.png)
Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey
Series: A Vine Mess #2
Publication date: June 6th, 2023
Pages: 384
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Synopsis:
A down-on-her-luck Napa heiress suggests a mutually beneficial marriage of convenience to a man she can't stand... only to discover there's a fine line between love and hate.
After losing her job and her fiance in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to lick her wounds. A few months later, she's sufficiently drowned her sorrows in cabernet and she's ready to get back on her feet. She just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she marry before she can have the money. And well, dumped, remember? But Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him--and kiss him, in equal measure.
August Cates may own a vineyard, but he doesn't know jack about making wine. He's determined to do his late best friend proud, no matter what it takes. Except his tasting room is empty, his wine is disgusting (seriously, he once saw someone gag), and his buddy's legacy is circling the drain. No bank will give him the loan he needs to turn the business around... and then the gorgeous, feisty heiress knocks on his door. Natalie has haunted his dreams since the moment they met, but their sizzling chemistry immediately morphed into simmering insults.
Now, a quickie marriage could help them both. A sham wedding, a few weeks living under the same roof, and then they can go their separate ways--assuming they make it out alive. How hard could it be? There's just one thing they didn't account for: their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction.
Available at:
Review:
Natalie is used to things not going her way. She had always wanted to be a vital part of her family but been overlooked. She went to New York to make a name for herself and she ended up fired and dumped in quick succession. She comes back home to lick her wounds but she won't be kept down for long. She knows that the best way to show the people who have discounted her that she is a force to be reckoned with is to get back on the horse. But she needs capital to start her own investment firm. Her trust fund is ripe for the picking but there is one catch, she has to be married in order to collect on it. Now if she can only find a poor sap who will marry her convincingly so she can collect the money and return to New York. Enter August. August has been the bane of her existence since she returned home. But among all the fighting there seems to be a spark there. One Natalie is quick to dismiss. However, August needs money too and with her name attached to his he could possible get a business loan he was otherwise denied for. It seems like a win/win! But are the two going to be able to convince others that they are madly in love with each other without falling head over heels in love for real?
The previous book in this series, Secretly Yours, was one I raved about to anyone who would listen. It was my first dip into Tessa Bailey and I was hooked. But after reading this book, I had strongly considered going back and revising my rating because it no longer stood up the monumentous 5 star read that this one turned out to be. I loved every page turn. Natalie was so strong willed but there was an inkling of some feelings always lurking underneath. She was so damaged and felt so unloved by her entire family that I broke for her. It humanized her and made her relatable. August wore his heart on his sleeve. He admitted to being obsessed with her from moment one while Natalie was a little slow in that regard. I loved watching a love story unfold where the male lead was going to do anything and everything to convince the person they were madly in love with to be with them. He didn't fight his feelings, he reveled in them! It was chef's kiss, the best book I have read in 2024 I feel.
The only shortcoming I find in this book and its predecessor is the fact that the series feels complete and that makes me sad. I want to read more about the Vos family and their various antics. I loved their characters and I wanted to see more of the family growing back together like they should have been from the start. I wanted to see Dalton Vos finally get what was coming to him and watch Corinne finally start to accept that her wayward daughter was something special in herself. I feel that the family connection could have been delved into a bit more but it wasn't something that took away from the books. It only was something I wish I had gotten to see.
This book is one of the best romantic comedies for me and I will recommend it to anyone with a pulse and a library card.
