Piper Bellinger is a spoiled social media influencer who has been feeling like, “I can be in a room full of people that I know and still not feel like I belong”. After an out-of-control party lands Piper in jail, Piper’s Stepfather sentences Piper to 3 months running her late Father’s bar in a small beach town. When Piper, along with her sister Hannah (who insists on coming), arrive, they discover that the bar, which has been taken over by local fishermen and a rude sea captain named Brendan, is in a state of disrepair. Determined to prove the naysayers wrong (and maybe earn an early ticket home), Piper gets to work renovating and reopening the bar. But everywhere she turns, she runs into Brendan – the two are polar opposites but they have an undeniable infatuation with each other. Also, the longer Piper stays in Westport, the more she reconnects to her past. Will Piper return to her glamorous life in L.A., or will the small fishing town (and the handsome local sea captain) capture her heart? It Happened One Summer is a slow burn contemporary romance geared towards adults (there are quite a few spicy scenes that are not appropriate for a teen audience). The vibe of this book reminded me a lot of one of my favourite shows, Schitt’s Creek; the character illustrations on the cover of the book even look like Alexis and Mutt! I would recommend this book to fans of Sweet Home Alabama and Virgin River. Readers of Talia Hibbert, Alexandria Bellefleur, and Sally Thorne are also sure to love It Happened One Summer. This book could be characterized as an “enemies to lovers” trope (Piper and Brandan are total opposites that start off on the wrong foot) or a forbidden love story (Piper is only in Westport for 3 months and Brendan is a widower who spends a lot of time at sea). But I think that best way to characterize It Happened One Summer is opposites attract; spoiled and chic partier from L.A., meet rugged and stubborn fisherman from a small town. Some themes present in It Happened One Summer include beauty of simplicity, change versus tradition, death, facing reality, family, growing up, love and heartbreak, identity, empowerment, inner and outer strength, isolation and loneliness, materialism and wealth, fame, perseverance, and beauty. I love how Piper spends most of the book, “trying to figure out what to do when no one is watching. And wondering if maybe that’s the stuff that actually matters”. This book really highlights the phoniness of social media and the importance of love and family. Moving to Westport, being financially cut off, and connecting with Brendan really make Piper question her extravagant lifestyle, think about what she truly wants (and deserves), and learn to live in the real world. I really appreciated the main takeaway of the book: “what she’d thought before was living life to the fullest had actually been living life for other people to watch…Now though? She was participating in her own life. Not just posing and pretending”. I also enjoyed reading about Piper and Brendan’s “opposites attract” romance story; especially when Brendan starts to “court” Piper by building her a pergola. I loved how Piper and Brendan made each other grow outside of their comfort zones; similarly, as Piper falls further in love with Brendan, she also falls further in love with Westport. Lastly, the ending was very satisfying, and I loved the inclusion of the epilogue that takes place post happily ever after. At the end of the novel, Tessa Bailey announces that a spin-off novel featuring Piper’s sister Hannah and Brendan’s friend Fox (tentatively entitled Hook, Line, and Sinker) is coming out in early 2022! I have already added this book to my TBR. I am so excited to read about Hannah’s story and (hopefully) get some peeks into what happens with Brendan and Piper in the future. To be honest, I really loved this book and there wasn’t a whole lot that I would change. Some small cons were that the book was slow to start, and the first few chapters were easy to predict based off the Goodreads description. Piper and Brendan’s love story was also a tad unrealistic. Overall, It Happened One Summer was one of my favourite books of 2021 so far! It was a super fast read for me and I would definitely recommend it to friends. I gave this book a rating of 9.5 out of 10 stars. This review was written for "The Nerd Daily". Click here to view this article on "The Nerd Daily's" website or copy & paste the following URL into your web browser: https://thenerddaily.com/review-it-happened-one-summer-by-tessa-bailey/
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