Miss Taylor Bassey is a 2nd-grade teacher who decides to take her heartbroken brother (he's a panda caretaker, whose panda just died, #RIPBARTHOLOMEW) on vacation to Cape Cod. Upon arrival, minutes into settling into their rental home, Taylor spies two peepholes in the bathroom which is creepy in itself, but it gets worse when she goes downstairs to find a dead body... which happens to be none other than THE PROPERTY OWNER!!! *dun dun dunnnn* Our little Taylor is a crime podcast enthusiast, having listened to her favorite show for 7 years, she takes it upon herself to do a little investigating as she's not satisfied with the police's suspect. An all-new, spicy murder mystery from Tessa Bailey, New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Summer ...

Myles, though. He was… too much. His whole personality was growling and taking antacids (🤔) and manhandling Taylor. He was less like a human person and more like a caricature. It made the book really hard to get through, honestly.Our lovely hero also proceeds to steal her underwear within the first chapter or two of meeting one another. So yeah, 3/5. Didn't hate it, but also not crazy about it either and will probably forget all about this book tomorrow. This book was a fun read with intrigue, a bit of mystery, and overall a good heart warming romance with a steamy couple. Only downside, I wish we had gotten more on the investigation and insight on the case. We do get some, but it would of been fun to have more of our MFC doing some snooping. I thought I'd be here writing about how awful her FMC was, and how cringe the relationship was but, not really. She nailed those this time.

He also keeps going on about how she is wife material and wouldn't want to have rough sex. I didn't know wife material means being vanilla? Different people like different things? You don't have to dress the part to enjoy rough sex? My favorite part ended up being the murder mystery. Tessa really nailed it with the plot twists and the suspects and the rich characters. I kept coming up with theories that were shut down every time, lol.On the other side, the sister of the murder victim hires a bounty hunter to privately investigate the case, and in enters the scene one Myles Sumner, a 6'5 mean machine nomad that lives by his own rules. When Taylor finds Myles, not only do sparks fly but so do her gut instincts that there is more to this case and the two inevitably end up working together (much to Myles's dismay) whilst he desperately tries to stay out of Taylor's red hook up panties. I know she's just fictional and the sole product of a writer who cleary didn't bother doing many research about the thriller aspect of their story, but it seems to me the romance part could have used some additional work, as well. it was almost too obvious for i, a professional in watching true crime documentaries like i'm getting paid to do it I hate reading crappy books. I’m pessimistic enough as it is in real life. The only thing I’m stupidly optimistic about are books. And I’ve become way too attuned to my taste that reading terrible books is not all that common for me.

Yes, that’s what I meant.❞ - please this girl is so down bad for her brother that she forgot who PAID for the vacation 😭 petition to change Taylor's career into being a caretaker for her brother. I don't mind it, I do think Tessa Bailey is great at writing erotica, but it's so obvious that it's the plot of the book. Not Taylor and Jude’s little holiday, not the mystery murder… the plot is these two having sex. NO dub/non-con, NO OW/OM drama, NO cheating, NO bully romance although this is a grumpy/sunshine trope. He will do anything for her, and is a possessive alpha, broody type but it was written really well and not over done. After reading seven Tessa Bailey books, I guess coming across my first dud was only a matter of time. And all things considered, that's not a bad record. I'll certainly continue to read Tessa Bailey in the future, but this book is going in the donation pile posthaste.When I heard that one of my favorite romance authors was going to write a steamy romance and murder mystery combo, I admit I about drooled in anticipation. I imagined sparks and sizzle and detecting galore. But alas, it wasn't that. And maybe this was just a case where my expectations were too high, so reality had nowhere to go but down. One thing about Tessa’s books is that the heroes are always very (VERY) over the top - just growly, broody, very tall humans who become completely obsessed with the heroines within seconds of meeting them. And, sometimes, that works really well (hello, It Happened One Summer) and sometimes it’s very annoying (this, unfortunately). Here's what's difficult: she is getting better and less cringe as time goes by when it comes to romance, but for a muder mystery? This was so so incredibly and torturously: