Secretly Yours
A Novel
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3.8 • 415 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From Tessa Bailey—#1 New York Times bestselling author, TikTok favorite, and "the Michelangelo of dirty talk" (Entertainment Weekly)—comes a spicy small town rom-com about a grumpy 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 Napa Valley, and when Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she'll finally get that smooch. But the starchy 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 grayscale 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.
"Tessa Bailey is the queen of rom-coms. Long may she reign!" — Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Merry Little Meet Cute
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This steamy opposites-attract romance pulls us into a long-simmering crush. When popular Napa Valley gardener Hallie hears that her almost-first kiss Julian is back in town, she maneuvers to take over the landscaping project on his family vineyard. Now an esteemed history professor with a 10-year plan, Julian doesn’t quite remember the chaotic Hallie, but his attraction to her is undeniable, even if it majorly messes with his rigid schedule. We loved watching the sparks between these two fly, and boy, did we enjoy Tessa Bailey’s colorful, boisterous heroine and all the fun headbutting. Secretly Yours is a barrel full of fun—aged to perfection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A haughty professor and a spirited gardener face off in this raunchy and enchanting rom-com from bestseller Bailey (My Killer Vacation). Small-town St. Helena, Calif., native Hallie Welch struggles to find her footing after her grandmother's death, toiling for the prestigious gardening business she inherited from her grandmother and drinking at her grandmother's favorite winery to stay grounded. When the estranged scion of local Vos Vineyards, Julian Vos, now a Stanford professor, returns to his family's estate, Hallie grapples with an entirely different set of emotions, spurred by the memory of their almost-kiss back in high school. Hallie eagerly offers her services to refurbish the Vos Vineyards' gardens, determined to reconnect with Julian. For Julian, however, his time at Vos Vineyards is strictly business; he's there to finish writing his novel without interruption. But as the vibrant, chaotic Hallie enters his life, so too do a series of strange letters from a secret admirer, throwing his meticulous work schedule off course. Bailey delivers a second-chance romance with vigor and passion, despite the characters falling a bit too neatly and exaggeratedly into a familiar grumpy/sunshine dichotomy. The witty banter and gripping tension will make this a treat for the author's many fans.
Customer Reviews
Cute but…
If you’re going to read one Tessa Bailey book please start with another! This one was an easy read but compared to her other books this one isn’t even in the same wheelhouse! The romance between Julian and Hallie seemed not as organic as it was meant to be.
Enjoyable & Steamy
Loved this opposites attract romance that dealt with the main characters’ challenges and quirks in a way that encourages self-acceptance.
4 Stars!!
4 Stars! Cute read! This is the first book in the new series ‘A Vine Mess’ by Tessa Bailey and can be read as a standalone. I enjoyed this book, especially the ‘sexy time’ scenes - soooo hot! The main characters are Julian and Hallie and they are total opposites. He’s very structured & regimented while she is haywire & very ‘fly by the seat of your pants’. At first I started to think Julian might be somewhat autistic with how seriously he took his time management, but he seems to get better throughout the book. I smiled throughout a lot of this story, some of the things that go on and what they say just had me wanting to be apart of the friend group. I’d probably become BFF’s with Hallie, her best friend Lavinia & Julian’s sister Natalie, if they were real people! I’d say this is an opposites attract, secret crush, second chance all rolled into one. I do love me a good Tessa Bailey read! I’d definitely recommend this book & I really can’t wait for the next book in the series!
*I received this at no charge & I voluntarily left this review.*