“You can’t live life worrying about what people will think. You’ll wake up one day, look at a calendar, and count the days you could have spent being happy.”
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: Sexual content, bullying, objectifying and sexualizing men, and discusses parent death.
“Hook, Line, and Sinker” is the second book in the Bellinger Sisters/It Happened One Summer series and I was 100% there for it. It follows Hannah Bellinger, an LA-based director’s personal assistant who’s hoping to climb up to soundtrack making, and Fox Thornton, a self-proclaimed player and king crab fisherman. After a weekend in Seattle that took place in the first book’s timeline, they become friends and keep in touch even after Hannah leaves Fox’s small fishing town. Their unexpected friendship has left Fox perplexed, as he’s never had a woman want to be his friend only for his wits and personality. But Hannah isn’t interested in him, she’s focused on the crush she’s had on her boss for forever. They’re focused on staying as friends and that’s it, even if their hearts seem to have other plans…
Do I know what the title of this book means? No. Did it matter whatsoever? Also no. This book was the sweetest escape from reality. Hannah is such a complex and distinct character, I did not feel like I was reading a different story with different names but from the same point of view—which is something that I usually feel when reading series where the main characters have the same gender. Hannah was not Piper. “Hook, Line, and Sinker” is NOT “It Happened One Summer”. I would even dare say it could work well as a standalone. And I absolutely loved it.
Do not make me choose between these two books, I loved them equally but differently. “It Happened One Summer” was spicier, in my opinion, while “Hook, Line, and Sinker” was more emotional—and spicy too, just not as spicy. I wish I would’ve waited to read one of these books by the ocean. They feel like the perfect beach read.
I would recommend this book to people who liked “It Happened One Summer”, and to fans of books like “The Hating Game” by Sally Thorne and “The Simple Wild” by K.A. Tucker. If you like small-town loves and the clashing of two worlds, this is the book for you.
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andrea's galley 