[Skye’s Review]: It Happened One Summer (It Happened One Summer #1) by Tessa Bailey

It Happened One Summer
by Tessa Bailey
Series: It Happened One Summer #1
Pages: 416
Published by Avon
Release Date: July 13th 2021
Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Romance
Source: Publisher
Format Read: ARC

Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girl” who is cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong.

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It Happened One Summer is the perfect summer read. It’s cute, fun, and an easy read! I read this book easily in one sitting. It’s one of those books that you can’t help but breeze through. You don’t want to put it down because you want to see how the characters will fall in love. 

In this book, our main characters experience the hate-to-love trope. As soon as Brendan sees Piper, he immediately judges her based on her appearance and decides he doesn’t like her. This, in turn, causes Piper to reciprocate those feelings since he is never very nice to her. Then, they start to realize they find the other attractive–but who cares since they would *never* be interested in each other, right? As readers, we, of course, know that these two are going to fall in love. After all, there’s a fine line between love and hate.

This book is perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and romance. I smiled a lot while reading this book. The banter between Piper and Brendan is fantastic! I also really loved how Tessa Bailey wrote Piper and Brendan’s character arcs. They both grow a lot by the end of the book, and falling for each other helped foster that growth which I love. You want the person you love to bring the best out of you, and I think they do that for each other. My only complaint with this book is that the relationship between Piper and Brendan seemed a tad rushed. They fell in love pretty quickly, in my opinion. However, I still really enjoyed the book, and I encourage everyone to give it a try!