Review: My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey

Title: My Killer Vacation
Author: Tessa Bailey
Publication: July 7, 2022 by Piatkus
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Find it on: Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell’s | Google Play | Kobo | Waterstones
Rating: 3/5★

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’m just here to do a job, not babysit an amateur sleuth. Although… it is becoming less and less of a hardship to have her around. Sure, she’s stubborn, distracting and can’t stay out of harm’s way. She’s also brave and beautiful and reminds me of the home I left behind three years ago. In other words, the painful hunger and protectiveness she is waking up in me is a threat to my peace of mind. Before I sink any deeper into this dangerous attraction, I need to solve this murder and get back on the road. But will fate take her from me before I realize the road has been leading to her all along?

My Killer Vacation wasn’t my favorite Tessa Bailey book (although I haven’t read that many yet) but it has some funny and sexy moments that I enjoyed. With this author you just know you’ll get hilarious scenes and scorching hot scenes and this book was no exception. I liked the story but didn’t love it as much as I would’ve wanted.

The premise of the book drew me in because I liked the sound of a blubbly elementary school teacher (Taylor) who loves true crime podcasts wants to solve a murder with a rude but hot bounty hunter (Myles), that got hired by the sister of said murdered person. I just knew their personalities would clash big time and I was right about that. This gave us a lot of witty banter, sexual tension and quite a few hot as hell scenes. I just got a little irritated by the fact that they were pretty much always interrupted when things got hot and heavy between them. Like, come on, not again! Also, Myles kept taking antacids through the whole book and I’m not sure why that was even included.

Now I just have to shout out the best secondary character ever: Jude, Taylor’s brother. I adored the hell out of him. He seemed like such a great brother, always supportive of his sister as a good brother should be. I also loved how he was always correcting Taylor that is was THEIR vacation and not just HIS vacation. He was just the best and I kinda miss reading about him now.

Between all of the witty banter, hilarious scenes and romance there was also of course the murder mystery. And it was fine. Not the most complex of mysteries to solve but I appreciated Taylor’s comments about it because she picked all of that up from true crime podcasts and I do love listening to those as well so I felt she was a kindred spirited there.

Overall, My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey was a very quick and spicy read. It’s not going on my favorites shelf but it was a fun read nontheless.

About the author:

New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Bailey can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk,” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon and a guaranteed happily ever after. Catch her on TikTok at @authortessabailey or check out tessabailey.com for a complete list of books.

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