Thank you to Tessa Bailey, Avon, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The dirty talk in this book is on another level! I mean, damn. August is the perfect book boyfriend. I mean he says things like:

"I've been through Hell Week, injuries, training that nearly killed me, giving myself stitches without so much as an Advil. And none of it, Natalie is worse physical torture than being away from you."

How can you not swoon?! Natalie was the ideal FMC. I loved the marriage of convenience trope. Okay, I loved everything about this book!

Biggest shoutout in the world to Tessa Bailey and her publisher for allowing me to read another of her hilariously romantic novels ahead of its release - you are one of the queens of my heart, Tessa.

I knew after reading Natalie and August's spat outside his wine tasting in Secretly Yours that I was going to love them - love Natalie for her spitfire passion and August for his horribly-hidden golden retriever energy - and love them both I freaking did.

Tessa's banter is one of, if not, the best in the game and I am constantly laughing out loud at her puns, her characters' wit and just the overall dialogue. This book was so sweet and so fulfilling for a girl such as myself who identifies so strongly with Natalie that it kind of scared me. Feeling like no one in your family actually needs you, and they don't notice when you're not around and sometimes they don't even bother to include you because you're just not necessary. It hurt me and I loved nothing more than Natalie finding her place and her person who would always notice she wasn't in the room and always wanted her help or opinion.

4.5 ⭐️ A spicy, marriage of convenience story that's one of Tessa Bailey's best!


"If I had one wish, it would be to slow down my time with you, Natalie. A hundred years won't be enough."


WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ napa valley setting
✨ he's a war veteran trying and failing to produce wine to honor a friend's dreams
✨ she's got fired from her finance job, dumped by her fiance, and went back home to get trust fund money to start a new business
✨ marriage of convenience
✨ instant attraction
✨ hate to love
✨ he falls first
✨ denial of feelings (fmc)
✨ lots of tension
✨ hilarious, snarky banter
✨ 2.5/5 spice
✨ "my girl", "princess", "babe"
✨ complicated family dynamics
✨ lie by omission (because they secretly want to get married to each other)
✨ HEA
✨ dual pov


My Thoughts:

I was nervous about this book since I didn't really like Secretly Yours (2.5 stars), but this was so much fun and, in my opinion, one of the best Tessa Bailey novels! She really knocked it out of the park!

Here's what I liked:

August is such a fantastic MMC! He's a burly ex-Navy SEAL - loyal, honest, caring, kind, and protective. He sunk all his money into starting a winery to honor his late best friend and fellow soldier since it was his dream *cue to waterworks*. He's just a huge teddy bear that could snap you in half. Oh he's also a cat dad *swoon*. But best of all, he's a BIG, FREAKING SIMP for the heroine, Natalie. He falls fast, hard, and is so far gone, she can do absolutely no wrong. All August wants is for Natalie to be happy and safe, and he will do everything in his power to make it so.

This quote just about sums up his feelings: "As long as you need me, Natalie, I'm with you. Whatever you decide, whatever happens, I'm your goddamn man."

Natalie is such a relatable heroine. Natalie is feisty, witty, and hardworking. She had everything going for her until it comes crumbling down, and now she has to pick up the pieces. Seeing her struggle with feeling worthy was something I really relate to. She never feels like she's good enough and always feels like she's failing the expectations set for her by her mother, ex-fiance, and people in her field of work. But August is the first person to really make her feel seen and appreciated for just being herself (with no expectations), and this is an incredibly healing experience for her. I loved seeing her grow and discover who she is.

August also works through some struggles. As a military man, he's not good at feeling helpless. He was there the day Sam died and has lived with guilt ever since. It was his job to protect Sam, and he failed. So the winery is a way for him to honor and atone, in a way. But August feels he needs to do this on his own and ends up shutting Natalie out, which further triggers her feelings of not being enough. Eventually, August realizes he made mistakes and makes it his mission to fix them. Watching him work through this was really lovely.

August and Natalie are 100% soulmates! I don't usually believe in soulmates in real life or in fiction, but these two are it. You can fight me on this. They are passionate, messy, fun, honest, and open. Plus, they actually communicate (thanks to Gus), which is so key to every successful relationship. They support each other and really helped each other heal. I enjoyed seeing their love grow and deepen. And they were so much fun with their banter and pranks! They are my favorite Tessa Bailey couple! I absolutely adore them!

The spice actually got me feeling hot and bothered. One of my usual hangups about Tessa Bailey is the cringe dialogue during sexy moments. While there were some (see below), they were few and far between compared to the delicious, filthy things that came out of August's mouth. For example:

"Tell me the truth. You thought I would throw you into missionary, come in sixty seconds, and fall asleep. Didn't you?"
"Yes. No." she babbled, rocking furiously in his lap. "I don't know."
"Not with my wife."
Without warning, he flipped Natalie onto her back and drove her up the bed with one savage pump of his hips. "I'll be earning the right every single day to come inside pussy this good."

All of the sexy moments were HOT AF, and I ate that sh*t up! I now need my own husband to start calling me 'my wife.'


The epilogue was perfection! I don't want to spoil it, but seriously, August made me melt all over again. He would do anything for his family! You're going to love it!


Here's what I didn't like:

It’s mentioned so many times, and in so many ways, that August is a big oaf. Wording like, 'big lug', 'brute', and 'bonehead' is used to describe him. And here are a few phrases that support these sentiments as well: “he used all his brain power,” "poor man-brain working overtime,” “It made her want to walk into his stupid muscular arms and whack him in the head with an encyclopedia." If it were said once or twice, I’d be okay with it. But the repetitive use made it seem like he actually was an idiot, which then I was wondering why someone like Natalie would be into a big dummy. He's not actually an idiot, though, so it annoyed me he was being unfairly picked on.

While most of the dirty talk didn’t bother me, some of it did. For example: "Jesus. My balls have never gotten so heavy so fast in my life. Pretty sure every drop of blood in my head just went south. Give me like... eight seconds to make sure I'm not going to pass out." I think the first two sentences should be inner thoughts, and maybe the last one could have been actual dialogue because no one would say that stuff in real life.

Also, I still don't like Haille from Secretly Yours. She doesn’t play a big role, but she makes an appearance, but I found her character to still be annoying. At least it was consistent with Book 1.


Overall, I loved Unfortunately Yours and 100% recommend reading it! It’s one of my favorite marriage of convenience stories!

I absolutely loved Tessa Bailey"s latest! The characters were great, and the plot moved quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-copy.

UNFORTUNATELY YOURS was a truly hilarious and spicy enemies-to-lovers delight! Natalie and August were such a fun pair. They had great chemistry, and I loved seeing them grow together as a couple as well as individuals. The book is humorous and steamy, but it also tackles some really deep themes like grief, identity, and self-acceptance.

August Cates is probably my new favorite of Tessa Bailey's MMCs and that's saying something because I never thought anyone would replace my love for Fox. Natalie was a fun FMC, and the chemistry between her and August was fire. I loved their banter and pranks. I feel some things should have been expanded more on, especially August's time as a SEAL and his trauma. I wish we saw more about what happened exactly with Sam. I also feel as though the end conflict over the loan was fixed too quickly. It was built up throughout the whole book to be a big deal and then it just wasn't. Overall though this is once again another fun and spicy book by Tessa Bailey.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓇 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃. 𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉’𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓂𝑒. 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓈 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓁 𝓌𝑒’𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝒾𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝐼 𝒹𝑜.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
•enemies to lovers
•marriage of convenience
•he falls first
•golden retriever MMC
•small town
•top tier banter
•spice

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
Holy moly, I REALLY loved this book! This is book two in Tessa’s A Vine Mess series and I have to say, I enjoyed this one significantly more than the first book - it just did more for me than Secretly Yours (although that one is good also).

The banter in this book was pure magic! We all know that Tessa is the queen when it comes to banter, but she completely outdid herself and I LOVED it! I laughed so much reading this book and when I wasn’t laughing, I was swooning hard. I’m a sucker for marriage of convenience and overprotective MMCs and this book absolutely delivered. This is also a solid enemies to lovers and the more enemies to lovers books that I read, the more I feel like it might be the superior trope - especially combined with marriage of convenience!

Natalie and August had so much chemistry - you could feel it in their brief interaction in Secretly Yours and it only got better from there. August is 100% a new favorite book boyfriend. The way they were always bickering but yet so fiercely protective of each other had me melting. I LOVED that August fell first and he fell 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥! Watching Natalie eventually catch up and realize her feelings for August was so delightful.

If you’re looking for a spicy, hilarious, heartfelt rom com that will have you laughing and swooning, definitely add this to your TBR!

A huge thank you to Avon Books for the gifted copy!

UNFORTUNATELY YOURS is the perfect contemporary romcom tale for the long, hot days on the horizon … because those are sandwiched in between the sexy, sultry nights of Bailey’s bailiwick ... It’s a pleasure to read about characters whose flaws so closely mirror the real world, yet they’re still compelling and dreamy. Bailey writes characters you’d like to have over for dinner, vacation with, or hit the road for an epic adventure with. The perfect balance of strength and vulnerability permeates them and the world they inhabit, along with an addictive openness to love. In short, Unfortunately Yours is a classic Tessa Bailey romance that’ll have you experiencing the whole gamut of emotions in a quick, playful 384 pages. It’s exactly the kind of story we need right now.

*Read the full, original review at All About Romance: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/unfortunately-yours-by-tessa-bailey/

Loved this one it was so quirky and sweet it was definitely the perfect rom com to read for this summer!

Tessa Bailey has written two unbelievable main characters that I am going to have a hard time getting over! Wow did this book redeem this interconnected series.

Natalie (misunderstood and underestimated former party gal) and August (former navy SEAL golden retriever with a blind cat named Menace!) are top tier in this marriage of convenience romance. Their banter was impeccable, the chemistry was exothermic, and the spice was Tessa Bailey perfection. Her books are charming and hilarious. I was laughing out loud so many times it garnered suspicious looks in public!

Absolutely fantastic read!

4.5 ⭐️ 2.5 🌶️

Such a great sequel. I was excited to read Natalies and Augusts story after meeting them in book 1. The banter and sexual tension between them was incredible. Tessa Bailey wrote another favorite book of mine

Adorable! One bath 🛁 and this book was done. August and Natalie were perfect and their banter had me giggling in the tub. The seggsy time was chefs kiss as well!

Tessa Bailey books are an auto buy for me, they are all amazing and Unfortunately Yours was no different! August is a retired Navy SEAL who is attempting to run a successful winery in Napa but has no idea what he is doing. Natalie has spent the past few years in New York as a financial investor but is back at her family winery after a work risk went wrong.

The two are anything but friends. However when they realize that getting married can help them both achieve their dreams they call a truce.

I loved how supportive August was of Natalie, he wanted to protect her at all costs from the very beginning and the thought of her being hurt or embarrassed clearly caused him pain. He was absolutely perfect for Natalie. He a total badass in life but when it came to Natalie he was an adorable golden retriever.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥: adrenaline

Unfortunately yours was more a comedy of errors that ended in a wonderful love story. While the miscommunication trope was the highlight, the resolve at the end was different from other books I have read, I always enjoy reading Tessa's stories as her characters are relatable.

3.75. Maybe 3.8?? It’s definitely a LOT better than Secretly Yours. Natalie and August are toxic together but like in a hot way, you know? I hated him calling her princess but that’s a personal thing. I was a little bummed that the mean investor guy still did not take her seriously until he saw that she had a hunky ex SEAL husband who said hey man you should listen to her!!! And then suddenly he’s like ya okay after she’s been livid the whole time about men making her dance for money. This felt a bit anti-feminist, which I don't think she was plannign on- I think maybe she was hoping it would come across the opposite. But the plot wasn’t terrible and surprisingly felt more real than Secretly Yours even though the situation is a bit more out there, and I felt like it balanced the smut with the slow burn love a little better than her previous few I’ve read by Tessa Bailey.

After not loving Secretly Yours, Unfortunately Yours is back to the Tessa Bailey we know and love!

This marriage of convenience was full of angst and lots of lust. August is the epitome of the "he falls first" trope, which is just always so fun to read. I loved the chemistry of these two characters and their relationship felt so real. This was just such a fun read.

4⭐️

<b>“Maybe you’ve been with men in the past who don’t want to label shit or be tied down. Well, that’s not me. Not when it comes to you. I want you to count the minutes until we’re breathing the same air again, the way I do.”</b>

When Natalie is fired from her Wall Street job in New York and dumped by her fiancé after a bad business deal, and returns to St. Helena where her family owns a winery and she is a winery heiress. She needs money for her next business venture, but her father refuses to release her trust fund unless she gets married. August owns and operates a small vineyard in honor of his best friend, but makes terrible wine because he’s a trained Navy SEAL, not a winemaker. He needs money to continue to run the vineyard but can’t get a loan. Natalie proposes that she and August get married to solve both of their problems, even though neither of them get along.

August is a puppy dog/himbo and the banter between him and Natalie is pretty funny. This was a really fun and sexy read overall, and my only issue with it was the unnecessary flood scene and act of heroism by August. It felt really weird and totally random, especially remembering that they haven’t even been married for a week. It’s a lot of stuff happening in such a short amount of time, and I would have liked for it to have been more drawn out. Otherwise, this was a good romcom and a lot of fun to read!

<b>“I don’t need any fancy language to know you belong with me.”</b>

𝐿𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑔𝑜 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝒹𝑒

I think we all deserve a big glass of wine and to buy this incredible book! I’ve been going through it the last few weeks and this book is exactly what I needed to put a big ole stupid smile on my face. I couldn’t stop grinning. I think it’s a given fact that romance books make everything better but this book was a total knockout. Unfortunately Yours is the second book in a series set in Napa Valley, but could be read as a standalone. Its an all consuming, passionate, enemies to lovers whirlwind.

After losing her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to her family’s vineyard to lick her wounds and drown her sorrows in cabernet. After a few months she’s finally ready to make her return to NY she just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she be marry to get the money. Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him—and kiss him, in equal measure. August Cates may own a vineyard, but he doesn’t know jack about making wine. He’s determined to do his late best friend proud, no matter what it takes. No bank will give him the loan he needs to turn the business around, until Natalie approaches him with a proposal. Natalie has haunted August's dreams since the moment they met, but their sizzling chemistry immediately morphed into simmering insults. Now, a quickie marriage could help them both. A sham wedding, a few weeks living under the same roof, and then they can go their separate ways—assuming they make it out alive. There’s just one thing they didn’t account for: their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction.

Tessa Bailey is the queen of dirty talk. It should also be illegal to create such a hot, complex, mature character like August. NEW BOOK BOYFRIEND. Like seriously I’d be running down the alter to marry this man. And Natalie is pretty badass too. Without a doubt this is a must read!

Read if you like:
- Enemies to lovers
- Cinnamon hero
- Marriage of convenience
- Guy falls first
- Complicated Grief
- Forced proximity
- World’s cutest epilogue!

Despite this being the second book in the series, I loved it even more than the first!! Something about these two characters and their crazy chemistry had me absolutely hooked!!

Honestly, you don't need to read Secretly Yours to enjoy the heck out of this one - get ready for a wildly passionate love story between two polar opposites. They're each trying their best to avoid confronting how much they love each other and it causes all sorts of chaos!

Natalie and August both need money, which they can get from Natalie's trust fund. But she needs to be married first. So obviously they'll pull of a sham wedding, take the money and run. Natalie is planning to return to NYC to start her own business while August needs an influx to keep his winery open.

What starts as a sham quickly turns serious, though. It's just that these two love birds won't be honest with themselves or each other!

Absolute 5 stars to this sexy, wild romance. Another smash from Tessa Bailey!

Unfortunately, yours is so much better than the first book. The plot and characters were developed much more than the first book. This was a great fake marriage trope.