Title: It Happened One Summer
Author: Tessa Bailey
Series: The Bellinger Sisters
Source: Library
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Explicit? Oh boy is it.
Summary: 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. 

I am going to admit something that may be shocking to some people, and especially to my Canadian brethren.

I have not watched Schitt’s Creek.

I know! It’s on my list…I’ve been busy not reading. And maybe too busy cross-stitching, Animal Crossing, and cuddling a pillow while trying to finish Horizon Forbidden West or Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. (My tastes are varied.)

It’s not that I haven’t wanted to watch it, because I do. I’ve heard once season 1 is over you’ve got it made in the shade. I will get to it.

That does not, however mean that the concept of influencer/debutante/amateur starlets are foreign to me. I was after all born in the late eighties, lived through the 90s and as of this minute 22 years of the 2000s. It’s a familiar concept.

I did not like Piper at first. I will fully, and unabashedly admit to you that I almost put this book down when I realized what her man, original characteristic would be. That being said, I can admit when I was wrong, and that I had her pegged completely wrong. By the end of the book I actually completely and utterly loved her.

Brendan was also it or miss, because as much as I judged Piper on first impressions, I was really peeved at him for doing the exact same thing that I did. How dare he? The gall!

Secretly though he’s a pretty big Teddy Bear. With an insanely dirty, dirty mouth. Seriously. Even I blushed, and I’ve been on the internet since like 1999 or something. (I’m decaying as this review is being written I swear, I’m so old)

The bond between the two characters develops quickly, the story is fluffy, and dramatic in equal turns and each of them have their own baggage trailing behind them on cracked, broken wheels. This is a great summer read, it will fill you with warmth and sometimes complete outrage.

I will say that I did not love the more explicit scenes between the two of them, but everyone has their own tastes and that’s what makes the world go ’round.