A huge thank you to the publisher, Tessa Bailey, and Netgalley for this ARC!

I enjoyed Secretly Yours, the first book in this duology, but there's just something about enemies to lovers and a marriage of convenience that I absolutely love. The chemistry between Natalie and August was super sexy.

I don't know if I liked these two as much as the Bellinger sisters duology but it's definitely worth the read.

Due to the controversy over this author I will not be continuing to read this story. I do hope that nothing further happens with this author and that she can say something to mitigate the situation.

Tessa Bailey books are excellent and this one is no exception. It is part of a series and while I imagine you could easily read as a standalone, I think you would get more of an emotional impact of the family dynamics if you read the first book in the series and then this one. Both characters seem real and have real personal issues to get over, but these two lonely and shut off people find they make an excellent team. Hot and heartwarming.

When in the acknowledgments I read “enemies-to-lovers book” & that these were some of her favorite characters she’s ever written…I couldn’t wait to dive in! The first sentence, “For as long as August Cates could remember, his duck had ruined everything”. Okay, Tessa Bailey…you got me, I’m listening.

This is a marriage of convenience love story…and I loved it! August is my kinda man. Protective, alpha ex-Seal. There’s nothing to not to love. Natalie was fun too. Great story, loads of chemistry. Read it. You won’t regret it.

NetGalley & this author/publisher provided the ARC I read for review purposes. All opinions in this review are my own.

I really enjoyed the first book, It Happened One Summer, so I had high hopes for this one. But I just couldn't connect. I think my main struggle was the communication was less snarky banter and more mean and hurtful. Maybe I'll pick it up again and see if it was just me. Won't deter me from purchasing Bailey's books though!

I loved this book so much! Tessa Bailey really has a way with words like no other. The characters in this book are A+++. Natalie is an enchanting mixture of tough and soft, and I don't really know how else to explain it. This will forever be one author I automatically click on, one author I will always recommend.

Thank you Tessa Bailey and NetGalley for sharing this advanced copy with me for an honest opinion/review.

I liked the first book in this duology, Secretly Yours, but I really loved this one! It was so much more fun and chemistry between Natalie and August was absolutely insane!

In Secretly Yours we meet Julian's sister, Natalie, who had essentially ran away from Napa to become a trader at a top firm in NY. But after a trade went south and she lost a lot of money for her clients and firm, her fiancé broke up with her and she moved back home to lick her wounds, and figure out her next move. Then she meets August, a new vintner in Napa with the worst tasting wine. After judging August's awful wine in a competition in Unfortunately Yours, we immediately see the chemistry between the two in their banter and witty one liners at each other. When Natalie finds out she needs to get married to access her trust fund, August seems to be the perfect participant for a marriage of convenience. This idea was perfectly planned out, except their feelings kept coming up, but in the absolute best way!

I love that August brought back and brought out Natalie's playful side! August was such a charmer and just a genuinely good/nice guy, but still had enough gruffness to not completely be put in the friend zone. His playfulness mixed with his protective and attentive side was exactly the right fit for Natalie, The spice in this book is pretty great, too. It's not smutty, but not tame either, and I absolutely love that Bailey draws the spicy scenes out for several pages, not to mention the sexually tense build up that is basically foreplay prior to the sexy times. :)

I had such a fun reading experience with this book with multiple laugh out loud moments. I highly recommend this one, even if you don't read the first one.

3.5/5 stars

Very sexy, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the character development aspect. It felt shallow. Usually, I’m more than good with Bailey’s semi-shallow characters, but this time I didn’t jive with it.

Hilarious dialogue
Sexy dialogue
Hilariously sexy dialogue

I knew I was going to like this book from the small glimpses of the potential combustible nature of August and Natalie as a couple in Secretly Yours, but that did not prepare me for how much I LOVED reading this book by Tessa Bailey. Unfortunately Yours is one of her best!

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Tessa Bailey turns her supporting characters into main characters it just doesn’t work for me. Like I really enjoyed reading It Happened One Summer, but I wasn’t able to finish Hook, Line and Sinker. I was able to finish this book, but I had to push myself through the last 100 pages or so. The interactions between August and Natalie became very repetitive - I hate you, tear my clothes off and ravage me, I hate you, I love you, I’m moving back to NY, I can’t live without you… They just didn’t do it for me in the same way as Julian and Hallie. Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the eARC.

This was a fun little spicy read. It felt a little more natural than the other book in the series, and I was pretty vested in the characters.

What's not to like? An enemies to lovers romance set in wine country, with plenty of banter and steaminess thrown in!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Unfortunately Yours!

Unfortunately Yours is the follow up book to Secretly Yours. I was very fortunate (hehe) enough to get arcs of both. I definitely recommend this series. This book follows the tension and aftermath of fight that Natalie and August have in Secretly Yours. While you don't have to read them in order I would highly suggest that you do.

This is my second Tessa Bailey book, and after reading them I can officially say I'll likely keep reading her books. They are the perfect blend of spice, comedy and heart. While I didn't like as much much as Secretly Yours, I thought it was a great conclusion and follow up to the character's stories.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

I adore the Napa Valley folks! Tessa nailed it again with this continuation of the series. Seeing the growth of Natalie’s character was beautiful, and tears were definitely shed while reading this novel. I would love to see a book three about Corinne!

Though I love Tessa Bailey, I’ll admit that I almost passed on this one. I truly didn’t enjoy Secretly Yours, which is its companion. I felt some regret for a few chapters, yet kept going. I’m so glad I did! Unfortunately Yours returns Ms. Bailey to top status as queen bee of sexy romance authors.

We first met August and Natalie back in Secretly Yours. They move front and center here, with the focus being on their marriage of convenience. What begins as animosity blooms into a lustier passion, and then love.

A fun story with plenty of sexy scenes, and no huge plot surprises, I stayed up until 3 AM to finish it in one sitting, and I don’t regret it a bit.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me access to a digital ARC in return for my opinion!

I picked this up, read the first two chapters and put it down — August and Natalie were just too mean to one another. When I realized this was a companion book to Secretly Yours, and after re-reading It Happened One Summer, I decided it was worth another chance.

Natalie Vos has come home to Napa Valley fired, broke, drinking too much and not engaged anymore. She had a hot moment with Navy vet and former SEAL turned vitner, August Cates, back in Secretly Yours, but since their one-night stand didn’t turn into something, and it turns out he makes terrible wine, they snark–nastily–at one another. (Side note: I couldn’t remember the details of their previous encounter, and a recap would have been helpful). They cross paths again at a wine competition she’s judging, are mean to each other when she doesn’t like his wine, but he’s still desperately attracted to her brains and beauty. He needs her help with making drinkable, profitable wine, and she needs to be employed and married to get access to her trust fund to finance an investment deal back in New York. They decide on a marriage of convenience–but no sex. Okay, just orgasms for her. Okay, just oral for him… the lines keep getting drawn in the sand and smashed through because of their off the charts chemistry. The sex is a little rougher and a little spicer–August is a consummate dirty talker and not squeamish about rimming, and his new wife goes wild for it.

In general, the characters are not as three-dimensional, likeable or mature as Hallie and Julian. I think I liked the cat the best, though I don't believe it sat docilely through their wedding ceremony. Some depth of story comes from Natalie’s character growth and desire to make something of herself independent of her famous family, and August’s commitment to honor his fellow soldier’s vineyard dreams. They do seem to have each other’s back as the story progresses: she won’t allow her mother to insult him, and he is very protective of her. Her family’s dismissal of her is frustrating, and so are August’s self-deprecating remarks about his own intelligence.

Those close to them see through their sniping to their true love… but it was hard to watch people who cared about one another be so unkind. An emergency near the end of the book puts August in a life or death situation to force them to reveal their feelings, and it just felt a little too contrived. The pacing is fast and not terribly believable, either. August’s calling Natalie “Princess” reminded me of Han Solo calling Leia “Princess,” and then that’s who I imagined them as in my head, and it didn’t jive with how they are described in the book. Also, August is so exaggerated in his physical stature I actually couldn’t picture him at all.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #UnfortunatelyYours from #NetGalley.

This was just as good as book one! I really love the enemies having to marry trope and this one definitely kept my attention the entire book!

This is a hard book to review. I really liked Julian and Hallie's book. It was a lot of fun, and I love the grumpy/sunshine trope. This book - Natalie and August's book - has the fake marriage trope. Which, when done well, is also a lot of fun. And this wasn't done *terribly*, I just felt like it was really clunky.

One thing I thought was really forced was the *literally endless* snarky banter between Natalie and August. While I appreciate witty banter done well, this was just too much. It was constant and heavy and eventually got exhausting.

I think Bailey did August a disservice in making him appear like a horny meathead who can't control his impulses. The "she's so hot I can't control myself" attitude is in direct contradiction to his years of training and conditioning as a SEAL. And if his depiction is meant to show that he's just so attracted to her so much it overtakes everything, then it's even more ridiculous.

I do, however, really like Natalie as a character. I think she is well-written, and have interesting layers that Bailey takes care to craft. Her development is genuine, and I loved seeing her (re)build her relationships with her family.

I still absolutely adore Hallie.

I am withholding feedback until Harper Collins pays their workers a living wage, In solidarity with the HCUnion. Thank you,

I love Tessa Bailey and this did not disappoint. I don’t usually care for the marriage of convenience trope but I really love the way Tessa writes romance. I don’t necessarily think the first book in this “series” needs to be read first but this one is better if you have read the first one. It is a fast paced romance but so good!