A review by thebiglittlelibrary
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey

funny lighthearted tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

2.5 ⭐ Funny enough, it was the taboo romance that ultimately put me off the story—not for the reason you might expect.

"You're a fucking star that fell out of the sky and I was lucky enough to be standing in the right place."

WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ contemporary romance
✨ boston setting
✨ she's a harp prodigy who comes from a wealthy family and has zero life skills
✨ he's a hockey star
✨ soon-to-be step-siblings
✨ love at first sight
✨ taboo romance (but was it really?)
✨ 2.5/5 spice
✨ "good girl"
✨ third act breakup
✨ HEA

My Thoughts:

I know with this 2-star rating, you're probably thinking, "Yikes, it must be bad." But honestly, it's not a bad book. It has everything fun about a Tessa Bailey story—a super sexy, head-over-heels-in-love man, amazing tension, and lots of spice. The writing and pacing are also fine. There was just one big problem I couldn't get past, and it completely derailed my enjoyment of the story.

The forbidden/taboo step-sibling romance felt so overly contrived that I couldn't get into the story because in real life, it would never have been a problem.

Two people in their late 20s who randomly meet and fall madly in love, only to hours later discover their parents are engaged and they will be step-siblings, is not weird. But apparently, for Sig and Chloe it is SUPER inappropriate and would mean the end of their careers (as a hockey player and a harpist). What? Why? They are adults. They didn't grow up together. They didn't even meet until their parents (who recently started dating) announced their engagement. So how on earth would this be considered inappropriate? And listen, I don’t even read a lot of taboo, so it’s not like I’m just normalizing a step-sibling dynamic. But they weren't even step-siblings!!! They weren't even related!!! And they're adults, so WHY DOES IT MATTER? I just genuinely do not see any issues with this at all. It was a forced issue, only done to create drama. And the resolution . . . don't even get me started. 🙄

Since the step-sibling drama is the main conflict, the story completely fell apart for me right from the beginning. Which is a shame because I actually really liked Chloe and Sig's dynamic and loved reading about them together. But whenever the step-sibling drama came up, it became too frustrating to read and completely pulled me out of the story.

More about the characters . . .

I really loved Sig. He fell so fast and hard that Chloe became his everything. It was a bit much, but honestly I love a simp and Sig is the definition!

Chloe was sweet but incredibly ditsy, irresponsible, and, frankly, as dumb as a bag of rocks. It was hard to take her seriously when she acted so childishly—not because of her personality, but because of her complete lack of real-world and critical thinking skills. Her cluelessness made it difficult to connect with her. What bothered me even more was how she went from being infantilized by her mother to having a similar experience with Sig. While it was sweet that he wanted to help her, he definitely overstepped and, in the process, prevented her from facing real-life challenges. I guess I just wish that even by the end she could stand on her own two feet without help.


Thank you Netgalley for providing an eARC and Avon for providing a physical ARC copy in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.