• Author: Tessa Bailey
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Murder Mystery/Romance
• No. of pages: 290
• Dates read: 04.02.2023
• Star Rating: 3 stars

Plot: It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders. A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we’re stuck together, come hell or high tide. I’m just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although… it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she’s stubborn, distracting and can’t stay out of harm’s way. She’s also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the painful hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me is a threat to my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road. But will fate take her from me before I realize the road has been leading to her all along?

This rating is purely based on enjoyment because if I actually got into the parameters of each element of this book it wouldn’t be amazing.

Starting off with the positives. As always Bailey gives you main characters that are really fun and engaging. I loved both members of the couple and found both of their POVs to be interesting and kept me reading. I also feel that Bailey does a great job with her comedic writing. I am always laughing, her dialogue always flows really well and the banter between the couple was really good!

I found the couples chemistry to be written really well. I enjoyed all their scenes together and I liked the additional plot element of the mystery. Now I will be honest, the mystery was obviously not the best written mystery out there but I felt that it did a good job buffering the plot as a whole and keep the story moving forward. It added an extra layer to the novel and I enjoyed it. It was fun.

I do want to shout out Taylor in particular because I really liked her character. She was funny, smart, knew what she wanted and I always love that with my contemporary female characters.

Now, it’s time to talk about the things I didn’t love as much. Now while I loved Myles and Taylor as a whole I will say their romance was super rushed and very instant. If you don’t love insta-lust (it wasn’t insta-love) then this may not be for you. The pacing of their romance was way to fast for me, and if the plot itself wasn’t a bit over the top, I would have struggled even more with the unrealistic nature of this romance. Way too instant for my liking.

I also felt, and this is a criticism of Bailey’s writing overall to be honest, that Bailey will always make things sexual. Now don’t get me wrong that is why a lot of readers pick up Bailey’s work. But there were some beautiful moments that would pop up in this book that Bailey would ruin with an overtly sexual comment or action that just felt cringe and ruined the moment. This happened a lot at the end where I found myself cringing at what was happening when this was meant to be the big emotional and romantic moment.

I would also say that while I love Taylor. Her obsession with babying her brother just got too annoying. Everything with her brother felt under-developed as well. Even the side plot of him and his best-friend went no-where!

Overall, this is a fun easy read where you know exactly what you’re getting and it will be entertaining. This for me was not on league with her Bellinger Sister duology.