After losing her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop, Natalie Vos returned home to lick her wounds. A few months later, she’s sufficiently drowned her sorrows in cabernet and she’s ready to get back on her feet. She just needs her trust fund to finance her new business venture. Unfortunately, the terms require she marry before she can have the money. And well, dumped, remember?
But Natalie is desperate enough to propose to a man who makes her want to kill him—and kiss him, in equal measure.
August Cates may own a vineyard, but he doesn’t know jack about making wine. He’s determined to do his late best friend proud, no matter what it takes. Except his tasting room is empty, his wine is disgusting (seriously, he once saw someone gag), and his buddy’s legacy is circling the drain. No bank will give him the loan he needs to turn the business around… and then the gorgeous, feisty heiress knocks on his door.
Natalie has haunted August’s dreams since the moment they met, but their sizzling chemistry immediately morphed into simmering insults. Now, a quickie marriage could help them both. A sham wedding, a few weeks living under the same roof, and then they can go their separate ways—assuming they make it out alive. How hard could it be?
There’s just one thing they didn’t account for: their unfortunate, unbearable, undeniable attraction.
Release Date: Jun 6, 2023
Series: Vine Mess
Book: 2
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: HarpersCollins
Imprint: Avon
Price: $11.99
Natalie Vos and August Cates… enemies to lovers was never this horny!
It’s been a hot minute since I picked up a Bailey contemporary romance. My last read was Hook, Line, and Sinker, which I loved. This book has me coming in late to a duet but gives proof of the standalone ability of the story. I didn’t need to read the first book in this series to get involved with Natalie and August.
Bailey brings her own brand of romance to Napa Valley in this story involving winemakers and wine family members. August is our winemaker, throw in the fact he’s also an ex-Navy Seal, and it’s a fabulous opportunity for too hot to handle. He’s built like a shit-brickhouse, a fact Bailey never forgets to remind us of, and he’s not always the brightest, but this Seal has a heart of gold. Natalie is wine family royalty, and she’s not afraid to use that status to help her navigate the pitfalls she’s recently fallen into. Between her life disasters and August’s wine ones, these two are destined to either screw or fight their way to oblivion. The interesting part is the road it takes for these two to get there.
I’ll say that Bailey heats this one up with two folks who have already been circling each other for a while, throw the need for a marriage of convenience, and I honestly couldn’t stop turning pages to see how these two enemies were going to become lovers. Both August and Natalie have a lot of internal wounds that the pair have to battle against, along with some much heat I thought my reading app might burst into flame. Bailey still has it because the sex scenes are scorching, and the dirty talk, while not her finest, packs a punch.
What didn’t work? There were some pacing issues where I thought the story sped by too quickly and may have slowed down in the wrong places. At the same time, this one has storytelling that’s more unique and off the beaten path, which I did like because it kept me surprised. There’s a cat included in the book too, and I was a bit disappointed that this feline only seemed to stir up trouble when the book needed it, plot convenience.
Overall, if you like ex-military heroes, feisty heroines that give as good as they get, and enemies to lovers, you’ll enjoy this one. It’s a nice read that I was able to sink into and get away from reality for a bit. For those who enjoy Lauren Layne (the scorchers) and Jessica Lemmon.
~ Landra
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