It Happened One Summer
Ratings209
Average rating3.7
Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar... in Washington.
Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.
Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time. Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart.
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2 primary booksBellinger Sisters
Bellinger Sisters is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Tessa Bailey.
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This started off as a slow burn for me but when the flames between spoilt rich girl Piper and small town fisherman Brendan ignited...kapow! I was fully invested.
A great enemies to lovers tale that swept me into the romance.
Brendan made the book for me. A rough around the edges hero who encapsulates chivalry in every way.
Loved it!
3.5 stars. My biggest issue is with her parents. Both the stepfather and the mother are really problematic with both their past and present behavior and there was absolutely zero resolution with that story line.
I mean, Daniel doesn't seem to care at all about the girls except for how they reflect on him. He tells them more than once that he only bothers because he loves their Mother. He's also dismissive and denigrating to Piper. The Mother is passive, allows Daniel to verbally abuse her daughters and neither takes any accountability for providing the environment for them to become entitled. They just expect the girls to somehow value hard work without providing them any reason or incentive to do so and then get angry when, shocker, Piper is vain and spoiled.
On top of that, her Mom was so heartbroken by their Father's death more than twenty years ago, she never told the girls anything about him or that they still had a Grandmother. And when confronted about it later, she's all, “Yeah, I suck. My bad.” Neither “parent” can even be bothered to come to support the daughter they exiled when she does what they demanded of her and learns to make her own way.
SO...while I enjoyed Piper's growth and character development and obviously the romance gets its happy ending, half the story feels unresolved because her parents are still crap.
Maybe we'll see some resolution in the next book?
