eARC Review – Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey

Title: Hook, Line, and Sinker (Bellinger Sisters #2)

Author: Tessa Bailey

Publisher: Avon Books

Publication date: March 1st, 2022

400 pages

5/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he’s a guaranteed good time–in bed and out–and that’s exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.

Now, Hannah’s in town for work, crashing in Fox’s spare bedroom. She knows he’s a notorious ladies’ man, but they’re definitely just friends. In fact, she’s nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport’s resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker’s eye… yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can’t deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.

Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she’s walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and… and… man overboard! He’s fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he’s all in, she’ll choose him instead?

In the follow-up to It Happened One Summer, Tessa Bailey delivers another deliciously fun rom-com about a former player who accidentally falls for his best friend while trying to help her land a different man…

Review

After becoming completely obsessed with It Happened One Summer earlier this year, I knew I needed to read Hook, Line, and Sinker immediately. And I was not disappointed, in fact this book exceeded even my already very high expectations. Fox and Hannah’s story will stick with me a long time, and whereas it is more of a slow burn that IHOS – it is no less special.

Hannah and Fox have been texting in the months since Hannah moved back to LA, until Hannah convincing her director crush to film their next movie in Westport. Hannah finds herself crashing in Fox’s spare room and trying not to sleep with him. Fox is also trying not to sleep with Hannah, as Brendan has told him repeatedly she is off limits. But as the two reveal more to each other, they begin to help each other with their misconceptions of self and to shirk everyone else’s opinions and expectations.

Piper and Brendan makes cameos in this book, as one would expect – but it really is focused on Hannah and Fox, the recalls to IHOS are infrequent. As I mentioned, this is more of a slow burn where the two are working on trusting each other and rehabbing their own thoughts of themselves. But over the course of the book, Hannah and Fox go through so much growth and I’m honestly so proud of those two. And that epilogue!! Be still my heart.

I love these sisters and their men and Tessa Bailey. That is all.

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Happy reading, folks!