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. I thought the beginning of this book was just adorable. There was so much tension between them as they went around pretending they were strictly platonic friends with each other. Hannah even has a lingering crush on her boss, and Fox has to give her advice on how she can go about trying to snag him. It was so much fun and I about died with delight. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Bailey, Tessa. Hook, Line, and Sinker. New York: HarperCollins, 2022. From the moment Fox and Hannah met, there's always been a little sizzle of attraction there. But between Fox's reputation as a ladies man and Hannah being the younger sister of his friend's fiancée, it doesn't seem like a good idea to take it further. Now they are solidly in the friend zone, texting every day and sharing their deepest thoughts. But when Hannah has to stay with Fox for a few weeks because of her job, will that finally nudge them towards being honest with their hearts and each other? That is how dry the romance (actually everything) was. I just wanted dramaaaa. Which is ironic because I thought It Happened One Summer was a lil too dramatic.

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... Thank you to the publisher for sending me a free finished copy of this book! Opinions are honest and my own. Even though I didn’t like the book, it’ll still be featured in so many photos on my feed so who’s the real winner here lmao. You can find my bookstagram in my profile description!** Could you do the same, please? It took you sixteen takes to nail four lines of dialogue this morning.” Two talented chess players challenge each other on and off the board in bestselling author Hazelwood’s YA debut. Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer.

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Let me just start off by saying that this book is in a ~different league~ from the first. Completely different dynamic in the best possible way. I didn't enjoy this book's predecessor which was Piper and Brendan's story, but I knew from the get-go from reading that book, that I loved Hannah & Fox and couldn't wait for theirs. 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.

As for Hannah, Hannah is a little bit of me (ironic considering my names also Hannah), but she sees the good I. People and the beauty of something despite all the negatives. She’s honest, supporting, kind, caring and lovely and I adore her. I am also incredibly proud of Hannah for taking that big step and doing what she thought was right for her, and fighting for the man she loved. Hannah is someone we need in our lives, she’s a ray of sunshine like her sister, and a fictional character I will always remember.

Customer reviews

Sure, the flirtiness was there and I appreciated most of it, but they're not a couple I could see walking that very long run, if you get what I mean. Wow! I was already intrigued by supportive, quirky, sensible, musical prodigy Hannah and heartbreaker, charming, flirty Fox at “It Happened One Summer”. They might have been supporting characters of Piper and Brendan’s love story but they truly deserved their own book.

For the last part? It’s just another recycle plot from Tessa since she sure likes to make her heroes chased their girls abroad. And we also have Hannah who finally had her own business to work on… just like Piper again with Cross and Daughters — which is definitely a no problem but again: is getting repetitive and predictable. 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. 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:

Maybe it's my mood, maybe it's the fact that I have only read one book by Tessa Bailey so far so I didn't really know her range, or maybe my expectations for Fox and Hannah’s story were too high. The story starts seven months after It Happened One Summer; this whole time, Hannah and Fox have been texting every day and nursing tiny crushes on each other. Now, the movie Hannah’s working on as an assistant producer is heading to Westport for filming, and she’s about to move into Fox’s guest room for the duration.

trust commercial romance to do one thing and one thing well: flatten and water down any semblance of complexity in its main characters.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. To go along with all the “girl” language, I just don’t like the daddy-adjacent kink. Fox had this weird fixation on babying Hannah and treating her like a child. From treating her injuries to protecting her delicate ears from bad language, it just felt off to me. It’s just not my kink. I didn’t like Brendan spoiling Piper in book one either. Both were possessive and jealous at times they forfeited rights to be. Everyone in that town treated Hannah like a child. They were all SO worried about her dating Fox but no one, not one person, asked her opinion on the matter. She’s too innocent, too young, too this, too that. She was a whole ass adult. Miss me with that patronizing bullshit. Seeing as it was her vagina he was rawdoggin, I think she should have a chance to talk. It was WEIRD. Piper was even guilty of this and in cahoots with Brendan. I don't know what it is about me and second books in a series, lately, but I keep being let down by sequels of books I'd absolutelly adored. 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.”