This book was so good! The spice was off the charts! I was happy to finally hear Sig's story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book! I was hooked from the first few paragraphs, which might be my favorite of any romance novel I've read this year. Tessa is the queen of insta-love, boy-obsessed, fast-paced love stories, and I ate this up. Sig and Chloe are both flawed but relatable characters, each on their own journey, and it was lovely to see such character growth in both of them. I'm someone who lives for angst in romance books, and this book has it in spades: the push-and-pull, the will-they-or-won't-they tension, the quiet and loud gestures. Their happily ever after was hard fought and at times I wasn't sure how it would come about, but I was pleasantly surprised with how it all turned out. The epilogue is honey-sweet and exactly what you want for a rom-com; definitely my favorite of the Hot Shots series.

Dream Girl Drama
By Tessa Bailey

Dream Girl Drama picks up where the Au Pair Affair left off, following Sig and Chloe. Sig is supposed to be meeting his Father's Girlfriend and Daughter before his car breaks down.Sig is a professional hockey player and meets a beautiful girl when his truck breaks down in a country club parking lot. Sig supports Chloe by helping her reach her dream without her Mothers' money and control over her life.

The pace of the book is fantastic, and it was great to jump back in the Big Shots world. I loved the balance of knowing that they loved each other, but couldn't do anything about. I also loved the care that each had for the other, that it was never just one sided.

I would give this book a 4.5/5 stars.

Dream Girl Drama is defiantly an adult book with spice.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the opportunity to read Dream Girl Drama.

Tessa Bailey did not disappoint with the saucy little number. For those of you who enjoyed The Au Pair Affair, you will love Dream Girl Drama. The inquiring minds finally find out what is really going on with Sig and Chloe (who were introduced in the first book). The ending was a bit predictable but in a good way!

One of my favorites by Tessa Bailey! I was intrigued by Sig and Chloe when reading “The Au Pair Affair,” though the setup was a bit unconventional. Loved their pairing in this book and the humor and romance of it. Excited for the next related book in this series.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were funny and lovable and I really enjoyed reading their story. I would absolutely recommend!

This is one of Tessa Bailey’s best books to date!! I’ve been enjoying the Big Shots series but this one takes the cake. I loved getting a glimpse into Chloe and Sig’s budding relationship in The Au Pair Affair and finally we get to see their full story.

Both main characters grow and evolve together in this story. We see them make major life decisions and grow towards the same paths. The ending was unpredictable, I found myself trying to figure what would happen and my guesses were not even close. I believe there are hints to upcoming sequels between some of the side characters so I’m excited to see what’s next. My only complaint is that now I have to wait for the next book in the series!

I’m so grateful to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me the chance to have an advance reader copy in exchange for my review.

All in all a quick read. Not my favorite Tessa Bailey book. Not a fan of insta love and the forbidden aspect was hard to get on board with. Overall it was a cute story.

First, thank you so much NetGalley, Avon, & Harper Voyager for the ARC of Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey. I have read many of Bailey’s previous romance novels so I was over the moon when I got the email that I was approved!

I was very excited about this book because I love a sports romance but also because I’ve read the previous books in the Big Shots series. I was intrigued by Chloe and Sig’s “verging-on-taboo” relationship when they were introduced in The Au Pair Affair so I was really excited to learn they would be the main characters of the next book. I was dying to know how the future step siblings trope would play out 🙃

While introduced in the previous book, I felt like I really didn’t see much of Chloe’s personality besides the fact she seemed like a loyal friend, albeit kind of helpless. I loved that throughout this novel she went through immense growth and wasn’t just the spoiled rich girl she first appeared to be. Sig was by some accounts a stereotypical possessive hockey player but there were some unique aspects about him in terms of his upbringing and relationships with his parents.

Mostly, I really loved the humor and wit the two main characters brought to their interactions. For that reason this book may now rank as my favorite by Tessa Bailey. I felt their dialogue was similar to Wells and Josephine in Fangirl Down which I loved. That was an aspect I felt was missing in The Au Pair Affair and that’s probably why that was my least favorite of the series.

I also enjoyed the comedic relief provided by side characters such as the “orgasm donors”, Pierre, and Grace! It sounds like one of them might be the focus for the next book and I am totally on board with that!

I’m typically not a fan of the “insta love” trope but in this case I think it was done well. I think the fact that it was also a slow burn/forbidden romance made it a little more believable than your average insta love storyline. They really did become best friends along the way.

In terms of complaints I have very few, but I was disappointed that Talullah was barely in this book. After developing such a strong friendship with Chloe in The Au Pair Affair it seemed a little unrealistic that she would be virtually absent from this book. Especially since Sig and Burgess are best friends and Chloe really didn’t know anyone else in Boston. I think it was a loss to not have her be more involved.

I also think the whole future stepsiblings thing was blown a little out of proportion. Obviously the book needed a conflict point but I wasn’t fully behind this. Would it be weird to date your stepbrother in real life? Yeah… but it’s not like they grew up together and they met before they knew they were going to be related. Also Sig had virtually no relationship with his estranged father before this. In my opinion it wouldn’t be a great look but celebrities/athletes have done weirder things and not had their career ruined over it? Also it was super frustrating to get to the end and find out the parents had been withholding info that would have made this entire plot line moot!! I wish the epilogue had given us a little more on how that affected Chloe and Sig’s relationships with the parents. I think they got off too easy for what they put their kids through, especially Rosie.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am so grateful I got an advanced copy. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in this series!

I think every girl is gonna want a Sig Gauthier in their lives 🩷🩷
Let me begin by saying I’m not the biggest fan of third person books. But, this book and Tessa Bailey has really swayed my opinion.

Sig and Chloe meet and immediately you know you are going to love them. She seems a bit impulsive and he knows from the start that she’s the one.

I can’t put my finger on what exactly made me love this, but I did…from start to finish. I loved the characters, the friends, his care and concern for her (Pop Tarts 🥹🫶🏻) and just their unending friendship and love. 💗💗

I loved every single page and it just made me happy reading it.

"She was everything joyful and sacred in his life. And he wanted to marry her more than he wanted to live."

I'm an avid Tessa Bailey reader and I have to say, Dream Girl Drama just might be my favorite yet! After reading The Au Pair Affair, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Sig and Chloe's story, but it was so much *more* than I was expecting. The way Tessa captures the characters, their emotions and feelings for each and the pureness of their love was incredible.

Chloe could have fallen flat as just a spoiled, out of touch rich girl. Instead, she is fully fleshed out and you realize that she has an incredible depth that she simply wasn't allowed to explore before. She wants to live a vibrant life. She hungers for it! She's selfless and loyal, is capable of self-reflection, an incredible amount of growth and deep love.

Sig isn't your typical gruff hockey player. He's nursing his own wounds from his past and doesn't let people in easily. His loyalty is unmatched and the way Chloe rocks his work is EVERYTHING. I could cry right now just thinking about it.

And don't even get me started on their love. The passion. The longing. The pureness of their feeling. And the pain that comes with the complications surrounding their relationship had me in tears more than once. I truly felt what they felt.

While this felt like a deeply emotional book, there were so many joyful and hilarious moments as well. Pierre is a favorite! And the rookies, aka the Orgasm Donors, offer up some amazing comedic moments. I also loved the little breadcrumb of what I'm assuming will be the next book in this series!

Five freaking stars for Dream Girl Drama. The writing, the vulnerability and emotional connection in this book is simply unmatched. I will be screaming about this book from the proverbial rooftops for months.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Avon & Harper Voyager for the ARC of Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey.

I'm a MASSIVE Bailey fan, and have been since 2016 - all her books are must reads for me, and I read them all in one very cozy sitting almost every time.

In Dream Girl Drama we finally get the full story on the relationship between Sig and Chloe, previously introduced in book 2 of the Big Shots series, The Au Pair Affair.

Chloe and Sig are soon-to-be stepsiblings, and are fighting their attraction to each other for the sake of their parents' pending union. This is a bit further complicated by the fact that they both have struggling relationships with their individual parent, as well as potential high profile careers/upbringings that would be negatively impacted by a stepsibling romantic entanglement. Chloe's mother has essentially kept Chloe in a gilded cage through her 25th birthday, with Chloe just serving as an ornamental child harp prodigy that her mother uses for entertainment. Chloe is basically inept at surviving in a world where everything is not instantly and immediately provided for her (she doesn't drive, she doesn't have a job, didn't go to college, etc.; her mother's money provides for all, including a chauffeur, country club membership, etc.). When Chloe and Sig first meet they don't yet realize they are both headed to a dinner with their parent to meet their future stepparent, and so Sig learns a bit about how Chloe longs to attend the Berklee Conservatory, which has offered her a full-ride for tuition, and which her mother will not provide funds for her to live in Boston. In a spur of the moment decision at the dinner, Chloe decides she's going to Boston even if she is cut-off, and Sig decides he's taking her there (where he already plays professional hockey in the NHL) and he'll fund her lifestyle so she can succeed at Berklee.

From here, the tension of their mutual attraction pretty much takes hold of the story, along with Sig desperately trying to find a way to prevent the marriage so that he and Chloe will be free to be together without issue.

It's super rare that I would remove a star from any Bailey read, but I really, really disliked Chloe. It's one thing to be a manic pixie dream girl, it's another to just be utterly clueless. I feel like throughout the entire book we see Sig trying to make things work and to care for Chloe, but Chloe just expects these things to happen to her, not to actually make any changes to her life. It just felt like she never grew as a person at all besides doing better at her music - because of this it made it really hard for me to ever like her, vs the change and growth we see in a story like It Happened One Summer where Piper works to be less shallow/helpless. Maybe it was because she sees Sig living in much lesser circumstances than how he has set her up and she still doesn't stop spending all her rent that he provides at Sephora, or, when she does make some hard choices about how their relationship needs space, none of that comes with her thinking about how she can afford rent or provide for herself - she still expects him to pay. I also was massively confused about how she could bail on her mother's house so quickly, where she has three harps, and doesn't take any with her to literally attend a music conservatory -- did she not think practice would be part of an intense program. Meanwhile, I really like Sig, I think his character was written really well - I just didn't ever feel like Chloe deserved him. I came around in the end, I just wouldn't put them very high in my overall Tessa Bailey couple rankings.

I do think Bailey did a great job writing the parents of the characters - I fervently disliked all three of them, mostly from how simply the three of the parents could have helped Sig and Chloe and opted not to. What I wish we got a bit more of -- we don't really understand why Chloe's mom wanted to keep her so contained. I grew up in Fairfield County, Connecticut - only about 30 minutes away from Darien where Chloe's mother lives, and while I understand the old money aspect, I don't understand clipping the wings of a child prodigy. I went to school with a child music prodigy in Connecticut - in public school - and this person was so talented they were writing symphonies in elementary school that were being performed by our high school - they then got into early Julliard at 16, and graduated high school a semester early to start their full-time at Julliard, before then going to Yale for a graduate degree in music. In Connecticut, it's also not unusual for your peers to be auditioning for Broadway, or performing on Broadway, etc. It's bragging rights, and then it's into the upper echelons of polite society to be a part of a symphony orchestra or other high-brow establishments. So, for me, having Chloe just be a prodigy and never be recruited by a conservatory doesn't feel at all standard to growing up in Connecticut. If there is a reason her mother is keeping her so contained, it would have been nice to know more about that because it really just, for me, made Chloe seem more clueless on any of her abilities.

I also was a bit put off by the reporter approaching Chloe at the hockey game. Again, from the same county as Chloe's character, and it is put into your brain early and often that we do not talk to reporters. For her to not have that built in as an old money family and then to not have the wherewithal to also realize talking to the media isn't right to do to Sig, who is in the spotlight, also just made Chloe seem more clueless than anything - like nothing at all from life has ever impacted her. Her failure to recognize how her actions affect others in this way, when she should know better, just really turned me off from her.

I recognize my criticisms of Chloe here are really just based on my upbringing relative to her character's upbringing, and the way it doesn't match with my lived experience. I think that just took me out of the story a bit, when really I absolutely loved the rest of it, with it being a classic Bailey romance.

I do recommend this for any Bailey fans, and it can be read as a standalone.

For sports fans, the hockey focus is pretty minimal in this one until the latter half of the book - but the time we get to spend with Sig's teammates, including the orgasm donor twins, were light and fun. I'm interested to see where Bailey goes with telling each of their stories (hopefully) next.

I have been KNOWN to love a good hockey romance and I was sat for this as someone who is an actual fan of the sport. it’s become painfully obvious when authors jump on sports tropes when it becomes popular but have 0 knowledge.

That being said… Immediately I was not a fan of the insta love trope.
I think it would’ve been fine had the characters acted their age, but a grown man and woman acting like teenagers and worried about what their parents thought constantly was annoying. I loved their banter, which is something Tessa excels at, but I was waiting for more connection wise between them.
I wish that Chloe was a little more self sufficient because she had so much more potential than being a spoiled brat at her big age. Again the characters are grown, so I don’t think the step sibling trope needed to be as big of an issue as it was? especially since they met before they knew.

I don’t think it helped that I was trying to finish this during election night.

Thank you so much Avon for my copy! I absolutely loved this spicy, fun, sports romance and can’t wait for more from this series.

Ok so this was my first Tessa Bailey books and let’s just say it will not be my last! I received this ARC on Netgalley and was so so excited to dive right into it! I also now know it is part of a series so I definitely need to go pick up the first 2 books. Anyways… I absolutely loved everything about this book! Sig and Chloe are just so meant to be and it is tangible through the pages. The book starts out as an insta lust story between 2 strangers that then takes a HUGE turn when they find out they are about the be step siblings! YIKES right! Due to this, Sig and Chloe decide to be best friends while Chloe makes a Huge move to Boston, her first time away from home. While here our 2 main characters get closer and closer as they get to know each other on a deeper level. Due to this as you can imagine more feelings develop behind the lingering attraction that was already present between the 2. I think that Tessa did an amazing job at making this one a slow burn because of the forbidden nature of their love and relationship. When we did get to the spice and them finally caving despite all the warnings and obstacles standing in their way let me just say it was HOTTT! Tessa always goes above in beyond with her spice while also making it work with the story and boy did it here! Overall our main characters are 2 hot people so it only makes sense that when together it would be well hot lol! Overall, I was skeptical about this book only because it was written in third person and I do not love that style of writing because it is hard for my ADHD brain to comprehend lol. With that being said, I think Tessa did an amazing job with writing this book and she made everything flow so smoothly! I can’t say enough good things about this book and I recommend it to anyone! Now time to go order a whole box of Tessa Bailey books!

Also thank you Netgalley, Tessa Bailey, and Avon/Harper Voyager for this eARC! I had a blast reading this one!

It is currently past midnight, but I just finished this book (ty to netgalley for this advanced copy) that I literally started hours ago and have not been able to put down. I’m torn between rating it 4 or 5 stars.

Based solely off vibes, this book was just EXACTLY:
a. What I needed
b. What I expected from a TB book.

So this book is very insta-love. I know lots of people aren't into that, but I'm in a dark place right now and this book was perfect to just get me in a good mood and keep me entertained. I have to do a better job at reading blurbs, but I also kind of enjoy being a little oblivious going into a book. I really enjoyed the FMC (Chloe) and the MMC (Sig) together. When I realized what was happening at the parents' engagement dinner THE GASP I GUSPED; however, the whole premise of them not being able to be together because they're going to be step siblings felt silly to me because LBFFR who cares that much? Belief suspended for a bit, there was also a little bit of a love bombing quality to it that in the real world I would be telling my friends to RUN don't walk, but in this book I loved it. Give me 14 of them right now.

Another thing I found kind of weird, and this is something I see in books a lot so it's not isolated to Dream Girl Drama, is like when she writes stuff like "appearing to be of Mexican descent" because they were hispanic. As a Guatemalan American I always heard "what's the difference" when trying to differentiate different nationalities that were lumped together as "Mexican." The character never explicitly states they're Mexican so how the FMC in this book has come to that conclusion outside their "natural burnished brown" skin tone, I'm not sure. I hope I'm making sense??? This isn't an indictment on Tessa Bailey, just something that always sticks out to me.

I love the side characters in this. They brought a lighthearted element to this book I desperately needed despite the tension between the MCs. The whole hockey/baseball rivalry? So silly. And I'm hoping wishing and PRAYING that at least one of two of these characters are being set up for books in this universe because "If Tessa Writes It, I Will Come." Not that way!!! Sickos. But I will say, Tessa has delivered on the spice in this book. Sig is a lil' freak and I love it.

Despite having some tiny grievances, I've decided to round my review up because this book has put a pep in my step and has got me excited to actually pick up another book after a slump. Sometimes the vibes are just THAT good.

I knew it would be a five-star read for me as soon as I finished the first few chapters. Tessa is amazing at what she does, and I adore her books! She's the queen of slow burn and spice, and I love the way she pulls you into her character's stories.

This entire series from Tessa Bailey has been an absolute knock out, and I love that each book is so different from the last, you are transported on such an adventure every time. Sig and Chloe were magnificent, I knew they would be from their interactions in The Au Pair Affair. But I did not know how electric and how heartfelt their story was going to be. And I did enjoy the mega plot twist at the end, which I honestly didn’t predict correctly and that’s novel for me, I am usually really good at predicting what will happen! So Bailey got me there! But wow, Sig and Chloe blew me away, they were so much money than I imagined they would be. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!

I absolutely loved this last installment in Tessa’s sports series. this was the book I was anxiously waiting for. We’ve seen snippets of Sig and Chloe and their amazing chemistry throughout the other books, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to read their story. it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

This book is all stolen glances, secret touches, and the delicious push and pull of two people who aren’t allowed to be together. Everything you want in a taboo relationship without it being really all that taboo (they’re step siblings, it’s not all that terrible.) Pair that with two amazing characters that pretty much fell in love at first sight, a cinnamon roll hockey player and a flighty heroine with a heart of gold, and some insane chemistry and you have one of my favorite books of the year!

Omg, Tessa Bailey is the queen of my romance universe. This was *so* good. After reading The Au Pair Affair, I could not wait to get my hands on this book and it delivered. Ugh, SIG! The MMC we all want and deserve. Chloe was giving Alexis Rose, very cute and clueless, and I loved her.
Can I please have Mailer’s book next? Or Corrigan’s?!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for making my week by approving this arc! All opinions expressed are my own.