Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey | ARC Review

Series: A Vine Mess, #1
Traits & Tropes: opposites attract; pining heroine; slow burn; childhood crush; grumpy/sunshine
Publication Date: 02.07.23
Genre/Setting: Contemporary; Napa Valley, CA, June
Heat Level: 3
Rating: 3/5

Hallie Welch has been infatuated with Julian Vos since they were in high school, and she was the lowly freshman he didn’t notice after their almost kiss in his family’s vineyards. Now he’s returned to their small town and Hallie has been hired to refresh the gardens at the guesthouse where he’s staying. She wonders if her fantasies of kissing him might finally be realized, but soon sees how unlikely that is given the starchy professor is her polar opposite. That doesn’t stop Hallie from leaving him a secret admirer letter after too much wine at girls’ night.

Julian has taken a break from his job as a professor at Stanford to write a fiction novel. He certainly doesn’t need the distraction of Hallie gardening outside his window and her refusal to adhere to a timetable is wreaking havoc on his schedule. He can’t help but find Hallie beautiful, even when she’s covered in dirt. With his focus already shaken, Julian is completely taken aback to find an anonymous love note addressed to him. Even as he wonders at the author’s identity, he’s drawn even closer to Hallie’s vivaciousness. For someone who thrives on strict order, Julian soon comes to realize that Hallie’s cheery chaos is exactly what he’s been missing in his well-ordered life.

This was a fine read but after how much I adored this author’s previous two releases, I was a little letdown by this one. So much was done right, but other parts fell a bit flat for me. I loved that we got anxiety rep here and bonus points that it was the hero. Yet again in this season of grief for me personally, I’ve found a main character who is struggling with grief, Hallie in this case, though that was also handled quite well. Julian and Hallie felt like such a mismatch, but I also really liked how they each brought about a change in the other that resulted in more happiness and less rigidity and chaos, respectively. I wasn’t crazy about how abrupt the ending felt. After such a slow burn, it definitely felt rushed, so their relationship didn’t feel as permanent as I would like. I loved how hard Julian fell for Hallie and I wanted to see more of him embracing that rather than having so much of him fighting his emerging feelings. I guess I just wanted more of a balance between those two sides of his character. Also, this could’ve been a super-hot book but thanks to that agonizingly slow burn, it ran right up to that potential and then ran away just as quickly. Overall, I did like Hallie and Julian, and I loved the supporting characters and the themes of self-acceptance, but I wanted somehow just a bit more from it all the same. I’m nonetheless charmed by the premise and setting and am looking forward to Natalie’s book and actually hoping for a HEA for Owen as well.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3465313592
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4920230053



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