I really wanted to like this as the beginning half had so much potential but the characters feel flat for me. They were very typical of a clumsy girl and a strict boy who both have inner demons they have to overcome. The banter between them was funny as time but there was no physical contact between them until almost 60%. It was more of zany awkward love story set on a winery.

This was cute! I enjoyed it! Not my favorite Tessa Bailey book but I totally recommend if you are looking for a rom-com that's silly and mindless.

Hallie had a crush on Julian in high school, but she was just a freshman. As a senior, he graduated, and she never saw him again. Now he has returned to their hometown in Napa Valley, and she still finds him incredibly attractive.

This is an extreme example of opposites attract. Hallie is a "pinup earth mother" who gardens according to her whim. Julian is a rigorously structured and detailed history professor.

At first, I didn't find Hallie particularly likeable. While I appreciated her lack of planning and structure, she went far beyond that with inappropriate, and even criminal, behavior. Her grief manifests in these destructive behaviors. And while that's understandable, it made the book less enjoyable for me. I cringed frequently while reading the first part of the book.

I liked the book more once the secret admirer letters finally began. Those wete a fun detail and an interesting play on miscommunication tropes. And I greatly liked the setting in Napa Valley and the other characters. The steamy scenes and dirty talk matched my expectations for Tessa Bailey. But most, I appreciated that she included mental health representation, even though parts were tough to read.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

CW: anxiety, stigma about mental health

3.5 stars rounded up

I really wanted to love this book. I really have enjoyed all of Tessa Bailey’s other novels. This one just missed the mark in my mind. I did love Hallie’s character and thought she was precious. I also related to Julian’s need for schedule and timeliness. It took me several days to read this book when normally it would take me a few hours. The plot just felt pretty drawn out and slow.

A new series from Tessa Bailey?! Yes please! I loved the grumpy/sunshine trope here and how Hallie pulled Julian out of his comfort zone.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an ARC of this novel. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this novel - the first 25% didn’t fully grip me but let me just say this: Julian’s dirty banter? Exceptional.

Quick Synopsis: Hallie is a gardener called to add some foliage to her customer’s garden, but she’s had a crush on her customer’s son for years. Now a professor at a university, Julian has returned home to write his historical fiction novel, but he’s having a hard time concentrating with Hallie always around, planting without planning, her dogs running around barking, and her presence distracting him from his very rigid and rigorous writing schedule.

Trigger warnings: panic attacks, PTSD, anxiety

What I liked:
-This is an insta-love, super over the top, sweet rom-com with low stakes and funny sub-plots that keep you entertained.
-The spicy scenes are it. They’re spicy. And the dirty talk is top tier.
-I liked the juxtaposition between how Hallie has longed for Julian for years and while Julian hasn’t reciprocated as long, the second he sees Hallie it’s basically insta-love and he’s even more obsessed with her than she is with him.
-The UNCORKED v Corked situation was funny. It was enjoyable.

What I struggled with:
-I know the whole “secretly yours” aspect was supposed to be the critical part of the novel but it really felt unnecessary? I didn’t see the point of that whole arc and what it really brought to the narrative.
-I struggled with the first 20% of the novel but once I got into it held my attention from then on.

Altogether, this was a really enjoyable read and I’m very glad I got to review it! I will most likely buy a physical copy and I definitely can’t wait for Natalie’s story next.

This was my first Tessa Bailey book and I was thrilled to receive an ARC of this book. Thank you Avon books for the opportunity to read and review. I noted many of the reviews mentioned that she was a steamy romcom writer and that she is.

Hallie operates a gardening business that she ran with her grandmother who passed away. She is still adjusting to life after her grandmother’s passing when she hears that her high school crush has returned home. She decides to come up with a strategy to bump into Julian and get to know him better. Julian is back at the winery for the summer working on a book he is writing. He is incredibly routine and time driven. Is it possible for a free spirit and someone who can only function on a schedule be compatible ?

This is the second book I read where letters are exchanged by the main characters in the book. I really like that and enjoyed it in this book. This book is definitely a steamy romcom for those who like to read spicy scenes. In a few books I have read it became more about the sex but this story holds its own without the steam. I would recommend this book with a warning about the spice level.

I have a 50/50 track record with Tessa Bailey but after moving Hook Line and Sinker, I was excited to jump into this one. Then I started seeing some of the reviews which were decidedly not great. So maybe that colored my option at the beginning and caused me not to be as psyched while reading. But then I wound up liking it a lot!

Hallie is not my favorite character. But she’s not terrible. A little hard to believe she is a 29-year-old Virgin who has been pining for the same man (who she barely really knew) since she was 14 years old.

Julian’s character also wasn’t my favorite. He seemed to have some real issues that needed to be dealt with before he entered into a relationship.

All of that notwithstanding I enjoyed their romance. The dirty talk did seem out of character for Julian but I still thought it worked!

I wanted to keep reading and found myself enjoying the story. I will read the next in the series. 3.5 stars for this one.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has Tessa Bailey’s signature sweet and steamy mix to create yet another compulsively readable rom-com.

Hallie has had a crush on Julian since they had gone to school together years ago and that doesn’t seem to have changed when she returns to town.

In true grumpy-sunshine fashion (my favorite trope) Julian is buttoned up and reserved and Hallie is exuberance and sunshine. The two start to grow closer and closer as friends while Hallie is also leaving Julian secret admirer letters, as she hasn’t quite gotten the courage to tell him her feelings outright yet.

I do feel that despite the steam this novel reads a little more juvenile than It Happens One Summer and some of Tessa’s other novels but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of
this sweet romance.

4 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love Tessa Bailey, I just adore her writing and her flow. So getting this book in my hands was a DREAM.

I really liked the concept of this book, however I feel like the characters just lacked chemistry and the book wrapped up extremely quick.

The book was cute and spicy, but it was just hard for me to form a connection with the characters.

DNF

2023 is the year of DNFing books i can't finish. and unfortunately, this is one of them. i adored tessa bailey's recent duology about the bellinger sisters (so much so that i bought a physical copy of 'it happened one summer', which is rare for me. but if i'm being honest, this book doesn't have the charm that the bellinger sisters had.

the main characters are honestly forgettable. i truly did not care for them and whether or not they got together. in fact, hallie was so annoying that i actually skipped some of her chapters. i will say i enjoyed having julian's POV as well. it was a refreshing change and he was a bit more interesting to read about. but despite the mild interest i had in him and his POV, he (as well as hallie) were about as flat as flat stanley.

this book just seemed like a cliche. and after bailey had done such a wonderful job with the bellinger sisters (cliche but with some depth), i couldn't help but compare the books and see how this one lacked in comparison.

Secretly Yours is the newest book from Tessa Bailey and it gives a fine read. Hallie and Julian are as opposites as can be. While Hallie is fun and outgoing, Julian is more stick to himself and refined. They keep running into each other and while Julian is determined to stay away, he keeps getting drawn back to the lively gardener. I did enjoy their interactions and banter. The push and pull was captivating. They were the ying to the other's yang. Even it didn't seem like it, they did fit nicely and got the other. They were sweet together. The only thing I wanted was more of their relationship. The slow burn was pleasant so it would have been great to see Hallie and Julian being a couple at the last few chapters. I liked the small town feel especially in wine country. I am interested in Julian's sister's book next.

You’re going to love this if you love
✨ Napa & winery settings
✨ opposites attract
✨ grumpy/sunshine
✨ secret admirer letters
✨ slow burn

Overall, I liked this one. I love a bubbly blonde and a grumpy stoic professor. Who doesn’t? Hallie is adorable and fun and also a hot mess. Julian has untreated anxiety and is a whole mess.

I often say that I like my romances pretty cozy, I don’t usually want a lot of conflict. But this one was a little *too* conflict-free for me. I just could not buy that they were “too different” to try dating when they were both SO into each other. I was so ready for them to get together so much sooner than they did! There were some subplots that were introduced but didn’t feel completed. I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more if I had the audiobook, since I’ve been in an all audiobook all the time kind of mood.

Thank you to @netgalley & @avonbooks for my review copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I am so obsessed with this book that I ordered right after I read this arc! This is a perfect grumpy/sunshine romcom with a You’ve Got Mail feel and “good girl” spicy vibe… I mean, I needed this book in my life. Hallie is a little chaotic in the best way, and Julian is utterly rigid… yet they’re somehow perfect for each other. It’s a he-falls-first, and you have to love it!

Aside from how delicious and sweet this romance was for Hallie and Julian, I adored how the core of this book was self-acceptance for who we are, not who we’re expected to be. This is what I’ve come to expect from Tessa Bailey, and it’s why she’s an auto-buy author. I only wish I could give her MORE STARS!! Go buy this one- you’ll be so glad you did!

This was a book that I read. Hallie and Julien were cute but the book was not good. The entire point of the book/title doesn’t make sense. What I mean by that is that the letters are not that significant in the book and he doesn’t even find out until chapter 22 out of 24. Also I don’t know the proper terms but Tessa Bailey writes everything very gender oriented. It throws me off and I don’t love it.

I received an arc through net galley.

Secretly Yours is the third book I’ve read by Tessa Bailey and it’s full of alternately silly, steamy, and swoony moments I’ve come to expect from her.

Julian is a relentlessly regimented professor who’s returned to Napa to write a book, and Hallie is the messy, curvy, type B gardener hired to turn his whole world upside down. I loved that this book balanced big feelings — panic attacks and anxiety, grief, loss, and family dysfunction — with an absurd rom-com-esque premise: she drunkenly writes him an anonymous letter confessing her feelings.

Secretly Yours is You’ve Got Mail (if Joe wasn’t a villain) meets Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn, which is a huge compliment (I adore both those things).

I’m very much looking forward to Julian’s sister’s book, which comes out this summer!

I don't feel like this book was for me, but I do give it a little bit more credit because I love Tessa Bailey. The story is good and it definitely is reminiscent of It Happened One Summer, but for me it just had a few areas that were difficult.

The story is easy to read and I ended up really loving more the side characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the Napa Valley setting, and as always Tessa delivers when it comes to the funny names of the stores in a given area. I loved the Uncorked and Corked rival, I loved the dogs too! They made a lot of chaos, but you can't go wrong with fun furry friends! I am eager to ready the next in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an advance copy of this title for review. All opinions are my own and are honestly given.

Ever since she was a teenager, Hallie Welch, queen of chaos, has been hung up on Julian Vos, king of order and scion of the Vos family winery. Fifteen years after their first fateful run-in, Julian has returned to their Napa Valley hometown to write his novel while on sabbatical from his Stanford professorship. Hallie and Julian are thrown in each other’s paths while Hallie tends to the gardens on his family’s estate and Julian joins Hallie in her crusade to save a local wineshop. Convinced they would be too different to successfully navigate a relationship, they agree to stay just friends, which Hallie is fine with…mostly. After a tipsy night out, Hallie decides to write Julian an anonymous love letter expressing her admiration and longtime crush. To her shock, he writes back, kicking off an anonymous correspondence between the two. At the same time, the chemistry between real-life Hallie and Julian is getting harder to ignore, and Hallie must decide if she can risk her burgeoning relationship with Julian to tell him the truth about her secret admirer letters.

Secretly Yours was a lot of fun, with a lot of classic Tessa Bailey tropes— a beautiful, out-of-her-depth heroine, a starchy hero who finds himself reluctantly drawn in, humor, and chemistry. She is one of the biggest names in contemporary romance for a reason, and Secretly Yours is another winner from her. 4 stars, and a definite purchase for our collection in physical and digital formats.


Note: This review was withheld in support of the HarperCollins Union. I am pleased that HarperCollins leadership agreed to the union’s terms and hope the company will continue to support the labor rights and well-being of their hardworking employees.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I recently discovered Tessa Bailey and now I cant get enough of her work. Her writing is always amazing so that the story flows so smoothly and before you know it you are half way through the book.. The one negative in this one is that it is a slow torturous burn. The spice doesn't arrive until about half way through. Other than that, readers will love Julian and Hallie. I can't wait for more.

Tessa Bailey has quickly become a must have part of our romance collection. Secretly Yours is a nice addition. Hallie and Julian reunite over updating Julian's family winery. A past teen crush has the potential to turn steamy. The only issue is that Julian has changed a lot since those days, and Hallie isn't quite sure how to connect. After one drunken night, Hallie sends Julian a secret admirer letter. Julian can't get the potential secret admirer or his thoughts about Hallie out of is head.

As always, Tessa Bailey brings the spice. It's intense and steamy. The plot was fun to read as well. Expect small town romance, opposites attracting, second chance at romance, and plenty of miscommunication. While I don't think this is Bailey's best work and it certainly misses some of the tension seen in the Bellinger Sisters series, it's still a hot romance and definitely worth picking up.