Review: It Happened One Summer – Tessa Bailey

Posted July 14, 2021 by Andi in Books, Review / 0 Comments

Review: It Happened One Summer – Tessa BaileyIt Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Series: It Happened One Summer #1
Published by Avon
Published: July 13, 2021
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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 received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.



I’m not one that typical likes when a book is compared to another book, TV show or movie. It tends to be a let down and not at all like the comparison. Sometimes I shy away from them for this reason. So when I saw It Happened One Summer was being compared to Schitt’s Creek I almost didn’t read it. I was worried that I would compare it too much while I read it. But after seeing so many readers I trust read it, I went for it and I’m so happy I did. While I didn’t find it like Schitt’s Creek I found it as a delightful joy to read. And I kept picturing Cher from Clueless as the main heroine instead of Alexis Rose.

It Happened One Summer is about Piper Bellinger, a socialite in California that spends her time posting pictures on Instagram and going to parties. She has the paparazzi constantly on her tail and she lives for it. That is until the night her current boyfriend dumps her and she throws an out of control party at a hotel roof top pool. When her stepfather shuts her off as a consequence of the party, Piper is sent to live (with her sister Hannah) to the small fishing town in Washington where Piper and Hannah’s mother and late father grew up, and run the run down dive bar their father owns. Completely out of her element and comfort level Piper tries to make the best of the situation, even when local fisherman Brendan seems to want to do everything in his power to make her want to leave.

First and foremost, It Happened One Summer filled me with such feels. It was a joy to see Piper make the best out of a situation instead of fleeing to the nearest form of comfort, a hotel. She really showed she was a force to be reckoned with and would not easily give up. Between herself and Hannah they managed to make Westport feel like home even if everyone looked at them as spoiled rich girls that didn’t belong. Piper showed she wasn’t afraid of hard work when given the chance and that she would not back down from a challenge. Especially if that challenge was getting the grumpy Brendan to like her. And did he ever like her. The two were such polar opposites and yet they just fit one another perfectly. On the outside Brendan was gruff and grumbly but really he was a sweet little marshmallow of a guy. As the two of them got to know each other every barrier they had careful placed around themselves just wilted away and it was glorious to read.

It Happened One Summer was my first Tessa Bailey read and it happened because I saw so many others reading it and loving it. And it almost didn’t happen because I was scarred of a comparison. I almost missed out of Brendan and Piper’s story and Hannah’s story which will be out in March of 2022. Don’t be like me. Don’t sleep on this book. And definitely do like I plan to and read more Tessa Bailey books.

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