It Happened One Summer: A Novel

IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER is the first instalment Tessa Bailey’s contemporary, adult IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER erotic, romance series. This is twenty-eight year old, Hollywood ‘It Girl’ Piper Bellinger, and fisherman Captain Brendan Taggart’s story line. Told from dual third person perspectives (Brendan and Piper) IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER follows in the aftermath of Piper’s arrest for breaking and entering, and throwing a wild party where she didn’t belong. Piper is a ‘social media influencer’ whose life has been spiralling out of control. As punishment and to teach our heroine a lesson, her step-father Daniel reveals that her late father Henry Cross left her sister Hannah and Piper a bar in Westport, Washington, a small sea side town where Piper and Hannah, for the next three months, will learn to call home. Enter fisherman and widower Captain Brendan Taggart, and the man with whom Piper will fall in love. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Piper and Brendan, and the potential fall-out as Piper’s time in Westport comes to an end. Piper Bellinger is nothing but a social media influencer; a party girl with no education or plans for the future, and in this, she struggles with the minimal daily tasks such as laundry and cooking. Sent to Westport, Washington, Piper and Hannah have three months to turn their lives around, three months wherein Piper will fall in love, and Hannah begins to reconsider her own future back in LA. Piper had never considered calling Westport her home, and had plans to return to LA when her ‘sentence’ was over but fixing up her late father’s bar, and falling in love with our story line hero, gave Piper pause for the future, a future she had never stopped to considered. Brendan Taggart is a Westport townie, having grown up living and working on the sea. Widowed seven years earlier, Brendan had yet to move on but meeting Piper Bellinger gave Brendan hopes for a new future, a future involving our story line heroine. The relationship between Piper Brendan begins acrimoniously as Brendan is unable to see beyond the trash and flash of our story line heroine but something about Piper stirs our story line hero, and Brendan is the first to fall for the woman who is beginning to make herself at home. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense. We are introduced to a number of the local Westport citizens including Brendan’s friend Fox; his former father in law Mick Forrester; Piper and Hannah’s grandmother Opal Cross; Abe; Piper and Hannah’s step-father Daniel; Piper’s ex Adrian, and her LA friend Kirby. IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER is inspired by the antics of Alexa on ‘Schitt’s Creek’, another social media influencer whose life experiences had never prepared her for the real world. The premise is entertaining and lively; the characters are spirited and sassy; the romance is provocative and energetic. Hannah’s story is next.

Maybe it is my own boundaries, my own ways to see things I'm throwing at this. But I seriously can't even finish the book. I think I would at least respect and enjoy this book if like in "walk of shame, by Lauren Layne". She has had a degree! This woman is 10yrs late in what she's still pulling! 28yrs old?? Still calling like oh wait, is mom ok with this?? I understand she might not work. but at 28, most your friends are already married. I think the writer does not know what she's talking about. At 28 even if you're rich, you start knowing things. that life can be hard. That money has its worth, it does not grow on trees even if you're wasting it. The writer writes about a 28yrs old WOMAN like her friends are college kids. pool party? I mean?? It's ok to be a socialite, to not work. But I can't read about empty heads, brainless STILL AT 28. I would have laughed, if she was even 24. 2yrs short to 30? Nope. This is a waste of my own hard earned money and a slap to my intelligence at 28.

Tessa Bailey genuinely never misses. Narrated by an LA princess FMC, the book focuses on the difficulties of settling into a small town coming from a huge city, as well as grappling with her feelings for the Captain Brendan Taggart, a man who seemingly cannot want to get further away from her than she from him. Overall, this light-hearted book is a combination of humor and romance, packed with life-lessons and growth in all characters. The Bellinger Sister series as a whole is amazing to read!