This book took a little longer for me to get into than other Tessa Bailey books. Too many dick references at the beginning, maybe? But once I was a few chapters in, I loved it like I was hoping I would. My heart bleeds for both Natalie and August and their pasts. I definitely liked seeing them working through their relationship to find a strong partnership that worked for them.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

The best Tessa Bailey yet!
Ex- navy SEAL winemaker meets ball busting New York businesswoman.

Lots of heat 🔥🔥🔥🔥

A million thank yous to Netgalley and Tessa Bailey and her publishing team. I would’ve done some sketchy shizz for an arc… But I didn’t have to.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was just what I needed! Unfortunately Yours is classic Tessa Bailey (spicy, dirty talk, extra possessive hero, hilarious banter, etc etc) and I ate it right up!

I have to admit, I didn't love the first book in this series (Secretly Yours) so I went into this new release with very low expectations. It’s not the world’s greatest piece of literature but it made me laugh and swoon when I was in the mood to do both.

August is possessive but he’s also an adorable-filthy-flirt, which just so happens to be one of my favorite kind of book boyfriends. He’s a goofball and a lovable lug but he and Natalie both have their issues to work through which was refreshing.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to be an early reader! All opinions are my own.

This was a solid read for me, nothing too spectacular, but still enjoyable. It is filled with witty banter and a spicy marriage of convenience. The main characters were enjoyable and the hero is right on with his dirty talking! Definitely a quick, fun read!

the chemistry was amazing in this book. I loved Natalie & August's banter and again the chemistry was awesome. I also loved the take marriage trope in this, l've learned I'm a sucker for that trope. This was definitely my favorite book in the series.

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey is rom-com perfection!

Do you like a good marriage of convenience trope? What about an enemies to lovers relationship? Fun banter? Spicy talk between the two main characters? If you said yes to the above questions you should pick up this book. Tessa Bailey delivers on all fronts.

One of the reasons why I love reading books by Tessa is the absolutely absurd moments that she can include in a book that make me smile while I read. She really puts August and Natalie through it! And though much of the book is fun, there is some depth of character and struggles along the way.

I highly recommend Unfortunately Yours to anyone looking for a fast read that will take you away from the stressors of real life by dropping you into a ridiculously fun and steamy good time!

ARC received from NetGalley, but I have also purchased a print copy also. I need it from my keeper shelf!

Tessa Bailey. I feel like you love her books or they aren't for you.
I think this one confirms it...she isnt for me.I just find that its a rush to intense sex scenes without any build up. I'm not a prude! I love a good sex scene or many, but it has to MAKE SENSE!

Unfortunately Yours is a spicy romp full of dirty talk all wrapped up in a marriage of convenience. Natalie and August had bucket loads of chemistry. Natalie wants to start over, create her own small investment firm and make a name for herself. The only thing standing in her way is the start up cash which is locked away in a trust fund. The big problem is that in order to release the funds, she has to be married. August steps in. His failing vineyard has him looking to a new life as well. When he offers to help out Natalie, the two begin a steamy marriage of convenience.

I'm a fan of Tessa Bailey and love her characters and storylines. While I wanted to love this book, I don't think it aligned with my personal preferences. I enjoy my romance with a good period of sexual tension mixed in with intimacy and a bit of emotional connecting. While the book had some of this, it felt a bit heavy handed. Of course this is a personal preference. Despite that, Bailey does a wonderful job of writing. Her characters always have a connection and attraction that explode in some pretty intense sexy scenes. While not my favorite book of hers, it's worth a read if you love spicy romance with a take control male lead.

Thank you to Tessa Bailey, Avon, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The dirty talk in this book is on another level! I mean, damn. August is the perfect book boyfriend. I mean he says things like:

"I've been through Hell Week, injuries, training that nearly killed me, giving myself stitches without so much as an Advil. And none of it, Natalie is worse physical torture than being away from you."

How can you not swoon?! Natalie was the ideal FMC. I loved the marriage of convenience trope. Okay, I loved everything about this book!

Biggest shoutout in the world to Tessa Bailey and her publisher for allowing me to read another of her hilariously romantic novels ahead of its release - you are one of the queens of my heart, Tessa.

I knew after reading Natalie and August's spat outside his wine tasting in Secretly Yours that I was going to love them - love Natalie for her spitfire passion and August for his horribly-hidden golden retriever energy - and love them both I freaking did.

Tessa's banter is one of, if not, the best in the game and I am constantly laughing out loud at her puns, her characters' wit and just the overall dialogue. This book was so sweet and so fulfilling for a girl such as myself who identifies so strongly with Natalie that it kind of scared me. Feeling like no one in your family actually needs you, and they don't notice when you're not around and sometimes they don't even bother to include you because you're just not necessary. It hurt me and I loved nothing more than Natalie finding her place and her person who would always notice she wasn't in the room and always wanted her help or opinion.

4.5 ⭐️ A spicy, marriage of convenience story that's one of Tessa Bailey's best!


"If I had one wish, it would be to slow down my time with you, Natalie. A hundred years won't be enough."


WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ napa valley setting
✨ he's a war veteran trying and failing to produce wine to honor a friend's dreams
✨ she's got fired from her finance job, dumped by her fiance, and went back home to get trust fund money to start a new business
✨ marriage of convenience
✨ instant attraction
✨ hate to love
✨ he falls first
✨ denial of feelings (fmc)
✨ lots of tension
✨ hilarious, snarky banter
✨ 2.5/5 spice
✨ "my girl", "princess", "babe"
✨ complicated family dynamics
✨ lie by omission (because they secretly want to get married to each other)
✨ HEA
✨ dual pov


My Thoughts:

I was nervous about this book since I didn't really like Secretly Yours (2.5 stars), but this was so much fun and, in my opinion, one of the best Tessa Bailey novels! She really knocked it out of the park!

Here's what I liked:

August is such a fantastic MMC! He's a burly ex-Navy SEAL - loyal, honest, caring, kind, and protective. He sunk all his money into starting a winery to honor his late best friend and fellow soldier since it was his dream *cue to waterworks*. He's just a huge teddy bear that could snap you in half. Oh he's also a cat dad *swoon*. But best of all, he's a BIG, FREAKING SIMP for the heroine, Natalie. He falls fast, hard, and is so far gone, she can do absolutely no wrong. All August wants is for Natalie to be happy and safe, and he will do everything in his power to make it so.

This quote just about sums up his feelings: "As long as you need me, Natalie, I'm with you. Whatever you decide, whatever happens, I'm your goddamn man."

Natalie is such a relatable heroine. Natalie is feisty, witty, and hardworking. She had everything going for her until it comes crumbling down, and now she has to pick up the pieces. Seeing her struggle with feeling worthy was something I really relate to. She never feels like she's good enough and always feels like she's failing the expectations set for her by her mother, ex-fiance, and people in her field of work. But August is the first person to really make her feel seen and appreciated for just being herself (with no expectations), and this is an incredibly healing experience for her. I loved seeing her grow and discover who she is.

August also works through some struggles. As a military man, he's not good at feeling helpless. He was there the day Sam died and has lived with guilt ever since. It was his job to protect Sam, and he failed. So the winery is a way for him to honor and atone, in a way. But August feels he needs to do this on his own and ends up shutting Natalie out, which further triggers her feelings of not being enough. Eventually, August realizes he made mistakes and makes it his mission to fix them. Watching him work through this was really lovely.

August and Natalie are 100% soulmates! I don't usually believe in soulmates in real life or in fiction, but these two are it. You can fight me on this. They are passionate, messy, fun, honest, and open. Plus, they actually communicate (thanks to Gus), which is so key to every successful relationship. They support each other and really helped each other heal. I enjoyed seeing their love grow and deepen. And they were so much fun with their banter and pranks! They are my favorite Tessa Bailey couple! I absolutely adore them!

The spice actually got me feeling hot and bothered. One of my usual hangups about Tessa Bailey is the cringe dialogue during sexy moments. While there were some (see below), they were few and far between compared to the delicious, filthy things that came out of August's mouth. For example:

"Tell me the truth. You thought I would throw you into missionary, come in sixty seconds, and fall asleep. Didn't you?"
"Yes. No." she babbled, rocking furiously in his lap. "I don't know."
"Not with my wife."
Without warning, he flipped Natalie onto her back and drove her up the bed with one savage pump of his hips. "I'll be earning the right every single day to come inside pussy this good."

All of the sexy moments were HOT AF, and I ate that sh*t up! I now need my own husband to start calling me 'my wife.'


The epilogue was perfection! I don't want to spoil it, but seriously, August made me melt all over again. He would do anything for his family! You're going to love it!


Here's what I didn't like:

It’s mentioned so many times, and in so many ways, that August is a big oaf. Wording like, 'big lug', 'brute', and 'bonehead' is used to describe him. And here are a few phrases that support these sentiments as well: “he used all his brain power,” "poor man-brain working overtime,” “It made her want to walk into his stupid muscular arms and whack him in the head with an encyclopedia." If it were said once or twice, I’d be okay with it. But the repetitive use made it seem like he actually was an idiot, which then I was wondering why someone like Natalie would be into a big dummy. He's not actually an idiot, though, so it annoyed me he was being unfairly picked on.

While most of the dirty talk didn’t bother me, some of it did. For example: "Jesus. My balls have never gotten so heavy so fast in my life. Pretty sure every drop of blood in my head just went south. Give me like... eight seconds to make sure I'm not going to pass out." I think the first two sentences should be inner thoughts, and maybe the last one could have been actual dialogue because no one would say that stuff in real life.

Also, I still don't like Haille from Secretly Yours. She doesn’t play a big role, but she makes an appearance, but I found her character to still be annoying. At least it was consistent with Book 1.


Overall, I loved Unfortunately Yours and 100% recommend reading it! It’s one of my favorite marriage of convenience stories!

I absolutely loved Tessa Bailey"s latest! The characters were great, and the plot moved quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-copy.

UNFORTUNATELY YOURS was a truly hilarious and spicy enemies-to-lovers delight! Natalie and August were such a fun pair. They had great chemistry, and I loved seeing them grow together as a couple as well as individuals. The book is humorous and steamy, but it also tackles some really deep themes like grief, identity, and self-acceptance.

August Cates is probably my new favorite of Tessa Bailey's MMCs and that's saying something because I never thought anyone would replace my love for Fox. Natalie was a fun FMC, and the chemistry between her and August was fire. I loved their banter and pranks. I feel some things should have been expanded more on, especially August's time as a SEAL and his trauma. I wish we saw more about what happened exactly with Sam. I also feel as though the end conflict over the loan was fixed too quickly. It was built up throughout the whole book to be a big deal and then it just wasn't. Overall though this is once again another fun and spicy book by Tessa Bailey.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓇 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃. 𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉’𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓂𝑒. 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓈 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓁 𝓌𝑒’𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝒾𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝐼 𝒹𝑜.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
•enemies to lovers
•marriage of convenience
•he falls first
•golden retriever MMC
•small town
•top tier banter
•spice

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
Holy moly, I REALLY loved this book! This is book two in Tessa’s A Vine Mess series and I have to say, I enjoyed this one significantly more than the first book - it just did more for me than Secretly Yours (although that one is good also).

The banter in this book was pure magic! We all know that Tessa is the queen when it comes to banter, but she completely outdid herself and I LOVED it! I laughed so much reading this book and when I wasn’t laughing, I was swooning hard. I’m a sucker for marriage of convenience and overprotective MMCs and this book absolutely delivered. This is also a solid enemies to lovers and the more enemies to lovers books that I read, the more I feel like it might be the superior trope - especially combined with marriage of convenience!

Natalie and August had so much chemistry - you could feel it in their brief interaction in Secretly Yours and it only got better from there. August is 100% a new favorite book boyfriend. The way they were always bickering but yet so fiercely protective of each other had me melting. I LOVED that August fell first and he fell 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥! Watching Natalie eventually catch up and realize her feelings for August was so delightful.

If you’re looking for a spicy, hilarious, heartfelt rom com that will have you laughing and swooning, definitely add this to your TBR!

A huge thank you to Avon Books for the gifted copy!

UNFORTUNATELY YOURS is the perfect contemporary romcom tale for the long, hot days on the horizon … because those are sandwiched in between the sexy, sultry nights of Bailey’s bailiwick ... It’s a pleasure to read about characters whose flaws so closely mirror the real world, yet they’re still compelling and dreamy. Bailey writes characters you’d like to have over for dinner, vacation with, or hit the road for an epic adventure with. The perfect balance of strength and vulnerability permeates them and the world they inhabit, along with an addictive openness to love. In short, Unfortunately Yours is a classic Tessa Bailey romance that’ll have you experiencing the whole gamut of emotions in a quick, playful 384 pages. It’s exactly the kind of story we need right now.

*Read the full, original review at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/unfortunately-yours-by-tessa-bailey/

Loved this one it was so quirky and sweet it was definitely the perfect rom com to read for this summer!

Tessa Bailey has written two unbelievable main characters that I am going to have a hard time getting over! Wow did this book redeem this interconnected series.

Natalie (misunderstood and underestimated former party gal) and August (former navy SEAL golden retriever with a blind cat named Menace!) are top tier in this marriage of convenience romance. Their banter was impeccable, the chemistry was exothermic, and the spice was Tessa Bailey perfection. Her books are charming and hilarious. I was laughing out loud so many times it garnered suspicious looks in public!

Absolutely fantastic read!

4.5 ⭐️ 2.5 🌶️

Such a great sequel. I was excited to read Natalies and Augusts story after meeting them in book 1. The banter and sexual tension between them was incredible. Tessa Bailey wrote another favorite book of mine

Adorable! One bath 🛁 and this book was done. August and Natalie were perfect and their banter had me giggling in the tub. The seggsy time was chefs kiss as well!