I like all of Tessa Bailey's books, and this one was good. It wasn't my favorite, but I still found it to be enjoyable. It had a sweet idea about how opposites attract and how the two main characters were very significantly different from one another. It was a sweet, sunshiny, grumpy romance with spice. Tessa never ceases to amaze us by giving our gruff male characters foul mouths. I was unable to relate to the characters, though. Miscommunication disturbs me, but that is a matter of preference. I continued to enjoy the world of this new series and the story of Hallie and Julian. I believe that my main issue was a slight pacing issue. It took me a while to become invested because the first few chapters were slow-moving. To be honest, I wasn't rooting for Hallie and Julian because I found them to be rather uninteresting, and neither their story nor anything about them particularly drew me in. Their chemistry didn't jump off the pages and compelled me to recommend this book to everyone. I did enjoy the Napa small town and the surrounding vineyards. The setting is ideal for romance.

Well this was a pretty cute read and boy was it steamy!!

-witty
-friends to lovers
-kind-of second chance romance
-instant chemistry
-secret admirer
-SMUT

I think Hallie and Julian had insane amounts of chemistry! Though Hallie is messy and a human tornado with Julian being organized and structured! They don’t fit from the outside but they have an irresistible magnetic pull to each other that neither can deny!

The love letters are a cute idea but frankly it felt like it didn’t really help the storyline at all. It didn’t feel like it was worth naming to book around.

The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that I think some of the thought processes from the characters were a bit more dramatic than necessary.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the gifted copy in exchange for my review!

This book is definitely not something I should have picked up but I was obsessed with the characters and actual story of It Happened One Summer so I was like I can deal with the spice of another Tessa Bailey book to get more of her characters.

I was quite wrong on that front. This book is very spicy like nc-17 spicy, particularly in how our love interest talks sometimes and I can't. I made it through because I wanted to see Hallie and Julian have their happy ever after and while that was amazing it was pockmarked with so much smut or dirty talk or references to masturbation it was more than a little uncomfortable to read. Oh well, I've learned my lesson.

Other than that, the interactions between Julian and Hallie are adorable and I loved seeing Julian trying to be batman and help the women in his life without them knowing. The longing in this book both romantic and self-realization related is written so well and I really enjoyed that.

While this wasn’t for me, I can see other people enjoying this. The writing fell flat in this book for me which I was disappointed by because I really enjoyed It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey. However, I’m willing to give her another chance!

This was SO CUTE. I think it’s exactly what I needed to get me out of my reading slump. I was reading books that were too serious and this was perfectly playful and passed the time. I’ve heard great things about Tessa Bailey but never got around to reading any of her books and now I’ll definitely be on the hunt for others.

It was the perfect mix of second chance romance with sexual tension and playful banter between Julian and Hallie. A high school crush plays out fifteen years later and it just all comes together and works.

I also always enjoy a book that gives me perspective into something I’m not familiar with - in this case anxiety and panic attacks. It taught me a lot about how that can be for someone and it felt very realistic and relatable.

Thank you to Net Galley, and Avon and Harper Voyager for this advanced copy to review!!

It’s that time of year again. It’s the time when we think about hearts, and flowers, and writing soul-baring secret admirer letters to crushes that we’ve been pining over for 15 years. Well, maybe not that last one unless you’re gardener Hallie Welch and said crush is Ivy-League school professor Julian Vos who’s just come back to his childhood home for a break to write a novel.

Secretly Yours (Avon Books) by Tessa Bailey is the first of her A Vine Mess series and is set in Napa Valley in the present day: after the horrendous wildfire that happened there a few years ago and the COVID-19 pandemic. Hallie’s a gardener that has inherited her grandmother’s business since she passed away a few months ago. Julian’s mother, Vos Vineyard owner Corinne Vos, has hired Hallie to revamp the landscape around her guest house — the house that Julian is staying in while he writes his magnum opus.

While Hallie is ecstatic about seeing Julian again — and still crushing on him, Julian has no idea who Hallie is. But he is downright obsessed with her: her frayed small shorts, her knees in the dirt, and her aggravating habit of being late to everything. For Julian, who has an anxiety disorder, he’s developed habits and has his day planned out in blocks of time to combat any anxiety attacks. His writing blocks must be silent solo endeavors. He can’t have a woman riding up in an old truck on his property with three barking, slobbering dogs to plant some unnecessary flowers.

But when they meet, sparks fly, and so do the insults. This grumpy x sunshine novel is full of flying jabs and fiery banter. In fact, the whole town is rather quick-witted, especially Hallie’s British BFF Lavinia. Hallie and Julian start off as a low-angst pair that butt heads, but when Julian receives a letter from a secret admirer, the angst ramps up between the two. Hallie wrote and sent the letter on one drunken night, but now, she can’t stop, finding a catharsis in writing secretly to Julian.

More Than Just Messy Fun
Though these main characters get into a lot of fun, sometimes criminal antics (usually Hallie gets into the antics while Julian attempts to get her out of them), they aren’t merely because they’re fun people who live on the edge. Hallie’s a mess when we meet her: she’s grieving her grandmother’s loss and taking it out on a wine store that’s trying to edge out her grandmother’s best friend’s competing wine shop. Hallie’s grandmother was the one stable force in her life that helped keep her mess in check, and with that stable force gone, Hallie has ratcheted up her messy behavior and avoided anything substantive and predictable.

While Julian’s anxiety disorder has been with him since he could remember, one particular severe attack of anxiety and its aftermath has remained forefront in his memory, affecting how he’s lived his life since and kept him from connecting with anyone meaningfully. When he meets Hallie, his emotions are a riotous chaos — his mind rejects everything she’s about as it’s so opposite of the order and schedule keeping he values, and yet his heart would do anything just to have her around, schedules be damned.

The letters they unknowingly pass between them start out as secret admiration, but they quickly turn into a way to confront their traumas, confide in one another about their fears and to open up and explore who they want to be. Combined with their in-person conversations, and time spent together, they form an intense and unshakable bond.

Bring on the Steam
And boy, is it intense! For those who love Tessa Bailey for her hot and sexy love scenes, you will not be disappointed here. While her last duet the Bellinger Sisters series was a little tamer than what we’ve seen from Ms. Bailey, Secretly Yours is back to her steamy heat level. This is an intense slow burn for the first half of the novel, but once these two get together, it’s a full-blown fire.

Another hallmark of Ms. Bailey’s is to have main characters with “regular people jobs.” Some may feel that because the Vos family owns a vineyard, that she’s strayed from that character trope. She hasn’t. The Vos vineyard is a struggling small business in its own way and Hallie and Julian connect on that level as well, both literally getting dirty to work their businesses.

Secretly Yours delivers that trademark Valentine’s Day feeling of being drunk on love — and a few glasses of wine, swooning over letters of admiration and lots of flowers to boot.

Does anyone write sexy hookups filled with angst and passion better than Tessa Bailey?

This was an absolute delight of a book. Gardner and spot of sunshine Hallie is still working through the grief of losing her beloved grandmother when her old crush Julian Vos comes back into town to finally write his novel.

I don’t know if I would quite call this grumpy/sunshine but Julian lives his life according to a very strict schedule and Hallie upends that in the best way. I loved how Hallie got Julian to loosen up whole Julian also inspired Hallie to face her fears and take on new responsibilities.

Hallie writes Julian a series of secret admirers letters that do play a role in the book but for the most part the best part is just watching and enjoying the developing chemistry between the two of them as it sizzles over into a boiling point.

Thank you so much to Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 384 / Genre: Romance

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It started off great and I liked the leading lady Hallie Welch, who’s kind of a mess but still very likable. The grandmother who raised her did just die, after all, so she’s a little adrift. Her high school crush Julian Vos is also back in town messing with her head and her libido. The back and forth flirting between Hallie and Julian is sweet and hot.

And then it just gets dumb. She writes him a secret admirer letter and it’s so obvious she wrote it but of course he doesn’t figure out it’s her even though it does cross his mind. And he writes her back which makes her jealous because that means he’s writing to a woman that’s not her because he doesn’t know it’s her but it is her. Do you see how stupid this is getting? And then even after they have the super hot sex and are clearly totally in love with each other, the stupid idiotic letters keep weighing on their pathetic tiny brains so that they can’t fully commit to each other. The endless internal monologues on this went on and on AND ON. 😝🔫 The very premise of this book totally ruined what could’ve actually been a hot and spicy little romcom. I really wanted to give it a low 3 stars but the stupidity of it all just annoyed me so much I’m giving it 2 stars.

My roller-coaster reading relationship with Tessa Bailey continues. This was an okay romance for me. She starts by setting up a lot of fun plot-points (secret letters, a failing business, a declining winery, family drama), and then slowly, that all sort of fades into the background and is never examined again. And I love anxiety rep, it plays such a major roll in real life relationships. What I’m a little iffier on is “it’s good you gave me a panic attack, because it means I love you” as the third act confession? I don’t know, I was into the sizzling chemistry, our curvy chaotic heroine, and our possessive academic hero until about the 90% mark. It’s like Bailey didn’t know how to end it, so she discarded all the subplots but the library plants, slapped together a third act gesture, and let the two of them ride off into the sunset without us. I would recommend this to anyone who reads Tessa Bailey for the spice, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone trying to find something new after the Bellinger Sisters series.

P.S. It was unclear to me if our heroine was fat or midsize or what, so if you’re looking for fat rep, I’d look elsewhere.

Secretly Yours is the story of Hallie’s unrequited love for Julian. She’s a care free nature loving soul with a wine obsession. He’s a straight laced professor with anxiety and a family vineyard. Can the two save the local wine bar without catching feelings?

It’s no secret I love It Happened One Summer and Hook Lime and Sinker. BUT I couldn’t get into this one. The plot line had some tall tales…possible spoiler alert:

A 29 yr old saving herself for a high school crush (who doesn’t live in the same city) just seems out there to me. I couldn’t get past that storyline and therefore Julian was not the heartthrob I had envisioned. This book had too many things going on for me to focus on the romance.

If you are a fan of Tessa Bailey, grumpy sunshine and wine consider picking this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and author Tessa Bailey for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review. Secretly Yours came out comes out on February 7, 2023!

I love Tessa Bailey - some of my favorites have been from her Hot and Hammered Series. Pick up this book if you love starchy hero gets unstarched and a sunshine heroine. This book took the character troupes too far to extremes for me. Hallie's quirks of living in the moment read as selfish and inconsiderate - always late and impulsive. Also, Julian who is supposed to be incredibly intelligent can't figure out how the one girl in his life is writing him secret admirer letters???

I am a fan of the Romcom and enjoy many contemporary romance authors, This one I really struggled with. I liked the main character Hallie but I couldn’t stand the love interest, Julian. Their interactions were cringy and I felt uncomfortable with their relationship. I have enjoyed some of her other books so I am not opposed to some spicy scenes but this just didn’t work for me. The story just kind of fell apart at the end and didnt make sense to me. That being said I did enjoy Natalie and look forward to her story. Sorry this was just not a winner for me

2 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review..

Secretly Yours is a sweet romcom set in cozy small-town wine country with a cast of endearing characters, plenty of lols, and TB’s signature spice.

This felt a bit different from TB’s previous books with a story driven by the main characters and their growth. That being said, I truly enjoyed living inside the MCs’ heads. TB gives her characters such depth and personality that they evolve from words on a page to taking on a life of their own. They’re relatable, imperfect, and endearing.

FMC Hallie is creative, charming, messy, and impulsive. She treats time and deadlines as suggestions, and the idea of planning sends her running in the other direction. She’s a loveable bundle of chaos who will go to great lengths for the people she cares for.

MMC Julian is, to be frank, an uptight control freak (I say this AS an uptight control freak). He plans his time down to the minute to maximize efficiency, and has no concept of - wait for it - stopping to smell the flowers (yw). So imagine his surprise when a chaotic, dirt-covered lady with an unruly pack of dogs becomes the object of his distraction during what was supposed to be a regimented summer of novel writing.

The MCs are peak grumpy/sunshine vibes with their own personal twists. There are so many sweet moments throughout their romance that you’ll feel your heart squeeze.

Ultimately, the main theme here is about growth– which is apt given Hallie’s work. They gain self-confidence while recognizing the importance of having people who are a stabilizing force and love you no matter what.

TB does a great job of peppering in plenty of banter, shenanigans, and spice to counterbalance the angst. I really fell more in love with the characters than some of the story’s elements. There were a few things that felt out of place, especially (and ironically) the secret admirer letters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I’m excited for the next book in this series. If it’s not already, I definitely recommend adding this to your TBR!

I started and stopped this book multiple times before I finally finished it after the news from Harpercollins Union that they had reached an agreement and it was okay to post reviews for their books again. I wanted this to have the same magic as It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker– which were both 5-star, A+ reads for me. Alas, while I did enjoy this book and plan to read the next installment in the series, it did not have the same level of magic as some of this author’s previous releases.

In Secretly Yours, readers are introduced to Hallie Welch, a local landscape artist and business owner, and Julian Vos, a professor on leave who has come home to some peace and quiet while he writes a novel. Hallie fell in love with Julian in high school and hasn’t quite let go of that almost kiss in his family’s vineyards. But now he’s back, and this is her chance to see if the older version of Julian is just as compelling as the younger version.

I wanted to love this book. I don’t know if it was that my expectations were so high, or if I just didn’t connect with the characters like I wanted to, but I didn’t have the same level of engagement as I have with other novels by this author. I think my main issue was that the pacing was slow and caused me to disconnect with both the characters, their relationship, and the narrative. It was easy for me to bookmark my location, pick up another read (or reads) and then take my time coming back to this couple’s story. There was no urgency to find out how they would find their HEA.

I did enjoy the setting and the secondary characters, even though there was a sense that some of their behavior and the situations they put themselves in were over the top. But they were fun and loyal to the MCs.

As you can see from both the title and blurb, there is an aspect of secret admirer letters from one MC to the other, and for some reason I expected it to add some lighthearted and fun moments to the story, but instead, it added to the angst and conflict at the end of the book before the big happily ever after at the end.

This book is a whole lot deeper than that cutesy cover and blurb allude to, there is anxiety, panic attacks, mentions of the death of a grandparent, and grief. These two characters are opposites in every way, but they are attracted to each other deeply and secretly yearn for each other. Miscommunication is not my favorite trope, so it tracks that I would be annoyed by the back-and-forth “will they or won’t they?”. The super hot sex scenes kind of come out of nowhere, and felt like they were thrown in because this author is known for dirty-talking heroes. Julian goes from being Mr. Straightlaced, always in control to dirty-talker extraordinaire and it just felt kind of odd.

I did push through to the end and did enjoy seeing this couple find their HEA.

Content Notes- Grief, off-page death of a grandparent, anxiety, panic attacks

Final grade- C

While not my favorite Tessa Bailey book, this one still manages to be a fantastic read. The story was fast-paced and clever, although it almost felt like the letter portion was unnecessary. It became the catalyst, but it still felt forced and strange somehow.

Hallie has had a crush on Julian since high school. When he comes back to town and Hallie is hired to tend to the garden at his family’s vineyard, those feelings come rushing back to her - but he does not remember her at all. Hallie makes a drunken decision to leave him a secret admirer letter, and when she starts falling for him in both real life and the letters chaos ensues. The two are complete opposites who just might be perfect for each other.

This one was steamyyyyyy as we’d expect from Tessa Bailey, and I am here for it! I loved these seriously flawed characters - Hallie being wild and impulsive, Julian being structured and timely. It was an interesting way to portray how anxiety can affect people differently. And now let’s talk about the sexual tension between these two - wow! Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

You know how rom-coms aren't actually usually that funny? Tessa Bailey writes these hot, sweet stories that are genuinely hilarious. Great dialogue, great pacing. This one was no exception. Grumpy-sunshine, plus size lead, AND second chance romance? I'm hooked out of the gate.

I loved Julian Vos as the perfect romance hero archetype--total wish fulfillment MMC. Hallie was a lot more fully developed than many romance heroines. I feel like in another author's hands, she would have ventured into manic pixie dreamgirl territory, but I feel like her back story justified her quirky behavior and she felt like she could be a real person.

The plot of this book was honestly a little thin (the Corked vs Uncorked winery plot was a little underwhelming and I think the entire secret admirer thing could have been scrapped from the story), but I really enjoyed the characters and their banter. The setting of this book (Napa Valley) was also a perfect setting for an escapist read.

If you are looking for something low angst, pretty spicy, and fun, I recommend this book (and really anything by Tessa Bailey). I was so excited to see that the next one in the series is going to be about Julian's sister.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is cute, gooey, Romcom goodness. An adorable second chance romance with a chaotic gardener and the hot professor (not hers) that she’s been listing after since high school. The angst was perfect in my opinion, and I love the mental health representation!

4.25/5 ⭐️
I fully plan on reading the sequel!

Read if you want:
❤️ A chaotic FMC
❤️ Dreamy winery setting
❤️ Anxiety and panic attack representation
❤️ Second Chance romance
❤️ Lots of personal growth

I love this authors story telling. This was great,
The communication between the character's of the story. I enjoyed this and can’t wait for more from this author.

Thank you to @netgalley and @avonbooks for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have loved the Tessa Bailey books I have read so far, but this was a big miss for me. I liked Hallie’s angle of trying to get the attention of a former crush. I liked Julian’s rigidness and the evolution of him losing the need to have control over everything based on past events. I liked that it was a typical spicy Tessa book. I liked the friendships and small-town setting.

What I did not like was Julian’s domineering tendencies towards Hallie, even when he was not sure who she was. The sexy scenes were awkward, and the virginity angle felt unrealistic and gross. I also did not feel like the secret admirer notes were insignificant. To me the bigger story was the changes Julian made to overcome his past was a more compelling story.

2 stars

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