In which we learn that you should always know who your parents are dating
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
Stars: 4
Spicy: 4.5
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
I was over the moon when I received the ARC for the latest Tessa Bailey romance. When I finished The Au Pair Affair I couldn’t wait to read Sig and Chloe’s story. The step-sibling trope isn’t one of my faves but I trust Tessa Bailey implicitly and I will tell you, that trust was rewarded. Sig and Chloe have one of the best meet cutes I’ve read in a long time: immediate chemistry with rapid-fire flirty conversation and an instant understanding of the other person. I’ve railed against instalove in romances but when it is done well, it makes you believe in love at first sight.
So Sig is a professional hockey player who grew up dirt poor, raised by his mother after his father abandoned them. But he is in a good place now - he just wants to renew his contract, make some more money, and become the captain of his team. Chloe grew up Connecticut-country club rich, a harp-playing child prodigy. She has never had to do much of anything on her own. A flat tire and a dead cell phone lead Chloe and Sig to a chance meeting and both imagine it could blossom into more, but when they find out their parents are engaged, they realize that a love affair is not in the cards for them. But Sig is still going to help Chloe break out of cocoon and go for her dreams, even if it is torture for the two of them to be around each other.
Bailey knows how to ratchet up the sexual tension to about 110, drawing out the longing between these two characters. It makes the payoff so good. But also, I genuinely wasn’t sure how she was going to resolve the major problem SIg and Chloe are facing; breaking up the parents felt like such an easy solution, it didn’t feel like it would fit the storyline. I always enjoy when I am kept on my toes a bit with a romance novel.
If you are a Tessa Bailey fan, you are going to love this one. If you’ve not read Tessa Bailey yet, (what? why??) I wouldn’t start here, go read the other two books in this series first and then dive into this one, you will be so glad you did.
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