My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey Book review

Details of My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey Book

Book Name: My Killer Vacation

Authors: Tessa Bailey

Pages: 269

Genre: Romance Novel

Publish Date: Jun 6, 2022

Language: English

Book Review:

My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey — the contents are far too spicy for our own good. Anyone that doesn't know Tessa Bailey would totally just like walk through the bookstore and see one of her books and be like, so cute, so wholesome, I love the colors, this will be adorable on my shelf. They open it and they're like, oh my god. She's graded it and we love her for it.

This is her newest summer release. I've been looking forward to this book all year. Ever since she first talked about it, I knew it was going to be on my TBR. It went through a couple of cover variations. There was some weird drama behind that — if you're interested, look into it. I won't go on about it here because it was so very silly. Honestly, I'm kind of glad it happened though, because the new cover is a million times better. So beautiful, love the colors, love the illustration, so cute. So yeah, I really liked it.

I thought it was super cute. It was a super short, fun, easy read, and I just want to talk to you guys about it. So as always, I'm going to give you my little spoiler-free sort of synopsis, and then we'll finish with some final thoughts.

So let's get into it. This story follows a girl named Taylor. She is a second-grade teacher, and you can tell the story is supposed to kind of be set right after COVID sort of happened, because it's mentioned that she's been working online for the past few years, teaching Zoom classes, and it's just been a really hard time for her. Over these last few years, she saved up a lot of money because she wants to take her brother on this vacation.

Now is the time. They are finally in Cape Cod, this small little beach town, and they are staying in this Airbnb for a week. She just wants to unplug, relax, and spend some time with her brother, and just get away from it all. So they show up to Cape Cod, they show up to their Airbnb, and right away, when they walk in, something just seems off. The vibes are not immaculate. She can just tell some things seem out of place, it's just a little fishy.

Basically, long story short, in the first few pages of this book, Taylor walks in on what appears to be a dead body. She doesn't know what happened, but there is a man, and he is shot, and he's in her Airbnb, and he is the owner of her Airbnb. The police show up. You would think she would freak out, you would think this would really freak her out, and Taylor herself thinks this should freak her out.

But something about this scene just doesn't add up to her. Because again, she's a second-grade teacher. She has a very honest job, and she does a very good job at it. But she just has never done anything that she feels like is super brave. She's always really looked up to her parents because they have interesting careers where they have to be brave, go on adventures, and do crazy things. That's just not her lifestyle. Something about this whole situation just seems off to her.

The cops kind of want to write it off really quickly, but she just doesn't think it's that simple. She's a big podcast listener, she really likes true crime stuff, and something in her tells her that she needs to help investigate this case and figure it out. The math ain't nothing. She wants to get involved. Even though it's her vacation, she's like, I'm setting my mind to this, I need to know what happened here.

So Taylor is kind of conducting her own little investigation where she ends up crossing paths with this man named Miles. Miles is a bounty hunter, and he has some sort of connection to a family member of the man that was murdered, and he owes them a favor. So he basically travels down to Cape Cod to investigate this situation.

It's very much a grumpy-sunshine situation right off the bat. Taylor is a second-grade teacher, she's very like, I want to solve the case, let's go. And he's like, I'm here to do my job. He's been a bounty hunter for a long time. Before that, he was a cop and a detective. He's really poured his entire life into his job, and it's pushed a lot of people away from him and out of his life. He's very used to being a lone wolf.

That's not what's going to happen here, because Taylor is determined to stick her nose in this business. She might seem annoying to him right away, but of course, she's also cute as a button. He hates that he knows she's cute as a button, and you can kind of tell where this might go. Taylor has always lived her life very much on the safe side, and Miles is the opposite of the safe side. So he's very intriguing. Again, she's on vacation, so looking for a good time.

It was a very interesting story, because obviously, a lot of rom-coms don't typically involve murder, murder mysteries, investigations, and the suspense-thriller aspect of that. So you got that, and it was very different and interesting. Definitely, the murder mystery was a big part of the story, but I wouldn't say it was the main focus. It's very much a character-driven story, like all of Tessa Bailey's books are.

It was the perfect combination of cute summer vibes with a little extra added action, a whole lot of spice. You get into the spice very quickly. She doesn't leave you waiting here. It is a bit of a slow burn for sure — she doesn't give you the whole cake at once, if that's the term. But it also had moral issues to it. There's always the story of the guy and the girl who have things that have kept them from love.

The guy that's grumpy and has been so involved with work this whole time that he can't let anybody else in. The girl who has been so focused on making sure everyone else is taken care of that she never stops to take care of herself, and she doesn't really take risks. It's a whole combination of that that turned into a very cute summer read. I wasn't disappointed.

A couple of things that are funny to note — not really funny, but interesting — this book is self-published, which I always think is interesting. Traditionally published authors, whenever they do self-published books, I'm always like, what made you self-publish this? Was this just like a fun side project for you? I just think it's interesting. I love self-published books, literally no tea, no shade. I just thought it was interesting that this was self-published.

Also, one thing I noticed is every other Tessa Bailey book I have ever read is written in third person, which I don't typically like. But I think Tessa Bailey does a good job of third person because she still does multiple points of view, and even though it is in third person, it feels like you're seeing it from their perspective. Usually, after a handful of pages, I can get used to it.

This story was completely first-person point of view. It is dual point of view, so we do get some of Taylor's thoughts, we do get some of Miles' thoughts. You get to see what they're thinking, their different dilemmas, all of that. We love that. Tessa Bailey kills the dual point of view. I loved it.

I don't know if this was a test run of her trying first person. I don't know why she hasn't done first person up until now, and what made her do it for this story. I'm hoping it was a trial run, because I think she did a really good job of it, and I hope she continues to do it. First person is just nice. It's nice to kind of self-insert yourself into the story.

When I read first person, for me it's just easier to comprehend the emotions and stuff. It's not that deep, just something I thought I would mention.

But yeah, that's my thoughts, that's what I have to say. If you guys have read My Killer Vacation, I would love to hear your thoughts down below. Definitely, if you're looking for some more summer reads and you knocked this one out, It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line and Sinker by Tessa Bailey — those are incredible.

I will say, compared to that, it doesn't compare, but I don't think it's meant to compare. I think this was definitely supposed to be a fun, easy read. Again, those are also fun and cute, but they have way more depth to them, way more depth to the characters, and way more of a story arc. Those are everything to me, they're so beautiful. This was just really fun and cute and spicy. A good time, not disappointing in any way.

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