Hook, Line, and Sinker (Bellinger Sisters, 2)

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I really, really, really wanted to love this book; you guys have no idea how much I wanted to savor every line and relive the romance, hotness and chemistry that Piper and Brendan had going on. and honestly, i love how hannah prompts and encourages fox to grow. usually the female characters are the ones who goes through the development in romance novels, so its beyond refreshing to see the guy be the focus instead. foxs character development is so wholesome and purposefully combats the societal pressures men face when it comes to maintaining a certain reputation and image. its a topic that definitely needs more attention. Why do I always have to be the hater? I refuse to believe the 4.40 avg rating. Something sus is going on🤨 I couldn't form an attachment to any of the characters. I found Christian amusing and there were times when I could relate to Fox but other than that...there was a big hole in place where interest should've been.

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!!! She pursed her lips and perused the various liquor bottles. “What can I drink to give you a personality?” given the book's title, it's not unreasonable for me to expect the leading man to live up to his reputation, especially when his first name is fox and the book at one point describes him as "the maestro of feminine wetness" (HUUUUHHHH!?!?!?!). and yet this man CANNOT SEDUCE FOR SHIT!!!!!!!! not an ounce of wit. no charm. not even a little bit suave. fox is the kind of conventionally attractive person who has never had to develop a personality to get what he wants and it shows. he's been carried by his blond genetics. But Piper’s parent in laws’ visiting at the same time forces her move to this charming fisherman’s spare bedroom! Yes! The flames are blasting! She puts more gasoline into the fire!

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! Hannah always considers herself as supporting actress, not a leading lady. She thinks she’s hype girl as her sister Piper always demanded the spotlight ( we already witnessed how her influential efforts resulted with more heartbreaks) since their childhood. And Hannah patiently waited in the wings, waiting for her right time to be announced as best supporting actress. She was always the one who was bolstering the heroine at her lowest point, taking care of the situation, fixing things! On the surface these characters have depth but underneath they were very very flat and unoriginal. They each only had one hurtle to overcome, one thing to change throughout the entire book. Neither one of the main characters was at all unique or did anything new for me. Their conversations felt weird and a lot of this book had me thinking I was listening to YA. Their texting conversation at the beginning was 15 minutes long (I listened to the audio) and it was very very juvenile. I didn’t learn much besides the fact that the tone it set for the book was one I’d have to crawl through broken and bleeding to get past the finish line. Got a better taste in music than Hannah (yes I listened to every single song mentioned. It was my only shred of happiness during this time) i really enjoyed the first book in this series because i felt it didn't take itself too seriously and hit all of its emotional beats with relative seamlessness. with hook, line, and sinker, i've had to write up a small laundry list of pet peeves:

As seen on E!Online, PopSugar, CNN, EliteDaily, Vulture, Buzzfeed, Bustle, the Nerd Daily, PARADE, LA Magazine, Country Living, USA Today, and more! Laughing at other people is a method used to humiliate others. It publicly shows your empathy level and consideration for others if you sardonically laugh at and slander someone publicly for their failures. 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. fun fact: it doesn't seem intentional, but these novels have some elements in common; the age gap, the fact that Hannah -same MC name, too- is someone's blonde little sister, the player who actually is a player only because it's what people expect him to be, and so on)Our parents were in the Mediterranean, so we walked to our neighbor's house and they were in France-" Since they spent time at the convention center and he bought her Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors album, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. It seems like Fox felt the same: they already started seeing fireworks: but both of them were too stubborn to talk about their feelings. The other thing that was making me nervous was Fox’s whole deal; basically, he was just so hot that people always assumed he would be a womanizer and conditioned him into thinking he would never be able to commit (or be worth commiting to).

Is there anything Tessa Bailey can't write? I feel like with Hook, Line, and Sinker, she has cemented her status as a must-read author for me.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. Hannah Bellinger had always been more of a supporting actress than a leading lady. The hype girl. If she’d lived in Regency England, she would be the second at every duel, but never wield the pistol. An obsessive friends to lovers that makes you crave more of their angsty story filled with two characters from different worlds that collide in the best of ways...