I absolutely adored It Happened One Summer (review available here) so my expectations for Tessa Bailey’s latest book, My Killer Vacation, were very high. Bailey is one of my favourite romance writers as she always manages to achieve the perfect balance of sweet, intimate moments that really make a relationship believable with satisfyingly spicy scenes that leave you wanting more.
At only 290 pages, it took me just a few hours to finish My Killer Vacation which I was honestly a bit miffed about considering how long I’d waited for the release. Nevertheless, the book itself was a lot of fun. It was lighthearted and incredibly spicy (that car park scene?!) whilst giving a twist to a traditional ‘who-did-it’ murder mystery.
“It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod – just me and my beloved brother – but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true-crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders. A brash bounty hunter and an energetic elementary schoolteacher: the murder-solving team no one asked for, but thanks to these pesky attempts on my life, we’re stuck together, come hell or high tide.”
I love that we get a POV from both Taylor, the slightly annoying cute-as-a-button vacationing school teacher, and Myles, the brooding tattooed bounty hunter. It was slightly unbelievable that the main characters became so obsessed with one another in the space of just a week but ‘My Killer Vacation’ doesn’t take itself too seriously. The chemistry Bailey managed to create from the get-go is insane. I adored the small protective gestures scattered throughout, like him watching her squint into the sun and immediately putting his sunglasses on her without any hesitation. Also, as I’ve mentioned several times, the insanely passionate sex scenes do not disappoint.
Both aspects create a really adorable relationship that I was rooting for throughout, however, I just wish I had more time to get to grips with the characters so they had a little more depth. That being said, I’m a sucker for the whole ‘grumpy/sunshine’ trope and this book was exactly what I was looking for this summer. It was a quick read but a very clever, passionate, and fun one that I’d definitely recommend.
My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey is available here. (Affiliate link)
