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Member Reviews
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On New Year’s Eve, the team begs Britta to marry Sumner that very night in order for him to keep playing hockey with them. Sum is embarrassed yet hopeful—he’s desperately in love. But Britta balks at first. Until something about Sumner’s soulful brown eyes and ripped physique makes her reconsider…
This novella is about a green card marriage between 2 MCs that have a crush on each other, a hockey, brother's best friend, spicy and very sweet romance. I'm in love with Sumner. He was so swoony and pining, he made me blush. I was really feeling for him while he was navigating Britta's fears and insecurities, which were annoying to me, but Sum made up for it all, making me giddy.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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This was a fun fast read. True to Tessa Bailey fashion it is full of spice! I love reading men written by women. They are so caring and thoughtful and sensitive. If I hear of a man claiming that there isn’t an instruction manual for women I will tell them they need to read romance. I will direct them to Tessa Bailey first. Get the dirty talk down, talk about consent and protection, and learn how to go down!
I’m conflicted about the start of Sumner and Britta’s relationship as I think they could’ve hooked up with out having to pretend to get married but maybe that’s the only way Britt’s would’ve warmed to the idea.
If you like fake dating, sports romances, dirty talk, and open door spice give this book a read. It’s ridiculous in the best way. I can’t remember the last time a condom was referred to as a rubber. I was squealing!
I appreciated that this was a novella. Quick and fun.
Spicy scale:: 4/5 (for the description)
Thanks to Net Galley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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This book needed to be another 200 pages. It wasn’t a bad book but I needed more insight into who these characters were, more time with them. I also think more pages would have helped make the green card marriage part feel more believable.
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Quick and easy read. A predictable plot, but Tessa Bailey was able to tell a good story. A little too much spice for my taste.
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Sumner needs a visa, and fast. Britta doesn't *need* anything, but as long as there are no strings attached—and with a payout to sweeten the deal—she's willing to be Sumner's wife...on paper. For now.
I've only read one of Tessa Bailey's books, and I picked up this novella partly to refresh my memory and see if I should read more of her full-length works. And...well, I'm not saying never again, but this isn't really my cup of tea. 2.5 stars. Let's talk about book length, let's talk about sex, and let's talk about getting an American visa.
Book length: Again, this is a novella. That's great in some respects: it's a quick story, readable in one or two sittings, with a focus on the two characters. But...in other respects this feels like Bailey took an idea for a novel and just left out the side plots and characters to focus on the main characters (and the main characters in bed), and that's not generally the strategy I'd suggest for a novella. Makes me wonder whether a full-length version of this wasn't going where the author had hoped...or whether this is meant as a teaser of sorts for longer books set in the same world.
Sex: When I read "It Happened One Summer", I found that the sex was a bit too oh-baby-oh-baby-do-me-harder-oh-baby for my personal reading preferences, and here it's kind of...that on speed. If you like your romance-novel sex explicit, dirty, and full of screaming that should (but inexplicably doesn't) wake the neighbors, this might be one for you. It's still not so much my thing, but I wouldn't be altogether surprised if at some point (in the future or in the past; I haven't gone through her backlist) Bailey opted to eschew the whole 'plot' part of things and write erotica.
Getting an American visa: Don't take your green card advice—or time line—from this book. It is at best *wildly* optimistic and at worst involved not even so much as a basic Google search of research. This is another place where I might have preferred this to be a full-length novel, as in a longer work it could have made a ton of sense as an extended conflict: naïve hero and heroine thinking they can be married, green-carded, and divorced with nary a whiff of suspicion in a year...only to find out that the process will take much longer than that, and either they'll have to stay married for (potentially) years or Sumner will have to give up his green card dreams. But in the shorter version it just...takes quite a lot of willful ignorance of reality and bypassing of hard questions.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
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Oh how I wish this were a full scale novel. Novellas always feel like first drafts to me. It’s too quick to feel the tension and get fully invested in the characters. But such a cute and sweet story regardless.
This is full of the steamy talk we love Tessa Bailey for, but in a mini version. Could be read in a few hours to catch up to year end reading goals.
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Oh my God. Tessa Bailey can do no wrong.
Britta and Sumner?? I LOVE them so much. I love how sweet and caring he was, and how he only had eyes for her. Not only this, but he was so patient with Britt's fear of commitment and her past.
And not to mention - he plays hockey. And that just tops it all off.
This was such a quick, fun, spicy, and sweet read! I need more Britta and Sumner.
"...But along the way, Britta, the dream started to include you..."
"...While I replay every moment I've spent with Sumner over the last year and ten months, wondering how someone so freaking huge could get under my skin so easily. Into my heart. Because that's where he is. In a deep, tangled way I don't think I can undo."
"Well, I choose her. I'll choose her every day for eternity."
The easiest 5 stars!
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I haven't read much by Tessa Bailey yet, but I've always liked what I've read for now and then. However, her new novella “Same Time Next Year” was absolutely not for me. The story already had so few pages and it was just boring! It was just about the interview and the green card and you didn't really get to know the characters. However, I also have to say that I didn't warm to Britta at all. She made a very defensive, somewhat cold impression on me, even when you find out why she is like that. Sumner is her complete opposite, the ice hockey player is a total softie and has been dreaming of his own since his sister's wedding, and he is also hopelessly in love with Britta. It just wasn't for me this time. “Same Time Next Year” gets 2 out of 5 stars from me.
Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.
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For a novella I was all in WAY FASTER then I thought I’d be. Hockey boyfriend. He falls first. Marriage of Convenience. And my very favorite part of every Tessa Bailey book - true heart and humor. Flew through this. Highly recommend!
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Listen, I can overlook some unrealistic things in books and I'm also used to cringey scenes since I'm big on reading fanfiction, but nothing could have prepared me for this. there was no chemistry, the dirty talk was so not it, the guy was creepy as hell and her traumatic past felt a bit too dramatic to be put into a novella. one star for the sweet half-brother.
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This was just… not good. Can Tessa Bailey make quality books a priority instead of quantity. I don’t need 4 books a year from her if they are going to suck this much.
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My first sports related romance novels… a solid 3 starts with multiple 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ for spicy! Wow…. Didn’t see it coming. The pace of the book was quick and easy to read which was nice. But I felt like I don’t grasp enough knowledge of Canadian Men to know if this guy is real or just a figment of every woman’s imagination 😂
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I think it’s time for me to accept that Tessa Bailey books just aren’t for me. This plot didn’t work for me and there were parts that were just cringy. It was a fast read since it was short, but had it been a full length book I don’t think I would have finished it. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc.
I’ve been smitten with hockey romance books since Elle Kennedy and was excited for Tessa Bailey to find ally write one! It was a short and fun read, with hopefully more hockey books to come! Great book right before the holidays.
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Same Time Next Year was a fun, sweet novella! I love reading novellas as little 'palette cleansers' between heavier reads, and this one definitely did the trick. Same Time Next Year has a unique premise with some of my favorite romance tropes: forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine, and he falls first. It's also a hockey romance -- need I say more? This one is definitely worth checking out!
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"Same Time Next Year" by Tessa Bailey was a fun read.
Overall, the characters were cute, but can I just say... Britta and Sumner? Are those name choices really necessary?
This is my second book by Tessa Bailey, and although I didn't enjoy it as much as my first read, I still enjoyed this cute, fluffy novella.
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Tessa Bailey wrote a tropey quick read that made me fill hopeful during a smidge of holiday dpress mode. I'll give Bailey kudos for maybe making me a hockey romance fan. Thoroughly enjoyed.
Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.
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Tessa Bailey is Tessa Bailey. She writes a marriage of convenience in a fun short novel. Sumner Mayfield plays hockey for the Bridgeport Bandits with hopes of being called up to the NHL. To avoid being transferred to a less successful team in his home country of Canada his teammates suggest he marry Britta, a local bar worker. Her half brother is his team mate. She agrees. One thing I love is that he is already smitten and totally buys into true love forever, even though he agrees the arrangement is temporary.
One thing that used to shock me with Bailey’s writing is how explicitly she writes. She’s more explicit than I usually read but I know her style now and obviously I still choose to read her. In just under 150 pages there is lusting to dirty talk to intimate acts. I like the characters too. Both the leads have backgrounds that give them differing points of view on love. His family and her brother help fill out the story too. The book includes a couple of time jumps so it isn’t all instant attraction which I like as well. I got what I was expecting and more.
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i loved tessa's earlier stuff, and she's been a bit hit or miss for me, but this was solid. it was short sweet simple and i enjoyed my time
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The characters and the writing in this book were cute and decent. That being said, this novella just missed the mark. Clearly no research was done prior to writing this, not even a simple google search. Honestly it’s a mockery of a very broken system and a slap in the face of real families and people struggling for many many years without seeing loved ones and making many sacrifices trying to use the US immigration system. For this novella’s characters to breeze through the process in completely not possible ways and have none of it make sense is honestly gross. For even those trying to use the system in the same manner it is just not possible in these terms. Very disappointed.