Review: It Happened One Summer

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

He was a set-in-his-ways fisherman. She was a rich, adventurous socialite. 

The “for Schitt's Creek fans” had some ringing true as Piper, a late twenties socialite starts to feel the creep of social media fame fading away. With a step-father that is over her aimlessness, he tells her about the bar her deceased father left her and her sister in the “wilds” of Washington. Needing a place to lay low out of the lime light and figure out what she wants to do with her life, Piper, and accompanied by her sister Hannah, heads to her father's hometown in hopes of learning more about her father and herself. 

“Which girl are you? The girl in the pictures or the one sitting next to me?” 

“Both, I think,” she said after a pause. 

This was a Tessa Bailey standard (maybe even a little more top tier to me) and you'll get that sexy, sparking, and entertaining usual, with some more emotional. I much appreciated that Piper had vulnerability, lack of self-confidence, front and center to combat the instant dislike that could be brought from a at first-take vacuous socialite. Pairing her with the grumpy widowed (for 7yrs) Brendan hit just right for me. She was the breath of fresh air, shake-up that he needed and he was the solid foundation she needed, I love pairs like that. 

And in that moment, Brendan saw right through her. Saw what she was doing. Making tonight about sex. Trying to keep things casual. Categorizing him as a friend with benefits. With a less determined man, she would have succeeded, too. 

The plot “trapping” Piper in the Washington town, her step-father says he won't pay anymore of her bills until she can prove to him that she can run her father's bar for 3 months will have you going along with it because the ride was just fun. I wasn't totally on board at first with her sister Hannah joining her, questioned reasoning, forcing a secondary character for series bait, but as the story went on, while I not totally lost the not necessary, her character started to also feel very essential (if that makes any sense). 

This girl. He’d be keeping her. There was no way around it. 

Adding in Piper looking for strength and confidence in herself by gaining knowledge and an emotional connection to her birth father was Bailey digging for emotional depth I much appreciated it; I think there were a couple moments that will have eyes watering for some. My heart really liked Brendan taking Piper out on his boat to help understand his job more and work to, while not completely, ally some fear she had in relation to how her father died. This was a deep topic and while we don't sink completely into the trauma of dating a man who works the same job you father died from, it at least was broached for deeper relationship connection. This was all about accepting yourself and finding someone who loves you for you and I enjoyed this little treat of a story. (Now when does the movie/tv show adaption come out? Because NEED)

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