[Brittany’s Review]: Secretly Yours (A Vine Mess #1) by Tessa Bailey

A steamy new rom-com about a starchy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family's winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she'll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn't the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls' night later, Hallie can't shake the sense that she did something reckless--and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.

On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She's eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt--and so unbelievably beautiful, he can't focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he's sucked further into Hallie's orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian's gray-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there's something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down.

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.

If you’re like me, you have some authors who are just an automatic buy author. Tessa Bailey is hands down one of those authors for me. So far I have been obsessed with all of her books that I’ve read. So, as you can imagine, I was beyond excited to get this book into my hands.

Sadly it did not quite meet my expectations.

When I started the book, I won’t lie, I was slightly bored. It was really hard for me to immerse myself into the story.

Just to give you a little gist of what this book is about, you have characters Hallie and Julian. They are complete opposites. Hallie is a gardener, Julian is a professor. Hallie is sweet, funny, walks to her own beat. Julian is quiet, particular, and needs everything in order. Hallie is working on his family’s property, and the crush she’s had on Julian for years just continues to grow. As well as Julian’s attraction to her.

This seemed like a great set up for a book mixed with secret love letters, anticipated good banter, and we all know Tess writes incredible spicy seems. However, I feel like the book and characters just lacked something. I feel like the main characters didn’t have a lot of chemistry, and as I stated earlier, it was a bit hard to get into the book.

While this book wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t a favorite of mine. However, I do have high hopes for the second book.

Brittany

Hello! My name is Brittany. I’m a newbie nurse by day and an avid reader 24/7. I am a proud romance junkie and will read just about every genre as long as there is some romance. I love to spend my time with my 9 cats—yes, you read that correctly—and posting on my bookstagram account (@_darkreadings if curious). I’m also a hardcore JLA fan.