom that hit on multiple tropes including second chance romance (although I wouldn’t personally classify it as such), grumpy/sunshine and small town. It was a quick read that also touched on anxiety and dealing with panic attacks. I thought the main relationship felt a little more Insta-love than second chance so I would recommend if that is something you enjoy. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

Secretly Yours has a lot of delicious tropes a lot of us enjoy - small town romance, grumpy x sunshine, instalove and lots of spice and yet, it kind of missed the mark for me. Hallie is twenty nine and the fact that always being late and being scattered is sold as cute when she's a business owner just kinda made me instantly dislike her. Not to mention a lot of the mischief she partook in felt incredibly childish and it just did not translate as playful. The sexual tension between Julian and Hallie, while steamy (that kitchen scene!) felt like it lacked something - the chemistry just did not translate well for me which made the insta-love difficult to believe.

This was not the best Tessa Bailey. The romance was kind of weird and there was too much of a contrast of the instalove of the hero and pining of the heroine. It was bizarre. However, I did love the town and the characters of the town. They reminded me of the community in Gilmore Girls with its quirky, charming characters.

Honestly, Tessa Bailey books are gonna be a no from me from now on. I loved it happened one summer but every book I've read by her since then had fallen flat, this one included.
This book has small town vibes where the fmc becomes the gardener for her high school crush, but he doesn't remember her. I liked the small town set up that she described and I even like most of the characters in this book.
However, Julian, the mmc, just was really 2D. I felt like his whole personality was anxiety and sex. Another this I was disappointed by the storyline of corked vs uncorked. Literally we hear all about these two stores then about 2/3 the way through the book it's just like never mentioned again until the very end. This book just wasn't it.

Secretly Yours was hit or miss for me. My first reaction was fairly positive because I loved how much the characters seemed to genuinely love each other and respected their flaws. Anxiety rep in a male main character is a rare find too. But then as the story continues, the connection that Hallie created in her mind from one almost kiss with Julian was a little creepy for me, especially as she refuses any other man based on what she thought he might be like. The notes they leave for each other felt unnecessary and under used.

I can see how some readers will fall head over heels with this series though and always love mental health issues discussed in an upfront manner in books.

I’ve really enjoyed the last Tessa Bailey books Avon has published, I had high hopes Secretly Yours would be a win for me. I knew pretty early on into reading that this book was not working for me. The characters were very unlikable (in my opinion) and at 25% I did not care to read any further. DNF.

I really enjoyed this! the mental health rep was a surprise, and I enjoyed that it was a male who had the anxiety issues. The fact that they had an interesting and intricate past was a great addition as well. Plus the spice level here was perfect, Tessa Bailey does a great job

Thank you to Avon Publishing and Tessa Bailey for sending me an ARC of Secretly Yours. However, I will not be sharing my opinion or full review of the book until Harper Collins successfully reaches a deal with the union workers asking for better pay.

Update 3/2/2023: Harper Collins has reached.a deal with the union workers and they have since returned to work.

Unfortunately, I have DNF'd this book. I wanted to like it so much because I love Tessa Bailey's books. I really like the idea of premise and Hallie's chaos wherever she goes! But Julian's personality feels more like a cardboard cutout. I know he's supposed to be subdued because of his anxiety issues but it just feels like he has zero personality at all. Even his feelings for Hallie haven't made me feel anything.

I'm not saying that I'll never return to this book or series, but it's just not for me right now.

I've been TRYING very hard to get on to Tessa Bailey books. For some reason, they do not resonate with me! This one certainly fell flat, unfortunately. The one thing I DO love about TB books is that her spicy scenes are CERTAINLY spicy. They're top tier. The actual romance in this book, however, seemed to fall short for me.

This was my first Tessa Bailey book and with a cover this cute, I just couldn’t resist! I really liked the author’s writing style. It was so spunky and fun, and the characters really came to life for me.

I loved Hallie and Julian so much! They were the perfect grumpy/sunshine couple. Hallie’s chaos and energy was literally a ray of sunshine. Julian was the perfect grump. I could actually relate to him quite a bit with his need to keep a schedule and dislike for interruptions.

I did feel that this book was too long, and things started to drag. It was a suuuuper slow burn, and I think that could’ve been cut down a bit. I also hated the conflict that happened near the end over the secret admirer letters. I thought that was a whole bunch of drama that could’ve easily been avoided, and it was super close to falling into the miscommunication trope (which I can’t stand).

Although there were a few things that didn’t work for me, I thought this was a fun read overall!

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for my gifted copy.

I really liked this book. It was the perfect blend of sweet and intense. The characters were swoon-worthy and the story flowed well. I read this in a sitting or two, so I'd say it's a quick, easy read.

Tessa Bailey is one of my faves when it comes to romance, and I was SO excited to read Secretly Yours, the brand new series, A VINE MESS during Valentine's Day week. Although I had the ebook, I decided to purchase a physical copy for my shelves too.

I loved that it featured a curvy protagonist who desires the attention of a high school crush by leaving behind secret admirer notes. The Napa Valley setting and sweet interaction between the local wine shop owner left me wanting to book a trip to Napa as soon as possible afterwards. I only wish that there was a stronger pull of attraction between love interests, and have come to expect heavier steam from the spice queen, but overall I really enjoyed this cute new romance, and can't wait for the next book in this series!

*many thanks to Avon and netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Like a pretty okay 3.75 stars.

I want to love Tessa Bailey books but they’re not my favorite. I love aspects of them. Love the author, though. She’s hilarious. Which is why I keep coming back for more, but her books just don’t quite do it for me.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: DNF at 49%

There are so many times when I consider DNF-ing a book, but I hesitate, because I like the characters enough to want to see what will happen. When I started contemplating quitting SINCERELY YOURS, I realized I don't care at all what happens to these characters. THAT is the most telling thing I can say about this book.

A FEW OF MY ISSUES:

- The hero hyper-sexualizes the heroine from the first moment they meet. I'm not talking about physical attraction. I am talking about him obsessively leering at different parts of her body for the entire first third of this book.

- The heroine destroys property and steals things from a business in town because she's angry they are competition to a business she loves. It's supposed to be funny, but it just made me dislike this immature heroine.

- The secret admirer letters are so distinctly in the heroine's voice that there is no way the hero would have no idea they were from her. Also, the letters are hand written, so just check the other person's hand writing at any time and the secret is revealed. The author wanted it to be quaint, but it's just improbable instead..

SINCERELY YOURS was a total miss for me.