Fox suffers from imposter syndrome. Even his coworker, best friend Brendan doesn’t trust him with Hannah. Everybody in the small town thinks he’s just a manwhore. His parental issues and an unfortunate incident at the college changed his perspective to the relationships. He’s always doubtful about his own self worth and he thinks he destroys anything he touches. You make me feel like I’m in the exact right place,”I’ve read quite a few of Tessa Bailey’s books, and although I’ve enjoyed every one I’ve read, none of them have had that five star favorite quality for me… until now. Hook, Line, and Sinker was the perfect romance for me. I loved everything about Hannah and Fox’s story! The pining is there, but also not? I couldn't tell what the characters really wanted to do. One minute they were friends, the other they want to see each other naked, the next hour they were in love and then not even them could tell what was going on. I love love love Tessa Bailey as a human and I’ll always read her books. But I was definitely prepared to be disappointed by this one! In all honesty, I did not have really high expectations for this book. I read a bonus scene of Fox and Hanna right before I started and I was so utterly unimpressed with it, I thought the same would apply to the book. Well...it did, but it wasn't as unbearable as I thought it would be. A lot of the dialogue and some romantic/sex scenes were incredibly cheesy and cringy, much like the first book. There was a fair amount of clichés as well, that I felt were unnecessary but other than that this book was a pretty decent read. Thankfully, a lot of it was actually enjoyable. The storyline was really interesting and there are times when clichés are actually kind of fun.

After reading the first book in this series, I knew I was going to love Hannah and Fox. Their starting banter is what makes them the ideal couple to fall in love with. They know what they both want, but are stubborn to admit their true long past feelings towards each other. But with time they both learn that their attraction is not the only thing in they way of them being together. And even though Fox has a past that prevents him from admitting and opening up towards Hannah completely, and not just physically, his struggles to admitting that she is the one is what draws the reader to continue this story;But seeing Hannah in his own apartment, getting jealous to see her with her precious douchebag director change something in him! I didn’t know what right felt like until you,” he choked out. “I’m holding on to the good you give me. I’m holding on to you.” Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Hannah might be my favorite character of the series from the beginning. I always loved her more than Piper. Is it bad that whenever the main couple was left alone I kept hoping Segrei (or Andrei?) would pop up and we'd get to see the boss jealous😩. ME... no.1 hater of Russian men WANTED the Russian man, and he wasn't even that interesting. As for their relationship, it actually turned out to be much better than what I expected, which of course made me very very happy. It was really cute and I had so much fun reading how they went from 'just friends' to 'if I lose you I'll die'. The tension and the longing were so. damn. gooood. I live for this stuff. Obviously, the spice was juuust right. Duuuh. Also, I swooned a lot over them, despite most moments being cheesy and over the top. As I already said, clichés are actually kind of fun on occasion. If I had to choose a favourite part, however, it would be the ending. It was just so beautiful in the most unexpected way. Once again, I expected something really cheesy and cliché but thankfully it was anything but 😍😍 and that epilogue...oooh that epilogue...it was so adorable.Tessa Bailey has the ability to gather our attention to anything she writes due to her amazing writing skills. Her books are generally entertaining to read. I liked how she decided to use the smut at a moderate level in this book compared to her first book in this series. In my opinion, this book had everything to call it better than the first one.

As for the sex, this wasn’t as hot as book one. If you can include the phrases “wet girl,” “horny girl,” “freaky girl,” and “sweet girl” you can most certainly give us a “good girl” ?????? Why was that the one we omitted here? Their attraction was instant and I felt no tension or connection. I don’t know why they love each other. One fix could’ve be to get rid of Fox’s POV to up the stakes. Then we’d really have no clue what’s going on inside his head, which is better for us all. I rather [read: vehemently] dislike Tessa’s sex scenes. I don’t like her word choices and I didn’t care for any of the scenes we got, nor the placement in relation to the plot. Even then, we barely broke the surface of Fox and his glorious [read: horrible] name. I felt n o t h i n g for this man. His pity party was an absolute rager 24/7. He kept telling us how doomed and tortured and sexually promiscuous he was but we were shown zero evidence. The book tried to go in depth with stuff his mom did but so much of it was just misunderstandings and caring way too much about other people’s opinions. This comprised his entire character. It was so hard to stomach after the first hour let alone the tenth. If he would’ve had SOMETHING else going on, even a hobby, maybe then I could’ve been more tolerant. I didn’t even get the sense he liked his job. Once the chapter started rolling, the story started and they obviously were forced to share a house (because, of course, in Wesport there are no hotels and Hannah and Piper's grandma doesn't have a spare bed in her humble abode), I had to have a meeting with my own brain and heart and had to face an ugly truth I was purposely keeping myself from seeing and stop denying the evidence: this book wasn't giving. i'm sorry but i cannot be expected to take seriously the emotional journey of a straight white man whose inner angst centers entirely on being too hot + objectifying women his entire life in an effort not to be objectified first. like. HUH??? there was definitely room here to make some meaningful commentary on hypersexualization and its detriments to developing brains, but fox's entire arc was literally, "because i've been sexualized for as long as i can remember, i am enacting vengeance by treating every woman i encounter as an object......until one i like comes around and i realize that women (specifically one of them) ARE people who bring more value to life than simply sex." the amount of eye-rolling this novel induced!!!But enough is enough. She wants to take risks: coming clean with her long time crush bohemian director Sergio about her feelings and her passion to work at the musical department. She doesn’t have to work as production assistant forever! She needs to make changes! King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a carefree flirt. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.