Book Review- It Happaned One Summer by Tessa Bailey
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.
Author: Tessa Bailey
Paperback, 397 pages
Published: July 13, 2021
My Review
If you are going to read any book this year, then let It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey be it, because there is nothing more worthwhile than seeing a character development so good.
Piper Bellinger, L.A.’s party princess, the ‘it’ girl never knew what the word responsibility meant and has always lived her life in and for the limelight. But after a public break-up, an illegal rooftop party, and a night in jail, Piper is forced to relocate out of her lavish, comforting life to a coastal town with minimum money in her pockets as a punishment by her step-father, and has to prove that she is more than just a spoiled air-head.
Brendan Taggart is everything that Piper is not used to in men. He is rugged, big, and blurry, anything but a posh L.A. man. He is a responsible fisherman, an honorable citizen of Westport and an honest, straight-to-the-point man, and the total opposite of Piper. Being set in his roots and routine, Brendan lives his life with a strict schedule, and wouldn’t change it for anyone.
At the first glance, Brendan knew or so he thought that Piper and her influencer life would not last a night in his rough-fishermen-with-strong-wives town, but she did. On their second meet, he knew she was making an effort to stay and wasn’t just a complete brat, and on the third, he was a goner for her.
Sparks fly across the room on every turn they meet, leaving you anxious and greedy for the next encounter on every page. Piper’s unfiltered horniness and Brendan’s dirty talks will sway you like no other, and their undenying chemistry can be seen in every scene, even when they are not going at it like rabbits.
And last and the best, what I love most about this book is that Piper changed, she changed in many ways. She became responsible and learned the meaning of life outside social media and followers, but she didn’t turn into a complete Westport girl. She was still an L.A. girl who loved being the center of attention, loved parties, booze, and dresses like no other but she became Westport from the heart.