This is book 3 it the Big Shots sports series. I adored Fangirl Down and really enjoyed Au Pair Affair, so I was so excited for this one, and it did not disappoint!
I loved Sig and Chloe's story so much. I'm usually not a fan of insta-love, but their connection was so sweet and true. Sig's overprotective vibe combined with pro hockey player status is certifiable swoony. Chloe starts out as a sheltered rich girl, but as she branches out on her own and becomes more independent, I grew to love her character so much. She seems quirky and sweet and the perfect match for Sig.
Sig meets his dream girl at an upscale country club when his truck breaks down and his phone dies, she comes to his rescue. As they talk and share champagne, he falls for Chloe immediately and they share a steamy kiss. Later, at his dinner obligation with his father, they both find out they are soon to be step siblings. Neither can fight their connection, but know it does not look becoming. When Chloe wants to branch out and move to his town of Boston for her musical training, he decides to take her under his wing, but how long can they fight the connection they share?
This book releases on February 4, 2025! Thabk you @netgalley for the digital copy!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to try the ARC of Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey. Unfortunately I didn’t care for this book. It became apparent to me that this was an insta-lust kind of story and unfortunately there was so much “spice” in the first 25% of the book that there wasn’t hardly any plot or intrigue since we know the characters like each other. I will say she does a great job making a cute couple together and her writing isn’t bad, I just didn’t enjoy a story with so much just and what seems like such a lack of romance.

This book is definitely one of my new favorites.

If you love booktok books this one is definitely for you. This book is so steamy, Chloe and Sig have such chemistry that no one can ever compare to. Tessa has done it and will always do it right. This is a book where you can just turn your brain off and drift onto a world of friendship, love and fun.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

I really enjoyed this. Tessa Bailey always writes super sweet, spicy, and fun books! I found both main characters to be likable and have a great connection. I thought the plot was fun!

I love Tessa Bailey! Her books are my favorite light hearted fun reads. I love to turn my brain off and just zone out and lean into her worlds. This book was really fun and gave me exactly what i wanted and expected which is why i love Tessa. You know what you’ll get with her!!!

I did enjoy this but I will say it was my least favorite in this series. I found myself kinda getting distracted while reading. It didn’t suck me in like the first two. Now I do like the story line and the characters were perfect for each other but I just feel it was missing something.

I was so hyped for this book after seeing both their cameos in book 2. A little forbidden romance with Tessa Bailey's steam is just a perfect match. I loved Sig as a main hero. He was so swoony. He will do whatever it takes to help Chloe blossom on her own two feet. And it's not just Chloe, but any of his friends and family. Chloe was also a likable heroine who had a ton of growth. She was like Rachel Greene from Friends. She's never had to think about life and then decides to leave the nest and has to come to terms with reality and watching her grow and seeing how Sig shows up for her through it all was so nice. She never lacks confidence or doubt, she just knows she can do it and I loved that about her.

By Tessa Bailey's standards, the romance is a slow burn. We have a ton of back and forth between can we do this? We have to do this. We can't do this because of appearances, and vice versa. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of the Insta-love trope, I just find it a little too unbelievable. I mean they meet for 20 minutes at a country club and they without a doubt know the relationship is end game? It seems unrealistic. It's lust and all about appearances. So because of that, this wasn't my favorite of the series. However, I am excited to see what happens with Book 4. Is one of the two orgasm donors gonna be tamed?! 😂

Read if you enjoy a forbidden sports romance with dual POV. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 2/4!

Thank you NetGalley, Tessa Bailey and Avon & Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

DNF’d at 25%. There is a group of people who absolutely love either the extremely smutty athlete novel and/or the step sibling troupe but I am not one of those people. Tessa is extremely popular on BookTok and reading this reminds me why I’m not in booktok.

Readers who love that kind of troupe will love this, but this just wasn’t for me. I tried, but life is too short to read books you don’t like.

Sig and Chloe were such fun characters to read along with the dog. The pacing was quick. This was my favorite so far in the series. Thanks, netgalley.

I absolutely adored this book! Tessa Bailey knows how to hook the readers right away. I could not put the book down.

Dream Girl Drama was cute, but I wasn’t completely blown away. The chemistry between the characters was there, and there are definitely some steamy moments that fans of Tessa Bailey are going to enjoy. However, the plot felt a little too predictable for my taste, and some of the dialogue was a bit much. Like, it was cute, but it felt like it was trying a little too hard.

The heroine was fine, but honestly, she was a little too dramatic for me at times. I get that it’s part of the fun for some readers, but it didn’t really vibe with me. Still, there are some sweet moments that might tug at your heartstrings if you’re in the right mood. If you're just looking for something light and fun, it’ll do the job. But if you're craving something deeper or with more twists, you might wanna pass on this one.

Overall, it was an okay read—nothing to rave about, but not terrible either. If you're a fan of Tessa Bailey’s work, you'll probably still get a kick out of it.

The chemistry is is H-O-T with these two! Chloe and Sig are a match from their first meeting at the country club. From different worlds with different interests one thing is certain, they have love for their careers and for each other.
The mishaps, family dynamics, friendships, and life journeys are all relatable. Most of all, the characters are so vivid that you fall in love with them immediately, rooting for them the whole time! Their chemistry is tangible from the moment they meet to the end of the book.
I also love how previous series's characters are relevant and play a role in this story. This is my favorite Tessa Bailey series yet! Long live Hot Shots!

Dream Girl Drama, the third installment in the FANTASTIC interconnected series that is the Big Shots Series by Tessa Bailey was everything I wanted it to be and more. This is a masterpiece of angst, forbidden love, chaos, and swoon worthy moments. I fell in love with Chloe instantly when I met her in The Au Pair Affair, but now I love her and understand her on such a deeper level. Chloe and Sig's banter and chemistry was truly electric!!

Tropes to Expect:
- Forbidden Romance
- Instalove *in the best way*
- Hockey Romance
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl Vibes
- Slow Burn *also in the best way, come on- they're almost step siblings*

Thank you Avon Books and NetGalley for the free e-arc!

I am always down for a new Tessa release and have been really enjoying her Big Shots series. Dream Girl Drama is about Sig, a professional hockey player, and Chloe, a harpist, who meet and have an instant connection. Unfortunately, they find out they are connected in other ways, too. They struggle through how their relationship must change due to outside forces. The story builds up to the third act, so it's not an unexpected conflict. Fear not; it is still an HEA. Sig is a down bad man (Tessa's specialty), and the cast of side characters are so much fun. I think I see where 2 future stories will come from! Overall, it was a fun read and so very Tessa.

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

It doesn't get any better than Tessa Bailey. I love this series and am so excited to see it continue.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc.

While the bulk of my attention during Tessa Bailey’s The Au Pair Affair was obviously taken up by Burgess and Tallulah, a part of me was wondering what, exactly, was up with his teammate Sig Gauthier and his…antagonistically romantic (?) relationship with his future stepsister Chloe. That curiosity was no doubt intended by Bailey, as her latest book, Dream Girl Drama, sheds some light on exactly that question.

It turns out, Sig and Chloe met only hours before they were “supposed” to meet, at dinner at Chloe’s mother’s house, where they would be introduced to each other as future stepsiblings. SParks fly at their initial meeting, and the two make plans to meet up for a rendezvous after their commitment that evening, only to realize theirs was the same commitment, and now makes any future relationship inappropriate.

(Which, on that note, I have always found it strange that first cousins can marry, but two adults whose parents meet and enter a relationship, and who were never raised or living together in a “sibling” context cannot. But I digress)

While the two agree not to engage on a relationship, they DO wind up getting closer anyway, as Chloe is desperate to get out from her mother’s controlling thumb and pursue her dreams of studying the harp at a prestigious Boston institute, and Sig agrees to keep an eye on her and support her while she’s in town studying. The initial draw they felt to one another, made so much more alluring by how forbidden this all is, draws the two of them into a scandalous affair that puts both of their jobs on the line, sending Sig into overdrive to find a way to make this work before they tie the knot. As with the other books in the series, it was sweet and steamy and fans of the first two will really enjoy it (particularly fans of The Au Pair Affair). As for me? Well, you know I was always going to be a sucker for a story billed to me as having Clueless vibes.

Dream Girl Drama is out on February 4. Special thank you to Avon for the advance copy for review purposes.

After meeting Sig and Chloe in The Au Pair Affair, it was clear that whatever was going on between them was going to be juicy. That said, the falling for a step-sibling is the sort of trope that often gives me pause—there's a fine line to it and it's extremely hard to pull of well. But with Tessa Bailey at the helm, I knew I'd at least be in for an amusing journey.

With Dream Girl Drama, Tessa delivers a story that feels a bit reminiscent of It Happened One Summer. We have a spoiled, sheltered blonde in Chloe, a harp prodigy whose mother has smothered her entire life, and an overprotective, self-sacrificing dark-haired hero in Sig, a professional hockey player who falls for Chloe the moment the two of them meet-cute at a country club. But though the character sketches are a bit similar, the rest is not. Sparks fly, mouths meet, and then, of course, Sig and Chloe have a very rude awakening when they show up at the same dinner and discover their parents are getting married to each other – putting them in a very intense forbidden romance scenario when Chloe finally stands up to her mother and moves to Boston, where Sig lives, to attend a music conservatory.

Though Sig's overprotective tendencies grated on me, I actually enjoyed the heightened angst and yearning that Tessa worked into this story, providing more of a slow-burning romance than we usually see from her. I also thought this book was very funny—Chloe's moments of sharp humor were a delight, and the antics from some of the supporting characters genuinely made me laugh out loud several times. I do wish that Chloe had more room to develop as a character, and that a major storyline with Sig's background wasn't so rushed; but overall, this was a fun, easy read that delivered exactly what I expected: a not-quite taboo rom-com chock-full of humor and spice.

I received this book as an ARC read from NetGalley.

Tessa Bailey has done it again!
Another wonderful book in the series. Hockey romance with reoccurring characters from Au Pair Affair, yes please. Who doesn't love an overprotective hot hockey player and with the ROM com vibe. It gets me every time.
I cannot wait to read about Corrigan and Skylar next.
Fingers crossed for a fifth book with Mailer and Reese.

I’d give this book a 3.5 out of 5, but rounded down to 3.

What I loved about the book was Sig and Chloe’s unwavering devotion to each other. Throughout the whole story they just know the other person will be there for them. It was nice to see.

What I didn’t like was how fast it came about. I don’t usually read “insta-love” stories and this is probably why. It doesn’t feel realistic. At the beginning, I was thinking “Dude, you’re gonna trust this stranger and go off alone with him!”. I know she’s led a sheltered life, but it put me off that she didn’t have more wariness when it came to strangers.

I also didn’t like how long it took to get to the spicy parts. It makes sense for the story, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I think it was worth the wait, since Tessa Bailey always writes them well, but I wanted them to happen sooner.

Overall, I did actually like the story. These were just the standout parts for me. If you like romance books with characters that feel real or at least make you feel, I recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25⭐️
2.5🌶️

I really enjoyed this read! I’ve been looking forward to this couple since the previous book and man I loved it. These two together were something else and I just couldn’t get enough of their cuteness. The way he would literally do anything to make sure she was taken care of… so sweet.