Tessa Bailey is typically an auto read/buy author for me but this one is glad I won't be purchasing. While the grump and sunshine trope is a favorite of mine the execution of this story was a bit all over the place between the shifting perspectives and inconsistent side characters. In the end for me the repetitive use of the word "folds" made me skip over a good chunk of the steamy scenes.

If a romance novel has the grumpy/sunshine trope, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll love it. This one was no exception! Add in a charming Napa setting, a dysfunctional family, a cast of perfectly imperfect characters, and mental health and body positivity topics, and this book becomes a home run. Hallie, our female MC, is a lovable, disorganized gardener in Napa harboring a 15 year old crush on Julian. When anxious,, structured Julian returns home to his family’s vineyard, he can’t seem to stay away from Hallie, even if she brings too much chaos to his routine. Secretly Yours earned 3.5/5, rounded up to 4 stars from me. For the sake of not providing spoilers, I’ll just say that it didn’t get 5 stars because a couple of plot components weren’t quite right to me. However, I’d still recommend this sweet romance to most lovers of the genre.

Tessa Bailey does it again!

"And if nothing comes from this, your main takeaway should be that someone out here thinks about you, in the best way possible, even on your worst day."

Gah! Sign me up for swoon-worthy love letters. "Secretly Yours" adds one whirlwind, impulsive gardener and one buttoned-up college professor to create a love story that I couldn't put down. It also takes an honest look into a male MC with anxiety (so often we see this in the female leads, so I really appreciated the switch up).

Miscommunication in a main storyline is a consistent pet peeve of mine. However, this one wasn't too distressing, and the characters were level-headed enough (and likable enough) that it didn't really bother me. I can't wait for Natalie's story next!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

I've been a huge Tessa Bailey fan for awhile but this book completely sealed the deal for me, auto buy author for the rest of time. Hallie and Julian will officially hold a special place in my heart forever.

There was so many things to love about this story: anxiety representation, the secret admirer letters (yes I did send one of these back in the day), the side characters, family, clashing personalities, and the growth that was shown throughout the book. The banter had me smiling and laughing at my phone and the steam, as always with Tessa Bailey, was just right.

Read this if you like:
- dual POV
- opposites attract
- protective/possessive MMC

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for allowing me to be an early reader.

It's really no surprise that I loved this book. I've loved every Tessa Bailey books I've gotten my hands on so this one was a no-brainer. Actually, this might be my new favorite Bailey novel, which is saying something considering how much I've loved her others.

Bailey has a way of creating and developing characters that are both unique and extremely relatable. Their backstories make so much sense in showing the reason they are the way they are today. Also, Bailey isn't afraid to make imperfect characters that make crazy choices and do ridiculous things. Characters that are still working on being better people and have to change throughout the book.

"If she's upset, I'm upset. And I don't think you want that."
Can I take a second to express my love for Julian Vos? He was this grumpy, time-obsessed, anxious man, that deserved all the love and happiness in the world. And, coincidentally, that's all he wanted to give Hallie. Happiness and smiles and sunshine. I couldn't get enough of him especially when we would get a glimpse into his thoughts and fears. He was the cutest and spiciest man and I really hope I get to see a little more of him in Natalie's book!

Hallie was a lovely ray of sunshine that gave me secondhand embarrassment in the best possible way. I simultaneously wanted to be her best friend and steal her man. And the poor girl had 15 years of pining under her belt. She deserved a trophy or something for holding out for so long!

On top of my love for the characters, the writing was top-notch. The way Hallie and Julian described their emotional and physical feelings was visceral and beautiful. I don't know how Bailey continues to find the words to write such beautiful and romantic books, but she does and she does so well.

Overall, this was a great reading experience, and I'm beyond excited that the second book featuring Julian's sister, Natalie, is also being released this year! Catch me fangirling until then.

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.

This one was just okay for me. Loved the grumpy/sunshine. Napa setting was all right. I usually love seeing anxiety represented in my books because I can really connect with it, but Julian's version of it fell a bit flat for me.

Thank you too Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my thoughts.

First off thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC of Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey.
I want to say that I love Tessa Bailey. I really love Hallie and how much of a opposite Julian is to her.
I will say that this book isn’t one of my favorite Tessa Bailey books. Julian rubbed me wrong, some of the things he said about Hallie gave me the icks! Also the smut wasn’t spot on for me it was different. I really had high hopes for “Secretly Yours” but it kind of flopped. I will continue to read all of Tessa’s books though!

SO. GOOD. Pacing was perfect, with the smut being INCREDIBLE and done with charm.

These characters are so loveable. The setting so vivid.

This is my favorite by Tessa Bailey so far!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

First I want to say that I love Tessa Bailey. I could read her books all day. She just has a way to right cute, funny, and steamy romance novels.

I really love how corky Hallie is. I love how much of a opposite she is to Julian. She’s outgoing, crazy, and so unorganized and Julian suffers from awful anxiety to cope with it, he is very to himself and so organized to were he is literally on a schedule. So, mix them together and you just get this big, fun mess of a couple lol.

I will say though that this book didn’t impress me as much as the others. The plot was lacking in some places and the way she wrote some of the smut in this book made me cringe. They way she would switch to G rated words to R rated words didn’t really make sense to me. Like you already said cruse words and gave sexual descriptions, why switch back and forth to child-like words. Also how she would have Julian sexy talk Hallie in some parts just wasn’t it. I wasn’t a huge fan of how he constantly pointed out that she “jiggled”. Idk it just didn’t rub me the right way. I don’t think she meant anything by it at all but I just didn’t like the way it was worded I guess.

All in all I did enjoy the book. It was fast pace and I read it in one sitting. I’d give them a good 4 stars!

Ughhh. I love Tessa Bailey so much but this isn’t it. This one felt so forced and the chemistry and insta-love on the MC’s part just felt so unbelievable. It breaks my heart to give my favorite author a 2-star review but this book was such a mess!

Tessa Bailey does it again with Hallie and Julian. Julian is wound tighter than a wrist watch and Hallie is chaos. When their paths cross is someone willing to change or will their worlds collide. Add in wine and flowers what a fun read. looking forward to finding out how Natalie's life moves forward.

Honestly, this is the worst book that I have read this year so far. That’s bold considering I read a smut book about a girl and an alien blob of like sentient goo…

Seriously though, I hated everything from Julian’s POV. At one point he literally referred to Hallie as “the breasts” bffr.

I had constant second hand embarrassment for Hallie and cringed at her at the same time. If their stories were swapped we would hate him and call him a stalker and obsessed.

The spice was not great. The scene where he takes her virginity hurt my brain.

A generous two stars from me…

Don’t get me wrong, I like Tessa Bailey as an author but this was a pretty big miss for me. Half the time I was reading I kept thinking “this feels like a romance written by a man”, especially the spicier scenes, and I HATE that I felt that way because, again, I really like Tessa Bailey and the other books I’ve read by her. There were definitely some moments here and there that I liked (the dogs!! 😍) but as a whole this story and the characters were just really lacking.

Also, because of the Harper Union strike, I will not be posting my review elsewhere.

4 Stars! Cute read! This is the first book in the new series ‘A Vine Mess’ by Tessa Bailey and can be read as a standalone. I enjoyed this book, especially the ‘sexy time’ scenes - soooo hot! The main characters are Julian and Hallie and they are total opposites. He’s very structured & regimented while she is haywire & very ‘fly by the seat of your pants’. At first I started to think Julian might be somewhat autistic with how seriously he took his time management, but he seems to get better throughout the book. I smiled throughout a lot of this story, some of the things that go on and what they say just had me wanting to be apart of the friend group. I’d probably become BFF’s with Hallie, her best friend Lavinia & Julian’s sister Natalie, if they were real people! I’d say this is an opposites attract, secret crush, second chance all rolled into one. I do love me a good Tessa Bailey read! I’d definitely recommend this book & I really can’t wait for the next book in the series!
*I received this at no charge & I voluntarily left this review.*

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey is a cute rom com book. Hallie and Julian’s chemistry was off the charts!! This was one of my highly anticipated and it lived up to the hype.

Listen, I will be Tessa's hype girl ANY day, no matter what she's written, because she has earned that loyalty with me. But this book just did not do it for me. I liked the vineyard setting and the characters, but the plot felt confusing. The letters made no sense to the overall story, and in the end they were pretty inconsequential. Not only that, they were somewhat cringey to read. I don't know about anyone else, but I really could have done without that entire aspect of the plot. Even without the letters, this book could have made sense and been perfectly fine as a second change small-town romance.

I am really excited for the second book coming out later this year, as we were introduced to those characters in this book, and their romance is giving hate-to-love REALNESS. Can't wait!!

Tessa. I love you. But this wasn't my fave.

2.5 rounded up.

⭐️⭐️½

It pains me to give this book this rating because I love Tessa Bailey, but this book missed the mark for me. Hallie was too immature for my taste. When she was carrying out pranks on UNCORKED, I couldn't stop cringing at the child-like behavior. Although I liked the idea of secret admirer letters, the execution of the concept in this story left something to be desired and in the end, it made Hallie seem even more immature.

Hallie and Julian didn't have a lot of chemistry and their characters didn't have the depth that I wanted. They seemed to be archetypes of their types of characters - Hallie being the free-loving fly by the seat of your pants and slightly chaotic heroine; Julian being the serious and stiff hero with mental health struggles. I'm not opposed to these types of characters, I just want them to be more layered/multidimensional.

Half a star upgrade for the erotic talk, because let's face it, that's what I come for.

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: anxiety, panic attacks, mention of a destructive fire

Another fun read from Tessa Bailey! Set in Napa vineyard country, Hallie is a free spirit landscaper who has harbored a secret crush on Julian, heir to the once prestigious Vos Vineyard, now a straight laced Stanford history professor. When their meetings don't jog Julian's memory of their almost kiss is high school, Hallie decides to leave secret admirer letters. I was surprised at the level of care given to Julian's panic attacks and anxiety. All in all, perfect for fans looking for fresh romance.

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.