Insta-Love or Stockholm Syndrome?

 

TITLE: Dream Girl Drama (Big Shots #3)

AUTHOR: Tessa Bailey

PUBLISHER: Avon

PUBLISHING DATE: February 4, 2025

PAGES: 384   

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne. 

Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged. 

Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister. 

Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…

MY THOUGHTS: I have so many thoughts on this book that I almost don't know where to begin. First and foremost, when I read romance, it's often as a palette cleanser for some of the darker, more horror-filled books I tend to gravitate toward. This book was perfectly fine for that. I've also really come to enjoy Tessa Bailey's books and usually grab her newest as soon as a Libby hold will allow me to do so. That being said, this book is my least favorite of this series so far.

Sig Gauthier is a famous hockey player. He didn't know his father very well growing up as his dad took off when he was a baby, taking all of his mother's inheritance with him. On the way to meet his father's new girlfriend one evening, he breaks down in front of a country club and runs into Chloe. The two become very quickly enamored with each other and agree to meet up for a quick one-night stand after they fulfill commitments, they each have that evening. However, they soon learn they are about to become step-siblings.  However, this doesn't stop Chloe from defying her mother and taking off to Boston with Sid so she can study music and what follows is months of lust-filled days of Chloe and Sid being best friends instead of soulmates for fear of family ruin and professional implosion.

So when Chloe moves to Boston, she is a 25-year-old harp prodigy who has been a rich, spoiled socialite her whole life. She has never paid a bill, cooked a meal or had any responsibility partially because her mother kept her thumb her entire life. Sid takes immediate responsibility for Chloe in Boston supplementing her income, paying her rent for an apartment nicer than his own, and basically teaching her how to function. She is completely dependent on him on only at the end starts to realize what he has sacrificed. There is also the stepsibling angle. I get an "ick" when I think of step-siblings who aren't blood related starting a romantic relationship but in this case, they are 25 and 29 when they meet and either one, it would never had been the career-ruining scandal it was made out to be or two, a chance meeting at a country club for two hours would have been an incident easily written off as they find new partners. The whole thing was just odd. I also immediately foresaw how they were going to overcome the stepsibling thing so I knew all the drama was for nothing. 

I will say that bout 2/3 into the book, Chloe comes in the possession of an adorable bulldog name Pierre and while I loved him dearly, I clearly questioned his life expectancy because Chloe couldn't take care of herself, let alone a dog.

Overall, this was a quick, mindless read and I'm glad I picked it for a light break.  I will continue to look out for new releases from this author and hope the next in this series, which was foreshadowed in this installment, turns out better.

MY RATING: 3 PAWS