The first in a spicy and unforgettable rom-com duology from #1 New York Times bestseller and tik tok favorite Tessa Bailey, in which a Hollywood “It Girl” is cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong.
Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.
Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.
Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.
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Love this. I was worried at first because Piper was SO spoiled and stuck up. I was afraid I'd hate her. But I actually started to like her pretty quickly. She was pretty clueless at first, but it became clear that she was a really good and kind person, which was the important thing.
I love how she was always a girly girl, and I love that Brendan loved her for it. They were really cute together!
Are we just not going to talk about how fantastic It Happened One Summer is? Oh no, we are! A huge fan of Tessa Bailey, I have been itching to get my hands on this book. If you exist anywhere in the Bookstagram or BookTok universe - you have heard of this series (I plan on reading book two in the near future!) Let me tell you, the reviews DON'T even do it justice. Think of every romantic comedy where the "It" girl/Popular Girl is totally out of her element, has to be knocked down a few pegs to survive, and the hilarity that transformation creates (think Clueless, Mean Girls, Pitch Perfect, etc). In a nutshell, this book was all of the good stuff wrapped in one.
Piper is the queen of the scene. The true definition of the “it” girl. Every woman wants to know her/be her and every guy wants to date her. The problem is, the connections are for notoriety only. When Piper’s latest boyfriend dumps her after three weeks, she decides she needs to show that she is much more than a pretty face and a charge card. Throwing a party of epic proportions, Piper finds herself in jail and out of luck when her stepfather has finally had it. As punishment for her childish act, Piper is “sentenced” to three months in her biological father’s home town, at the bar the girls inherited when he passed away. Never to leave her sister to fly alone (and positive she wouldn’t survive for a second on her own), Piper’s younger sister Hannah volunteers to accompany her to Westport, Washington.
Brendan is about as traditional and routine as a man can get. As a sea captain, he has learned that his stubborn ways is what keeps his men alive and their pockets full. Having been born and raised in Westport, Washington - he has eyes for only one woman since the passing of his wife, the sea herself. That changes when he takes one look at an out of place floppy hat Princess that steps out of her "carriage" and into his world. Never seen or having met anyone like Piper, Brendan has no idea how to deal with the hurricane of emotions and experiences coming his way. Determined to keep his focus on what’s important, he makes every attempt to keep his distance from Piper Bellinger but in a small town, there are only so many places you can hide.
As one of THE most recommended books by reviewers, I was so happy to find this book lived up to the hype. I loved how protective Hannah was of her sister and their overall relationship. Polar opposites, they respected who they were to one another and never tried to influence or change their differences. Their relationship allowed you to get peeks under the hood of Piper’s personality - those cracks gave the reader a full picture of the real person versus the social persona. That is another thing I enjoyed, how Bailey picked apart the social influencer lifestyle and the superficiality of it all.
As for Brendan, my goodness he was such a teddy bear! Rough, grumpy, grunty (not a word but best way to describe him), there were so many layers of goodness within that man! He was fearsly loyal, devoted, trustworthy, honest, and just sheer perfection. The naughty/nice side to him was the gift that kept on giving.
There is absolutely no surprise how hot this book was. Come on, it’s Bailey! I would have been shocked if I wasn’t blushing after reading some of her scenes. Bailey knows how to write a connection that goes beyond the physical but is still just as hot and heavy as anything you can imagine.
A grumpy versus sunshine delight, It Happened One Summer brings the classic love of romantic comedies of the past into the modern age of influencer drama, traditional values, and what magic can take place when we stop being what the world wants and just start being ourselves.
