I am going to go against the Goodreads consensus and say that this book is actually not bad and I devoured it in less than two days, successfully dodging literally everything else in my real life.
I picked this book up because I was struggling with a reading block and this had me cured literally after the first few pages. While it’s not realistic, and some parts are pretty cringey, that’s what made it so appealing to me. To me, it was a book I didn’t have to take too seriously with a lot of interesting, steamy scenes and a main male character who was head over heels for the female lead.
Taylor had me in stitches with witty one-liners, and her second-grade teaching tactics. While a lot of the time I was getting major second-hand embarrassment from her and annoyance with Myles and his contradictory thoughts and actions, their chemistry was enough to have me hooked in the first few pages. I’m also a sucker for a murder mystery and having that layer of suspense in the novel, combined with Taylor being literally edged over the course of her vacation made me incapable of putting this book down.
My favourite thing about this book is how many different plot lines are being juggled masterfully all at once. With Taylor and Myles trying to solve the murder of her rental home owner, coupled with Taylor’s brother and his estranged bestie trying to make amends, layered with the mayor and her effort to stop the vacation rental industry, there is a lot going on beyond the romantic moments Myles and Taylor steal with each other. With so much happening, it’s easy to get lost in Cape Cod and Taylor’s perfect vacation gone wrong.
This is my first Tessa Bailey read (surprising because she’s all over BookTok), and I was super excited to get into it because I know she’s an instant-buy author for a lot of my friends. The writing definitely did not disappoint with her masterful handle of scenes from emotionally poignant to downright filthy.
That being said, there were some awkward parts, that had me putting the book down and asking myself if it had really come to this in romance novels. I think at the end of the day, what really drew me to this book is the fact that it reads like fanfiction and that’s not for everyone which is totally okay. But it is for me, so that’s a win!
Five out of five stars!
Paging Kait 