Inspired by Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek, Piper starts this book as a hot mess in almost all interpretations: she's been publicly dumped, she's been betrayed by her best friend, she's been arrested, and she's been cut off by her stepfather. As if this weren't already a colossally bad time, she's been banished from LA to the fishing town that was home to her father before he was lost at sea over twenty years ago. With her supportive sister and lipstick-shaped purse in tow, Piper sets out to learn to appreciate money and privilege or whatever. Plus, she'll go toe-to-toe with Captain Brendan Taggert, a surly widower stuck in his routines, who might also be one of the most honest, steadfast people she's ever met.

Did I fall for all the romance tricks and traps in this one? YES. It's full of sweet emotions, spicy sexual tension, and sour notes from the characters' pasts that need to be addressed and healed. I was all in from page one with humor zipping off the page and Piper the unlikely heroine I wanted to see succeed. I also appreciated some always relevant commentary on the foibles of social media-- not to demonize it wholesale but to reflect on how it can trap us in an image battle and keep us from things that are real and lasting.

This book was just so much FUN and the perfect summer read. Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Look for it next week on 7/13.

This book was the perfect, swoon worthy, heartfelt summer read. The Schitt’s Creek fan fiction plot of a socialite being banished from Los Angeles to a small fishing town full of hot fisherman was done well, and the humor and charm in this book was amazing. Piper was charming and her insecurities real and portrayed kindly. Brendon was a perfect grump to her sunshine and sparkle. This book was delightful, and I grinned the whole time reading it. I also thought the pacing of the book was great; I never felt like it was going too slow or too fast. This is the second book I have read by Tessa Bailey, and this book combined her great writing, steamy scenes, and much more charming characters than the other book I read in the Hot & Hammered series. I will definitely be recommending this book to many people as a great, romantic, fun beach read. I want all my summer books to be just like this one, and I am very excited to read Hannah’s story!

The last time I ever touched a Tessa Bailey novel, it was “Fix Her Up,” and the whole Alpha Maleness of the main character turned me off. (That’s all I vaguely remember—I didn’t write a review then.) This I found much more enjoyable. However, some issues that took this from a 5 to a 4 for me:
When you figure the events ultimately could’ve been spread over three months but instead were over one month, the speed at which enemies-to-lovers fell by the wayside, plus Piper’s growth as a character were breakneck.
The sex was hot but didn’t fit Branden as we knew him thus far? Unless he’d been hitting other ports during storms over the last seven years since his wife died, that allowed him to gain a filthy mouth and sexual prowess, it seemed a bit much for his character.
That being said, there were some scenes that made me laugh out loud as I pictured them, even some of the cringey ones. I think I’d still recommend this book.

This is a story about going back to your roots, finding out who you are, even if you don’t think you have to and grieving the loss of a parent.
Ummmm, I think this is now my new favorite Tess Bailey book.

From beginning to the end, there were so many things I loved about this book. I loved the chemistry between Piper and Brendan. It was fun, flirty, and it was just a wonderful mix of sweet and sexy. I loved the sister relationship between Piper and Hannah. Piper as a character, I just loved. Piper’s evolution and character development through the story was fantastic. In the beginning, all we get to see is this spoiled, rich, insta-famous airhead but as the story progresses we as the reader get to see more of who Piper is beyond her social media persona. But we also get to see Piper discover who Piper is, and that was amazing.

This was AN AMAZING book and I would HIGHLY recommend you check it out if it's something you think you would like!

One thing I do wish we would have gotten to see a little insight from Pipers' mom at the end once she decided to stay in Westport

I chose this book because of the Schitt’s
Creek reference in the synopsis. It was so funny! I loved Piper especially in the beginning but the whole book was pretty great. I will definitely be reading more by this author. The only thing that could have made it better was an audiobook with a perfect narrator to match.

So if you love Schitt's Creek you will love the main character, Piper, she is just like Alexis. Piper gets publicly dumped and then proceeds to break into a pool and have a huge pool party at a hotel, which her stepfather has to decide what to do with her. He sends her to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to learn a lesson in life and work ethic. Her sister Hannah decides to share her seclusion since they had inherited a bar from their deceased father.

Piper sticks out like a sore thumb with her fancy clothes and socialite behavior. The locals had taken over the abandoned bar space and enter Brendan the hot, super tall Sea Captain and sparks fly.

Piper is definitely the girl that means well and has a huge heart as she gets to know all the people around her and they fall in love with her free easy spirit. I can see her as the girl that smiles off the insults and pain like they mean nothing but feels everything deeply. She wants to be seen as more than the girl that takes pictures well that people Like only on Instagram. 

I really enjoyed Piper and Brendan's steamy, steamy sexy times, in the boat, in her place, in his place, all over. They definitely had fiery chemistry that sizzled! I need to read Tessa's other books! I also am excited for Hannah's book. She was a fun vinyl loving, classic rock listening firecracker and Fox was well, a heartbreaker. Seems like they will be a fun read!

Thank you Avon books and net galley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Well, I woke up thinking about this book and read the last couple of chapters again, so I feel like that sums up my review of how much I loved it. Does that work as a proper review? Probably not.

I'm pretty sure I'm not ever going to pass up on a book from Tessa Bailey, but when I read that it was a Schitt's Creek inspired story, I couldn't request it soon enough.

I love love loved Piper. She's resilient, has such a big heart, and is just trying to find her way. Brendan is gruff and standoff-ish and stuck in a rut. Together they have instant button pushing and chemistry galore. I couldn't get enough of their interactions and how the relationship went from "I'm so annoyed by your attitude" to "damn, they're a good person" to "omfg I love you". I loved Piper's sister Hannah and Brendan's BFF Fox and I'm nearly manic at the idea of those two getting their own story.

Plot wise, it was everything I could have wanted. There's open conversation, heated looks, passionate kisses, and a shitload of dirty talk. The angsty times were short lived and not nearly as bad as I expected. I loved how Brendan pushed Piper to be honest, how she pushed him to talk, and how they just couldn't get enough of each other. I could have easily read 100 more pages of these two.

Overall, this is definitely one of my top 10 of the year and a book I know I'll be coming back to when I need a pick me up.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

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2am review: You know that book that you’re loving and you just can’t put it down and you look up from the last page and holy shit it’s 2am and you’ll probably be woken up by your greedy puppy in 3 hours, but it was all worth it because the book was just that fucking good?

Yeah, that.

Full review to come…once I’ve gotten some sleep.

THIS BOOK WAS SO WONDERFUL! Buy it now. Just buy it. I enjoyed it so thoroughly. The romance was adorable, the characters were so convincing and believable, and I basically tore through it. Once I started this romance, I could not put it down. This is really the absolute perfect summer read. I wish I could read it again for the first time right now.

Hot captain meetings LA socialite in a Schitt’s creek themed book?? Sign me up!! This has family drama, love, 🌶🌶, and a lot of character development and boy did I love it! This story follows piper and Hannah who have been sent back to the home town of their late father where they’ve never been before. Their father was a fisherman who passed away out at sea, their mom moved away and met a rich director and the girls lives had been forever changed. After many bad decisions the girls step father was sick of Piper and her lack of self drive and appreciation for money. So they sent them to a fisherman town in Washington to figure themselves out.
At first I did not love Piper but the more she finds her true self without LA and the money you begin to love her more and more. And the relationship between her and Brendan was just adorable.

I’m excited for the next one for sure!

I enjoyed Piper's story, especially the friendships she makes in Westport. Piper and Daniel have many sizzling moments. Plus, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments of Piper's fish out of water story. The only issue I have with the book is the rushed relationship between Piper and Daniel. The pair meet, and in less than a month, they are declaring their undying love. I'm okay with a story with a rushed romance, but I need a believable foundation for that love, and It Happened One Summer didn't include a foundation.

I LOVED this book!!! While it fit into the mold of Hallmark movies where the rich girl goes to the small town to run a business, it had so much more depth to it. The lead character had so much heart from the very beginning, which made me root for her from page one. And while I won't tell you how the story resolves, I will tell you the end is a VERY satisfying conclusion. Would recommend!

Not my first book by Tessa Bailey, but this one was probably my most favorite one out of all the books that I have read by her. This had such a great grumpy/sushine banter serve. Perfect for summer!

This book is the perfect summer read, and scratched some romance itches I didn't even knew I had. With a bit of a Shcitt's Creek vibe (spoiled rich girls get banished to a small town), this story had humor and heart. I loved the characters, Brendan was a gruff but honest hero and Piper was a completely relatable heroine who is just trying to figure everything out. The side characters were also great and the setting was completely charming. It also has a very high steam factor, so if you're looking for a fun summer romance, look no further.

Pub date: July 13, 2021

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the early review copy.

Sweet summertime read!

It Happened One Summer is the perfect read for the beach or pool this summer. This romance follows Piper, a wealthy and spoiled woman who seemingly has no ambitions. When she is forced to move to the town where her father is from to maintain and fix up an old bar, she needs a man that will turn her life upside down.

This story is spicy and sweet at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed the romance and falling in love with the couple in the small coastal town where they live.

I have not watched Schitt's Creek, because I was unable to get through the first episode. In a similar manner, I was almost unable to get past the first few chapters of It Happened One Summer. Bailey does a very good job of setting Piper up as a spoiled rich girl in the beginning of the book, and I wasn't sure I could keep going for a bit.

I was very glad I kept going. It Happened One Summer is sexy and fun. I love the relationship between Piper and Brendan, but also the relationship between Piper and her sister, and the growing relationships between Piper and all the townspeople of Westport.

Though Piper comes across as a spoiled airhead in the beginning of the book, Bailey does a good job showing Piper's more likeable qualities, and why she acts the way she does. I felt that it was less "growth" on Piper's behalf, and more of a reveal of who she truly is away from the trappings of wealth and appearances.

Brendan is the perfect grumpy somewhat asshole with a filthy mouth and an ability to communicate more than many other Tessa Bailey heroes. I am not sure I felt he really completely makes up for his mistakes by the end, but he does a pretty good job.

Overall, this was a really fun read. I definitely recommend if you're looking for a grumpy/bratty hate at first sight type pairing (actually, it kind of gives me The Queer Principles of Kit Webb vibes, with probably more sex).

Fishing town in the Pacific North West, captain of a fishing vessel, LA party princess….Brendan is dealing with grief, Piper is trying to find her own. Together trying to find love and their place in the world. I loved the strong sister relationship as well as the male friendships. The steam level on this was so good. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the advanced copy for review.

This was a delightful opposite attract featuring a sunshine city girl and a grumpy country guy that have immediate chemistry all within the framework of a small town contemporary romance. I really enjoyed this romance and found it uplifting, positive, funny, and engaging throughout. Both main characters, Piper and Brendan are completely unique and enjoying to read as they grow and change throughout this lighthearted story.

Piper Bellinger is a spoiled social media influencer who has been feeling like, “I can be in a room full of people that I know and still not feel like I belong.” After an out-of-control party lands Piper in jail, Piper’s stepfather sentences Piper to run her late father’s bar in a small beach town for three months. When Piper, along with her sister Hannah who insists on coming, arrive, they discover that the bar, which has been taken over by local fishermen and a rude sea captain named Brendan, is in a state of disrepair. Determined to prove the naysayers wrong (and maybe earn an early ticket home), Piper gets to work renovating and reopening the bar. But everywhere she turns, she runs into Brendan—the two are polar opposites but they have an undeniable infatuation with each other. The longer Piper stays in Westport, the more she reconnects to her past. Will Piper return to her glamorous life in L.A. or will the small fishing town (and the handsome local sea captain) capture her heart?

It Happened One Summer is a slow burn contemporary romance with quite a few spicy scenes! The vibe of this book reminded me a lot of one of my favourite shows, Schitt’s Creek; the character illustrations on the cover of the book even look like Alexis and Mutt! I would also recommend this book to fans of Sweet Home Alabama and Virgin River. Readers of Talia Hibbert, Alexandria Bellefleur, and Sally Thorne are also sure to love It Happened One Summer. This book could be characterised as an “enemies to lovers” trope as Piper and Brendan are total opposites that start off on the wrong foot. But I think that best way to characterise It Happened One Summer is opposites attract with a spoiled and chic partier from L.A. meeting a rugged and stubborn fisherman from a small town. Some themes present in It Happened One Summer include beauty of simplicity, change versus tradition, death, facing reality, family, growing up, love and heartbreak, identity, empowerment, inner and outer strength, isolation and loneliness, materialism and wealth, fame, perseverance, and beauty.

I love how Piper spends most of the book “trying to figure out what to do when no one is watching and wondering if maybe that’s the stuff that actually matters.” This book really highlights the phoniness of social media and the importance of love and family. Moving to Westport, being financially cut off, and connecting with Brendan really make Piper question her extravagant lifestyle, as well as to think about what she truly wants (and deserves), and to learn to live in the real world. I really appreciated the main takeaway of the book: “what she’d thought before was living life to the fullest had actually been living life for other people to watch…Now though? She was participating in her own life. Not just posing and pretending”. It was also great reading about Piper and Brendan’s “opposites attract” romance story, especially when Brendan starts to “court” Piper by building her a pergola. The pair made each other grow outside of their comfort zones as Piper falls further in love with Brendan, she also falls further in love with Westport. Lastly, the ending was very satisfying, and I loved the inclusion of the epilogue that takes place post happily ever after.

At the end of the novel, Tessa Bailey announces that a spin-off novel featuring Piper’s sister Hannah and Brendan’s friend Fox (tentatively entitled Hook, Line, and Sinker) is coming out in early 2022! I have already added this book to my TBR and can’t wait to read about Hannah’s story and (hopefully) get some peeks into what happens with Brendan and Piper in the future.

To be honest, this book was fantastic and there wasn’t a whole lot that I would change. Some small cons were that the book was slow to start, and the first few chapters were easy to predict based off the Goodreads description.

Overall, It Happened One Summer was one of my favourite books of 2021 so far! It was a super fast read for me and I would definitely recommend it to friends.

THIS IS MY ONE FAV BOOK OF THE YEAR! This is about It Girl Piper who accidentally partied too hard and is now forced to go to Westport with a budget where she sees a cute captain, Brendan. Let me just say that everything was PERFECT about this book. I love the whole Schitt’s Creek-inspired story with a lot of steamy romance. Everything was just perfect with this book from the story plotline to the pacing. Nothing was a miss. There were also some very quote phrases and sayings in this book like “recharging station” 🥺 (makes more sense once you read it lol)

This book is written from both Piper and Brendan’s POV which I loved because it was nice to see what was going in each person’s head. I really LOVED Piper’s character development in this book which was a huge development and probably my favorite ever. I also enjoyed Brendan’s development from a person who thought he had to be grieving to a person who knows he can move on (not trying to spoil anything). The side characters were also very well written and I loved their involvement in the book. They also had some great development but you can see that there is more to the story which might be happening in the next book which I can’t wait for! This is one of those books that had the best character development that you never knew you needed. Then there is the ROMANCE! Which was VERY VERY steamy. It was a level 4 steaminess and I absolutely died over the romance in this book.

The ending was well done and a great happily ever after. Now I’m super excited to read the next book which is going to be about Piper’s Sister’s love story. As you can see I had absolutely no problem with this amazingly
written book. Now I’m just waiting for Netflix to pick this up and make it into an adaptation. This is a binge-worthy steamy book that I promise you don’t want to miss out on reading. This book is perfect for Schitt’s Creek and rom-com lovers.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I can definitively say that I am not a fan of how Tessa Bailey writes her books.

It's not the plot or the characters that I have a problem with, but the gratuitous pornographic language she uses during her love scenes. For me, it completely ruins the whole experience. In the case of this book, it seemed very out of character for her two main leads, specifically Brendan. I would get sucked into the story and then immediately get pulled out again by the love scenes

I want to be clear - I am no stranger to spice in my books. I enjoy reading it and it often adds an extra layer to the romance playing out on the page. But it has to make sense in the context of the characters. This is the second book I've read by Miss Bailey where I've felt that she missed the mark on the language she uses during her love scenes and I don't foresee myself giving her a 3rd try.

It's a shame, really. Because overall, I liked the story. Just the one thing that was supposed to be good was really bad.