(This review is a declaration of love to this man) while I read this book a verse from the Lana song was what was repeated in my head "But I love that man like nobody can" I truly love this man without relaxation and every time he did something perfect it was verse was in my head and as he did a thousand perfect things (and like 10 imperfect) the verse was always in my big head. As I do to get this navy seal out of the book and make it my husband in the real world I really love him! He is so freaking in love with her (me)! The vows had me sighing with love, and then when he read the complete vows when he made her upset🥲🥺😍 he also knew that he could not leave her alone when she was fully upset with him and he did his best so that they were well again, the way that he would literally make the world burn to save her and that he would literally give his life to save her also made me fall madly in love with this man! And then the epilogue confirmed it to me even more he is the best daddy girl ever too when one thought he couldn't get even cuter he fucking does it! And like the fainting one and like the dance with his daughter and he was so freaking mad at the other kid that he didn't come! I truly love this man, for everything he is and does like when he cares full about the girl and even runs out of air / a panic attack is provoked when he thinks she is wrong. As he made her family realise that they were hurting him, as he would never let anyone speak badly to his wife and as he is so selfless with everything🫣 that man gives and gives my god I love him!!! (I repeat This review was a declaration of love to this guy) btw I hate 3rd person but I stand it for this perfect man! I have to say it again, I love him! And I know that he made mistakes and that he does not know when to shut up from time to time but he does not do it with hatred, it is that he really does not know how to silence thoughts, and when he knows that some of his comments hurt her he stopped! He is an amazing man bye!

I love this series by Tessa Bailey and I was so looking forward to this book. I loved the chemistry between the two main characters and I just loved Natalie in general. I thought August was nice too, I guess! What I really enjoyed was how both characters had really good character development and their relationship changed over the course of the book as well. Marriage of convenience is not my favourite trope but in this book it really worked! And as always, Tessa Bailey nails the spice.

I was super excited to read this book! It can totally be read as a stand alone, although it’s certainly helpful to have read book one. Natalie and August have some sizzling chemistry and all sort of banter. I think the pacing was a little odd, especially if you hadn’t been introduced to the characters before. I do love a good marriage of convenience plot and this one definitely made sense. If you like Tessa Bailey, you’ll like this book. It feels very quintessentially her - slightly aggressive, very banter-heavy, and with a decent spice level.

Natalie Vos is the sister of Julian Vos, our hero from Bailey's previous novel 'Secretly Yours'. In 'Secretly Yours' we were introduced to the start of Natalie and Navy Seal, August Cates, rocky relationship. What should've been a quick, and dirty, rebound, quickly turned sour when Natalie and Augusts' personalities clashed. This book picks up right where 'Secretly Yours' left off, with Natalie and August fuming at each other. Natalie came back to Napa, tail between her legs, after a bad deal cost her her job and former relationship. August ended up in Napa after the death of a close friend, and Augusts self-given duty to fulfil this friends lifelong dream of running a vineyard. Natalie, a vineyard heiress, needs her trust fund released early so she can go back to New York and reclaim her dignity and separate from her mother, who seems to think she can't do anything right when it comes to the vineyard. However, her trust fund can only be released once she's married, and when she asks her father to change the terms, he refuses. August's vineyard is struggling, and he's unable to secure a small business loan to help it along. Mutually in need, the two strike up a deal to get married, their marriage will release Natalie's trust and having her name associated with August's vineyard would go a long way towards securing him his small business loan, then after a month's time the two could separate, claiming they simply did not get along. But the more the two are forced together, through wedding planning and proving their wedding isn't the sham that it is, they find themselves being more and more attracted to each other and both wishing that months time was longer. August falls first, and never tries to shy away from the fact that he does, though it scares him endlessly what such a confession could do to Natalie. But Natalie herself falls just as hard not long after he does.

As someone who grew up the child of entrepreneurs, and then struck out on my own to do my own thing in life and then was subsequently kept out of the loop of all business proceedings (whether intentional or not), boy do I feel for Natalie and how belittle she feels by her family. Despite proving herself over and over that she can do this and is interested, her mom especially always seems to write her off without a second thought. Another rip characteristic of my family is their inability to communicate well, thus causing me to grow up and be an over-communicator (if you will), and one thing that I find myself hating about this series as a whole (and many other romance novels as they all fall victim to it) is our main characters inability to simply communicate with each other, everyone is always hiding something because they feel it is in their love interests best interest to hide it, this massive piece of information that they know could hurt the person if they found out at the wrong time. Like. Please, just be open and upfront about things?? It's really not that hard, trust me.

Overall, I liked this book way better than the first in the series. I felt Natalie and August had a lightning bolt kind of connection that you could feel when reading, nothing about these characters being together felt forced (I couldn't say the same for the first in the series though). The spice was great, and the story backing up the spice was also great.

I adore Tessa Bailey and everything she writes, I loved this (shockingly I know) the fake marriage, the enemies to lovers , the humour , romance abd I loved the characters so much, and the spice, perfect!This book will have you laughing and crying , a wholehearted recommendation from me

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a cute enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy. I enjoyed this more than Secretly Yours, but these books seem a little tame compared to the Tessa Bailey I'm used to,

Thank you #Netgalley

A great continuation from the first Vine Mess series of Tessa Bailey. This time we follow Julian's sister Natalie as she tries to navigate her life after losing her job and fiancé as she comes back to her home town of Napa. When Natalie needs access to her trust fund to start over, there is a parameter that she must be married. So she designs a plan to take a fellow person in need of a favor, August. The two of them each have their own selfish desires to move their careers/passion forward, but at times get on each others nerves. As you can imagine in classic rom com style, the plan ends up falling into real feelings amongst each other. Look forward to more from this series!

Quick Summary: A hot and sweet blend romance

My Review: Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey is book 2 of A Vine Mess. It features the relationship of Natalie Vos and August Cates. It is an enemies to lovers romance.

About the Book: Partnering with a former enemy, Natalie and August work towards achieving their dreams. Little did either one know just how hard they would fall into a passionate love.

My Final Say: Sometimes, all you have to say about a book is that it is darn good. This was that. 💛

Rating: 5/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: A
Re-read: Yes
Status/Level: 🌶🌶🌶

Appreciation is extended to the author, to the publisher (Avon and Harper Voyager), and to NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to review this title.

One of my recent favorite tropes is fake dating + marriage of convenience. Before bookstagram, the only marriage of convenience books I had read were historical fiction and I didn’t love them. But with the discovery of much more modern romances with that trope, I’ve been loving it!

Tessa Bailey’s marriage of convenience worked perfectly in Unfortunately Yours, with all the tension, shenanigans, and “we’re just pretending” moments the trope needs. Although I initially had a hard time understanding the motivations of main character Natalie. As the book went on she became more likable to me and felt like a better match to August, who I loved. Sweet, sweet cinnamon roll August!

Bailey is one of the queens of writing tense, angsty chemistry between characters who are trying to deny an attraction to each other. And a queen at writing the best spicy scenes when the inevitable hookup happens! This book is as steamy as the first in the series and I can’t decide which book I like better.

This was steamy in parts and witty in other parts making it an easy read. It went quick and held my interest. However, other parts felt a little forced too. Their physical relationship at the start is just…rough. The premise of the romance is really cute though.

🌀Synopsis
Natalie’s life is falling off the rails. A big mistake at work causes her to lose her job, which causes her to lose her relationship, which causes her to move back home. She’s determined to find her way back though. She’ll do whatever it takes to get her old life back. Including a fake marriage.
August needs Natalie’s fake marriage too. He’s about to lose the vineyard that he’s trying to run for a friend he lost in combat. The two come together to help each other.
Both of them realize there’s more to the relationship though and they start to develop feelings. Both are guarded though and continue to face difficulties letting each other in. Natalie is still determined to get back to her old life and it seems August is going to let her go. In the end, they both surprise each other.

This was not my favorite Tessa Bailey book, but it was still an enjoyable read. There’s a nice level of spice and some very good character development, the plot was just a bit lacking for me. I think anyone looking a fun romance novel will enjoy this one.

This is my 3rd book from this author and probably my favorite of them. I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers and the chemistry between the MC’s was perfect. I loved this romance.

I have the unfortunate trait of reading books out of order in a series. However I never felt out of place reading this one first. The characters were spicy and had the perfect balance of enemies to lovers, sometimes its like were they really enemies at all but here you felt their anger in the beginning. I loved the drama that was included making the stakes higher in the story.

this book ATE UP the marriage of convenience trope!! this sequel was definitely a heavy step up from the previous one. tessa bailey’s writing is always funny and so damn creative. i love these characters so much!! it was giving she’s the black cat to his golden retriever personality. announce to lovers if you will.

3/5 ⭐️‘s

I really loved a large chunk of this book and overall did really like it a lot more than the first book. It’s fast-paced, the spice was ✨spectacular✨, and the vineyard setting is soooooo much fun! /However/ my main problem with this book was the whole kind of lie of omission in regards to the marriage. I don’t want to give specifics, bc spoilers, but IYKYK 🫣 That plot line + the way that Natalie found out about said lie of omission just made me feel kind of icky about everything and it took me a long time to get back into the book & finish it after that. If it hadn’t been for that, I think this would have been more of a 4-4.5 star read for me, because it really did have sooo many good elements to it.

Thank you to Avon for kindly providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I would recommend this book to any public library looking for new additions to their contemporary romance collection.

This is another amazing hit by the talented hands of Tessa Bailey! I loved getting to more of her masterfully chiseled characters and the banter between them. The spice was perfect, the plot awesome and I was up until the wee hours of the morning reading this one! Great job to Tessa Bailey! Highly recommend!

I love Tessa Bailey so much! I think I actually liked this one more than the first, but honestly Tessa can do no wrong in my eyes.

i liked this one better than the first, but the insta-love on the august's end made the whole thing lose the tension for me! unfortunately, i think i'm finding that tessa's books just aren't for me.

*thank you netgalley and avon for the eARC!

This books seems like the same as the last… Rom/Com with the premise of enemies to friends is fine, but I just didn’t like the dialogue of princess or other names August called Natalie …and too many steamy scenes. It is the same over and over with this author . The growth of both character was over shadowed by too many annoying thing. The biggest issue I have with this book is lack of military research by the author. A Navy seal is not a “soldier” and his friend Sam would not have been under his own father’s command. So August’s “CO” wouldn’t have been Sam’s Dad. Military people know this . (Also, in Kansas we don’t call a Cook out a Barbecue, as Sam claims. It’s a cookout and Barbecue is the meat, usually beef brisket, that has been slow-cooked in a barbecue pit, where the heat and smoke come from burning wood…, FYI).
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.