Genre: Romance
Publisher: Avon Books
Pages: 384
Release Date: February 7, 2023
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.
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Secretly Yours is an opposites attract romance about a chaotic woman and ultra organized man. Hallie and Julian couldn’t be more different, but their attraction to each other is palpable. Their chemistry is instant and their sexual tension can be cut with a knife.
Secretly Yours is set in a wine country as Hallie watches her late grandmother’s best friend’s wine tasting store be put out of business by a flashy more modern business. The setting feels real as Bailey paints a picturesque countryside filled with vineyards and lush gardens.
Julian is intense. Everything about him, from his schedule to his personality, is intense. Hallie has a more carefree vibe, despite the obvious grief she’s carrying. These differences lead to explosive and emotionally charged moments between the two.
The spice is on the light side, but it is a Tessa Bailey novel so the scenes that are included are fire hot (especially the garden scene).
Overall, Secretly Yours is an enjoyable opposites attract romance with an intense love interest and enough angst to keep you reading.
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