Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey

Title: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Author: Tessa Bailey
Source: Edelweiss Plus

King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he's a guaranteed good time--in bed and out--and that's exactly how he prefers it. 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.

Now, Hannah's in town for work, crashing in Fox's spare bedroom. She knows he's a notorious ladies' man, but they're definitely just friends. In fact, she's nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport's resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker's eye... yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can't deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.

Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she's walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and... and... man overboard! He's fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he's all in, she'll choose him instead?

Okay... WOW! I recently read It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey and really enjoyed it. It was  a four star read for me and became a top read of the year. But I was really drawn to the side characters in that book, Hannah and Fox and was hopeful they'd get their own book. So as soon as I saw they were in fact getting a companion novel - I HAD TO HAVE IT! And luckily for me I got approved for an eARC and quickly devoured it in one sitting.

This was the perfect friends-to-lovers romance that I needed and was just everything I could have asked for and more. I was in love with this book from the very first page when we got to see some text conversations between Hannah and Fox. I loved their friendship so much and how they communicated through songs. It was just perfection.

But what truly cemented this as a five star new favourite was how beautiful the slow build up of their romance was. This is the kind of slow burn I love, which kind of has you wanting to reach into the book and force the characters together. These two had sooooooo much chemisty and sexual tension building throughout the novel. I can't remember the last time I was this heavily invested in watching two characters get together, and feeling so nervous for the conflict that would inevitably come between them.

I feel like It Happened One Summer was a great book and I loved it, but I will definitely say that this book blew it out of the water for me. This was just perfect from beginning to end and I so wish I got to have more of these two together. And yes, I most definitely wish we had got a few more spicy scenes between the two because those scenes were incredible.

5/5