“There is a small apartment above the bar. I’ve called ahead to make sure it’s cleaned. I’m setting up a debit account to get you started, but after that…” Oh, he looked way too pleased. “You’re on you’re own.”

It Happened One Summer (From ARC, quotes may have changed in publication copy)

Thank you, NetGalley and Avon, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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’ve heard so many great things about Tessa Bailey’s writing, so I just had to apply for it when I saw the ARC for this book on NetGalley. Now, I can honestly say that her writing lives up to the hype. 

Inspired by Schitt’s Creek, It Happened One Summer follows Piper, a spoiled influencer with a wild reputation. When she finally takes things too far and gets arrested, her step-father decides it’s time that she learns a lesson, so he sends her—and her sister who refuses to let her go alone—off to a fishing town in Washington to live above the dive bar her late father owned. 

Within five minutes of being in town, she meets Brendan, a gruff sea captain haunted by the memories of his late wife. Piper doesn’t want anything to distract her from her goal of returning home to LA, and Brendan is set on living out his life alone. Still, as they continue to bump into each other around town, a reluctant attraction builds between them that can’t be ignored.

When Tessa Bailey sat to write this book, she said she wanted to give Alexis the happy ending she deserved, and Bailey does just that. It Happened One Summer is fun and flirty with a lot of heart. Within pages of their introductions, I fell in love with the friendly and bubbly Piper and the stern and commanding Brendan, and the chemistry between them is off the charts.

I also loved how immersive the town feels. It adds that community feel that I loved about Schitt’s Creek and provides a much-needed grounding element to the whirlwind romance between Piper and Brendan. Because while their romance is the heart of the book, It Happened One Summer is also about their grief. Piper and Brendan both have experiences losses that they haven’t fully explored, and with the help of the town and each other, they’re truly able to process those and move on. 

It Happened One Summer is a perfect summer read, and I can’t wait to read the sequel about Piper’s sister Hannah, as well as the catalog of Tessa Bailey’s other work.