My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey - A Book Review
Synopsis:
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 insatiable 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 realise the road has been leading to her all along?
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Murder Mystery
- He Falls First
I’m at the point in my A-Z reading challenge where I feel like I am rushing to get it completed, even though we’re only halfway through the year. I just have to many books that I want to read that, annoyingly, don’t fit in with the remaining titles.
Throughout June I decided to prioritise my A-Z title choices, which has lead me to letter M – My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey. I’m not sure whether I can count this as a choice because the word ‘My’ feels like a bit of a cop out – similar to using a book starting with the word ‘The’ for the letter T! Anyways, as you can see, I still went ahead and completed it!
It’s safe to say I’m familiar with the work of Tessa Bailey, seeing as I’ve read It Happened One Summer, Hook, Line and Sinker and Wreck The Halls.
My Killer Vacation follows school teacher Taylor and her brother on a summer vacation in a rented home in Cape Cod. Not long after they arrive, they discover a dead body in their rental property, which reveals to be their landlord. This shocking discovery takes their vacation in a very different direction to what they had planned.
With an interest in true crime, Taylor becomes intrigued at the reasons behind her landlords’s murder and after speaking to his sister, Taylor begins to question who did it. Her questions encourage the landlord’s sister to hire a bounty hunter to help uncover the truth about her brother’s murder.
When Taylor begins sneaking back into the crime scene to uncover clues, she bumps into the bounty hunter who is tasked with solving the murder, Myles – Taylor reacts in a way that’s unexpected. The man should be terrifying – he seems to scare everyone else – but it’s clear that Myles is incredibly attracted to Taylor. Myles warns Taylor away from the start, but chemistry seems to keep pulling them back together, and it’s not long before they’re both acting out of character.
Whilst at the crime scene, Taylor discovers evidence that was missed by the police, which she decides to take in her own attempt at an investigation, later revealing it to Myles who discovers she could be valuable to his investigation.
The story follows Myles and Taylor as they navigate working together to uncover the mysterious murder of her landlord, much to Myles distain at having her join in on his work. Whilst working together, the pair navigate the electric spark between them, attempting to ignore it.
However, Taylor reveals that she feels like she’s not had the full experience in previous relationships. This leads Myles and Taylor to begin a sexual relationship with one another. As the pair spend more time together, feelings begin to grow stronger, making Myles want to pull away after making a mistake in a previous investigation and therefore, not wanting to repeat the same error.
The pair working together, begin to discover small details about her landlord’s murder, including the mayor of the town not being happy about landlord’s renting out homes to vacationers. When Taylor is looking further into a lead, she is hit over the head with a book, knocking her unconscious when she discovers more information.
Myles rushes to her side and becomes regretful after letting his guard down and becoming distracted by Taylor. He begins to realise that Taylor and her brother are a target since they themselves are vacationers. This discovery comes following an attack on Taylor’s beach house, where the window was smashed in and her assault with a library book.
With the clash over the head, Taylor struggles to remember what she discovered before her attack. Slowly, the pieces come back together, where she discovers the mayor of the town is responsible for the murder.
After further investigating, the pair discover that it was the mayors assistant who killed the landlord.
Following the closure of the murder investigation, Taylor and her brother return home and are accompanied by Myles, who decides to follow his heart.
*My Note:* I read this book so long ago and clearly because I didn’t enjoy it, I can’t remember any details about the book – like who the murder was. I think it was the mayors assistant.
I was slightly apprehensive about reading My Killer Vacation and was trying to find an alternative for the letter, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything that was short enough and a standalone. I think my apprehension came from the fact that Tessa typically writes in third person, which is something I’ve learned I don’t like. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading this book, that it’s actually written in first person – making it more tolerable.
I can’t lie, I found this book to be slightly confusing to read because I noticed a lot of errors in the writing and I’m not sure if that’s because it’s been translated to a Kindle Ebook, or if it naturally contained a lot of errors. However, since I noticed this, I found that I couldn’t enjoy the book because I felt like my reading flow was constantly interrupted when I spotted mistakes.
Initially, I struggled with an interest to read this book and I have to say, I didn’t massively enjoy it. I can’t exactly put my finger on why I didn’t overly like it, but it is slightly irritating me because I just felt ‘meh’ about it.
What I did enjoy in this book were the little snippets we saw of Myles’ humour and how it started to appear, the further along we got into the book. He had such a dry sense of humour, that came across very sarcastic and witty, which bounced right off Taylor’s dopey personality. I really enjoyed the bouncing back between Taylor and Myles’ personalities and the one liners they each would have.
Aside from what I did like, I just felt like I wasn’t hooked on the book. I enjoyed the idea of the story, but I felt like the premise of the mystery murder wasn’t happening much throughout the book. It felt like it was mentioned in small clusters and not to be mentioned again until the next cluster. Because of this, I just don’t think I was able to develop stronger feelings towards the book as a whole.
After reading this book, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that Tessa Bailey’s books aren’t for me and it’s annoying me because I don’t know why. I just find that I never really, fully enjoy her books after I’ve read them. They always feel like they’re missing something. I feel like she’s popular-ish on TikTok because of the levels of spice in her books, but aside from that, I feel like there isn’t a lot of depth to her plots.
I think I’m slightly disappointed because I liked (or I think I liked) It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line and Sinker, but maybe that’s because I read those a while ago and I’ve since found authors who I prefer?
This year has taught me that I don’t need to love every author that I read, but I can’t help but feel deflated when I am excited to read a book by an author and don’t end up liking it.
I don’t think I’m going to rule out Tessa Bailey completely, but I wouldn’t be jumping to prioritise her books.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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