It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

Format: Audio (BorrowBox)
Read: January 2026

I don’t often use GIFs in my book reviews, but this time I think they are necessary because I was very conscious of all the faces I was pulling while listening to this audiobook! At some point in the past, I had added this book to my “watch list” for eBook deals. For the life of me, I can’t remember why, but the fact that Past Alice had done that – and I trusted her to have vetted it beforehand – I borrowed the audio version when I saw it available through the library on the BorrowBox app. I was in the mood for something light and easy as a break from the heavier texts I’ve been reading lately.

I thought this book would just be light and fluffy, and a middle-of-the-road romance. It is that… but it also has a lot of graphic sex scenes that I was not prepared for, and did not appreciate!

Call me a prude if you want, but I am not interested in the details of other people having sex. I love a build-up, I love a good steamy scene where we are getting in the mood, but then I want a fade to black, I want to close the door. I don’t like sex scenes in TV shows or movies, and I don’t like them in books. I know how sex works, and the mechanics of it are not interesting. I honestly don’t even find watching porn very stimulating for the same reason! And in books, I just find it boring, and worse, cringe-inducing when authors are at pains to reach for different adjectives to describe the various biological organs and functions involved (unless it’s so bad it’s just funny – a la The Bad Sex in Fiction Award).

And that is the case in this book! Oh my God, does this book have some cringe writing. I had it in my headphones while out for walks, running and sitting on the bus to and from work… and if anyone was wondering why my face was like that, it was because of this book. From the “dirty talk” to the descriptions in the sex scenes… Tessa Bailey, please stop.

Brendan, the male romantic lead, I found to be a contradictory mess, and he repeatedly gave me the ick. He goes from being really bizarrely and aggressively hostile on the first meeting with Piper to quickly switching to instead to aggressively forward in pursuing her, and then tiptoing around the edge of possessiveness. His POV has a really heavy emphasis on her body – how skinny and pretty she is – and I got really bored with all the descriptions of her incredibly hot body, and his language around it is objectifying and gets possessive. We got to a bad start with “they’re so pretty, baby” on first seeing her boobs (also “sexy little tits” I hated), but as soon as he said “my pussy” it was over for Brendan in my eyes. This is one of those giant man and teeny tiny lady couplings that seem to be really popular but make me uncomfortable.

Oh, also, the first time they have sex, it is basically in public – in an empty hospital room!

As for Piper, I also found her to be poorly characterised. I believe she’s meant to be based on Alexis from Schitt’s Creek; she’s kind of a blend of her and with touches of Paris Hilton from The Simple Life, but without any of the humour, edge or depth. Everything comes easily to her! She comes to this fishing town and is immediately accepted and, apparently, is able to easily and immediately make friends with everyone. None of this do we actually see and feel; we just get told it happened.

In general, everything happens too fast in this book; I believe the whole thing takes place over about 4 weeks. Nothing in it felt earned. The tension comes with the question of whether Piper is going back to LA in 2-3 months, and Brendan not hearing her and constantly piling pressure… while simultaneously being portrayed as so incredibly understanding and supportive of her. This all annoyed me because I didn’t understand why Piper thought she had to go back to LA on this specific deadline in the first place! From the very start, it was well established that she had no real friends and nothing to go back for… I did not understand what was at stake! I don’t think it would be a problem for her to extend her stay in Westport for a bit to see how things went with Brendan.

The reason that Piper and her sister Hannah, who very obviously tags along so she can have a romance in the next book, are sent specifically to Westport in the first place is that it is where their deceased father (also a fisherman who died at sea!), whom they didn’t know, was from, and they stay in his old bar. They also meet a grandmother they didn’t know existed. This has no emotional impact on the story. They don’t make any effort to learn about their father, and the Grandmother is purely a device to demonstrate how great Piper is at making friends. I think she’s briefly in two chapters. It’s all just dressing for the shallow romance.

I might have liked this more if the word count had built emotional connections and real stakes instead of all the sex. The bones of that story are there, but no, we just get to hear about Brendan’s erections instead.

The final third of the book was incredibly repetitive and boring, especially from Brendan’s POV. We just circled around, and around the same set of anxieties, as above all seemed stupid because nobody really had anything to lose. It just made them both come across as very immature. It is also bloody obvious how the book is going to end and what the big climactic scene with Grand Gesture will be.

I finished this only because it was an audiobook, but I don’t think I enjoyed any of it! The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is that the relationship is healthy, despite being apparently 90% based on lust as far as we witness. Brendan has his issues, but he isn’t controlling; he doesn’t need Piper to change herself, and he does make the effort to work on himself. They also usually talk through their problems and acknowledge them.

Tessa Bailey is not for me! And I must be more careful about vetting romance books if I’m going to read them.