SECRETLY YOURS

A woman writes secret letters to the man she had a crush on in high school.

When her beloved grandmother died, Hallie Welch became the sole owner of Becca’s Blooms, a gardening and landscaping company in St. Helena, a small town in Napa Valley. Hallie is facing old anxieties about where she belongs without her grandmother’s anchoring presence. Rather than face her feelings, Hallie channels her grief through childish acts of sabotage and petty thievery against the new wine store threatening to put her grandmother’s best friend out of business. When Hallie hears that Julian Vos is back in town on sabbatical to write a novel, she’s determined to finally rid herself of the crush she’s been harboring for 15 years. Julian doesn’t remember Hallie, but he’s strongly attracted to her despite the fact that her special brand of chaos wreaks havoc on all his carefully timed schedules and plans. The winery owned by Julian’s family, Vos Vineyards, was once one of Napa’s preeminent wineries, but it's struggling to recover after wildfires almost destroyed the business. When Julian’s sister, who's dealing with untreated alcoholism, returns home as well, Julian realizes the depth of his family’s dysfunction. Bailey’s characteristic banter and instant chemistry between her main characters aren’t enough to salvage the novel, which feels entirely constructed of scenes and tropes but without any real plot. Characters do things—prank calls are made, letters are written, grapes are picked, speeches are given—but very little of it makes coherent sense given the way characters have been described. Of note, Julian suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, but they are used as a plot device. Readers looking for a nuanced exploration of how people live with and manage mental illnesses will not find it here.

Frenetic, fast-paced, and hollow.