Soulmates, siblings-in-law, and spice for days - A review of Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey

Let me begin by bemoaning how fickle the publishing industry is and we, as devoted readers of romance, are, at least in part, to blame for said capriciousness. Books are a business - no matter how much we love the characters in their pages or fangirl over their creators, they exist to make money. So, when the Twilight zeitgeist hit, it’s suddenly raining vampires. Bridgerton’s success? Bring on the dirty dukes! When it comes to sports rom-coms, is there even a question? Hockey, bruh. All the sticks and puns and pucks and words that rhyme with pucks. It’s a veritable goldmine! What does this have to do with anything? Romance writers are veering into territory they may have no desire to be in - skating on thin ice, as it were - because it’s the flavor of the month. Here’s the thing, though. I’m about as clueless as it comes when it comes to sports (by design) since I’d clearly rather spend my Sundays curled up on the couch with a new release rather than watching men the size of small refrigerators concuss themselves into oblivion. I’m not standing on moral high-ground - believe me, I have no morals of which to speak - but it’s just not for me. Hockey, on the other hand, I grew up with and know and actually watch of my own volition. So, when another hockey rom-com hits the stands, I’m both intrigued and wary. Because, more often than not, it seems like the writer is giving the publishers what they want and not something they have more than a passing interest in.

So, love you Tessa, you’re my girl, but I can’t help but feel that Dream Girl Drama, which is the third in her first-foray-into-sports “Big Shots” series, reads like a story she’d already half-written and wanted to tell and was slotted into the world of hockey. Not that I’m faulting her. I was already eagerly awaiting Sig and Chole’s story from their introduction in The Au Pair Affair, as they gave off heat for days, but was not expecting their utter sweetness. It's almost sickeningly but they’re both so clearly MADE FOR EACH OTHER that I was with them from beginning to end. Their love threw me into the metaphorical boards and left me defenseless. 

Sig, a forward who’s undervalued in the league and is awaiting a contract that could put a C on his jersey and launch him into a different tax bracket, is on his way to meet with his estranged father, Harvey, when his clunker breaks down outside a country-club in Connecticut. You can just hear the old money and the Gatsby references are in no short supply. He’s rescued from the ignominy of being tossed out by a flabby maitre d by Chloe, a club member and bubbly blonde whose, well, bubbly blondeness belies the fact that she’s a harp prodigy. Bailey ensures that we’re not fooled into thinking these two merely have chemistry so big it would blow up a city block. Rather, she leans into the Platonic conception of soulmates and leans hard. These two are fated. After an adorable meet-cute, fiery conversation with blush-inducing eye-contact, and a make-out session that’s more intense than half of what shows up in my TBR pile, Sig and Chole reluctantly pull away from the other’s magnetism to fulfill their responsibilities. Not, however, without making a plan to put that chemistry (and mattress springs and door frames and other hotel furniture) to the test before the night is over. 

Yet, their night ends far differently than expected. That meeting with Sig’s estranged father? It’s to meet his fiance, who just happens to be . . . the girl of his dreams’ mother. Of course she is. When their eyes meet over her harp, which she's playing in the ballroom of her mother's mansion, Chloe and Sig know that their immediate plans need to be put on hold. When they are informed, mere minutes later, of the engagement, they know that nothing can come of their mutual attraction. Yet, Chloe, having spent only a few hours in Sig’s orbit, knows that she needs to stop living under her mother’s thumb and merely existing and spread those angel wings that he already imagines she has. Thus, before the night is over, she makes the rash decision to leave the comfort of her Connecticut bubble and study at Berklee, in Boston, where Sig just so happens to play hockey. The heat coming off these two is so palpable that their respective mother and father practically get sunburns being in the same orbit. Harvey goes out of his way to warn Sig that acting on this attraction will inevitably ruin Chloe’s life, financially and otherwise. Thus Sig is left with one option: stop the wedding to be with his dream girl. Given that Harvey screwed Sig’s formerly rich mother out of her wealth and left them high and dry, only to go on to marry bigger and wealthier marks, it seems like it should be an easy enough feat. If only.

Between having to learn to do everything from taking public transportation (and as someone who rides the T with relative frequency, it’s not as simple as it sounds) to buying her own Pop-Tarts to paying rent on time, Chloe is a babe (literally) in the woods. Yet, Sig, natural protector who's somehow not an annoying alpha male, makes it his life’s mission not to provide for her per se, but to teach her to fish, as it were, so that she can become truly independent. Anticipating her every need, he knows how to answer her questions before she even knows to ask them. Their relationship is almost indefinable - they’re instant best friends, confidants, cheerleaders, and almost-lovers. The almost part is key, however. As determined as Sig is not to act on their insane chemistry (there’s a scene on a washing machine that makes you yearn for a good spin cycle that almost pushes him over the edge), he has as good a reason not to as she does. His bestie, Sir Savage, who we met and fell for in The Au Pair Affair, is retiring and someone needs to fill his skates. Sig is the natural candidate for the position, allowing him to stay with his team family in the city he loves and a contract that would allow him to financially provide Chloe with the life she’s accustomed to. The snafu, of course, is that management can’t have him, as the face of the team, romantically involved with his sister.

Did I say sister? I meant sister-in-law. And here’s where I really have to draw upon that willing suspension of disbelief. These are two gorgeous, grown-ass adults who only found out that they would be “related” by marriage after they met one another. Have I read too many romance novels? Am I inured to the potential ick-factor here? I guess so since, for the life of me, I couldn’t really get behind this driving force in keeping these bona fide soul mates apart. 

It makes sense to everyone else (in the world of the novel, at least), however. The closer Sig and Chloe get to their parents’ nuptials, the more they can’t deny that their hearts only beat for one another and they are living only half-lives in their current state. I’m not usually so enamored with the whole big fate, soulmate thing but damn if I didn’t love each darling moment of their relationship or un-relationship or whatever it is they have.

I won’t spoil any more than I have (we know they’ll get their HEA), but the lengths to which they, particularly Sig, are willing to go for the other is the stuff that swoons are made of. The hockey player and the harpist. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the girls with the silver spoon. Bailey has fun with this opposites attract coupling but does so in a way where you’re rooting for them throughout, even if you think the general premise of not being able to be together is weak at best. Really, my only negative reaction - besides the whole flimsy fault upon which the novel lies - is how Sig finds a way to be with Chloe that appeases the rules society has set for them. I wanted them to throw a big ol’ middle finger and live their beautiful lives flaunting said rules, but what do I know? Ultimately, I’m here for them and the next book in the series, which will feature some of the more ridiculous minor characters (here nicknamed “The Orgasm Donors”) and, presumably, more shenanigans than sweetness. 

Rating: 4 / 5 Shared Spin-cycles