So, a bit of back story. Growing up I was never a massive fan of romances in stories. I didn’t feel like the girl always needed to have a relationship while she was saving the world or have a female character be reduced to just a love interest. It used to frustrate me when I would witness them in books or movies and for ages I never read romance.

You would find it hard for me to pinpoint relationships I actually liked in the books etc that I was reading at the time. And at that time I was only ever reading fantasy books. There was no-way I was going to touch a romance book. Just a story about two characters falling in love? No thanks!

As I got older and my reading tastes changed. I started reading more mystery and crime, more historical fiction etc. I still stood by the idea that romance books weren’t for me. Just not my thing. I needed more from my stories than just watching two people get together. (Yes I thought that and boy was I stupid).

As the years went on though, I started finding myself enjoying romances more in my books. Still swearing that romance, as a genre, was not for but I slowly started warming up to romance as a side plot to the main story.

That was until I ended up on romance BookTok! After seeing 1000’s of videos about different romances I decided to branch out and finally give it a go. My tastes have been rapidly changing and expanding since becoming a bookseller and I would be doing my job an injustice if I didn’t read at least one.

Then I picked up It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey. THE BOOKTOK GIRLIES WERE RIGHT!!! This book is so much fun and I am kicking myself that it took me this long to read a straight up romance.

For ages I thought it wasn’t my thing. I only read intense, highly detailed fantasy books. Ummm… I can read that and also read a super fun and exciting romance between an influencer and a fisherman!!!! I also thought that romance was purely just about a the development of a relationship and while that’s fun as a side plot, was it ever going to be enough for me as the whole plot? But this book is also about this character’s journey or learning about her past and who she is and it’s just so much fun!

I have seen the light. Thanks BookTok and Tessa Bailey!! I can’t wait to venture more into some romance stories and find what I like and don’t like with this genre.