A review by beckyyreadss
Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I love Tessa Bailey’s work – It Happened One Summer is still one of my favourite books like EVER! I still think about that book so much. So, when Tessa announced a new series this year, I automatically jumped online to pre-order this book. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a cute read. 

This book has two points of view. The first point of view is Hallie Welch. She fell hard for Julian Vos when she was fourteen after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now Julian has returned home. Hallie is hired by Julian’s mother to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she will finally get the kiss from almost fifteen years ago. But the Julian she was infatuated with is different to the Julian that is in front of her. He is a grumpy professor, and their personalities keep clashing at every interaction. One night, after having a couple of glasses of wine with her best friend, Hallie can’t shake the feeling she did something reckless – and then she remembers the drunken anonymous love letter she left for Julian. The second point of view is Julian Vos, he is on sabbatically from his ivy league job and he is planning on writing a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She is chaotic, always late, often covered in dirt and yet Julian finds her so beautiful that he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds a letter from a secret admirer from his past. As Julian tries to find out who this mysterious woman is, he keeps getting sucked into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of colour in Julian’s grey-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero. But there is something so familiar about her and her presence is turning his world upside down. 

Okay, I love this book, I think it was so cute and adorable and I loved the idea of this trope of “you forgot me, yet I've fancied the pants out of you” - the whole way through this book I just wanted to hug Hallie because I felt for her, like being lost in the world and not knowing what to do and also not feeling sexy in her own body and then when someone else is cherishing the body and not knowing how to react. I loved the storyline, and I loved the side characters. I liked the discussion of difficult topics within this book such as anxiety, body confidence, bad relationships with parents. I think the thing that was missing was the love letters, I think I wanted more letters and more angst, and I just think the miscommunication in it drove me nuts. I don’t mind miscommunication, but I felt during this storyline it was slightly too much.  

I missed the epilogue so hopefully there is an extended one in the next book, and I cannot wait to see more of Natalie in the next book.  
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