Hook, Line, and Sinker (It Happened One Summer #1) by Tessa Bailey

It Happened One Summer

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey is the second novel in this series, following Hannah, the younger sister of Piper from the first book, as she falls for sexy fisherman Fox in this friends to lovers tale. I have had issues with Tessa Bailey from really despising Fix Her Up to thinking It Happened One Summer had so much promise, but not really paying off. I had hopes for this one, though, because there are elements of Bailey's writing that I really like. Let's see how it goes.

Interesting characters: 

Hannah's a tiny bit one-note. She likes music and listening to vinyl records. She is definitely the weak link of this book.  But, she sticks up for herself, holds strong to her beliefs, and is sensitive enough to deal with...

Fox, who is an emotional mess. I liked to see his emotional growth, while admitting that Bailey relies a little too much on the blonde, sun-kissed, six-pack stereotype. I thought Bailey did a nice job of showing how his relationship with his mother paralleled the changes in his life. If you don't enjoy reading angsty thought after angsty thought, this might not be your jam, but since I'm a gal who likes to read about men in distress,  I thought this was a strength, but it might seem like an unnecessary 400 pages if you don't like to live in the mind of a conflicted man.

Believable conflict:

I...guess? I was incredibly perplexed by the idea that Hannah just didn't want to sleep with Fox because then it would reinforce all the bad thoughts he had about himself. It seemed to me that having sex with him and then sticking around would have been a better solution, but what do I know?  

Emotional tension:

It was so clear from the previous book that Fox was crazy about Hannah that there was no real tension here. I guess there was some tension about whether or not they'd ever hook up, but that was more physical tension than emotional tension.

Happily ever after:

Oh, the epilogue was adorable. I enjoyed it very much! There was a moose.

I will say, there was a side character named Christian, who was an antagonizing co-worker to Hannah and I thought the dialogue between Hannah and Christian was amazing and hot and I thought the chemistry between them was somehow sexier than the dialogue between Fox and Hannah, so if Bailey wants to write Christian's story, I wouldn't be mad.

4/5 stars