A review by dalmavatai
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This book is super steamy, and that's about the only thing I liked about it. The characters and the relationships are very underdeveloped, the storyline predictable and unoriginal. The romance between Piper and Brendan started off well but then Brendan becomes very possessive and controlling - which we're supposed to find very sexy. The gender essentialism of this book drove me up the walls, the author says 'male' and 'female' before literally every description of the MC and LI and I was just like oh my god, yes we get it, Brendan is very MANLY who's BIG and GRUFF and has a MALE scent and did I mention he's such a MAN??! Some parts were genuinely worrying, like when Brendan doesn't take advantage of Piper when she's drunk which supposedly made him 'amazing', or wanted to go down on Piper which made him 'generous'. Our standards for straight men in relationships are truly so awful that these are noteworthy actions of the male love interest. His possessiveness is also something that's supposed to make us like him, along with the fact that at multiple points he doesn't let Pipet be her own person and wants to 'fix' everything for her - which is not cute and makes him a wannabe male savior in my opinion. The author's repeated emphasis on how Brendan's work as a fisherman makes him a 'real' man is also not great to read especially when standards of masculinity are already very constricting and narrow, I just really don't think we need any more conversation on what a 'real' man is. 

Overall - poor writing, dragged out ending, incredibly cheesy plot without much substance, very unoriginal characters and relationships. The sex scenes were amazing and super hot, truly the only redeeming factor of this book. 
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