I love the Apple series as much as the next person, but dear god, the way he speaks is NOT what I want to read in a romantic hero (I’m actually laughing as I type this out because it was that absurd - points to Bailey for nailing the impression, at least). What nearly had me throwing my Kindle across the room, however, was Tessa Bailey’s choice to make all of Aiden’s dialogue - erm, outside the bedroom, at least - completely ape the speech patterns of one Coach Ted Lasso. It moves quickly, is fun to see the grumpy-sunshine dynamic with a gender reversal, and the spice levels clock in at minimum three chili peppers. If you need a book that captures the frenetic, whimsical, and a little cheesy feeling of walking down Fifth Avenue around Christmas, you could do worse than Window Shopping. She just has to remember that she’s only “window shopping” - ba-dum-TSS! - in this new life. Soon enough she has a full time job there as the store’s new window dresser, with a part time role ignoring her growing attraction to the unfailingly good natured Aiden, her new boss.

As she gazes in horror, knowing she could create something far better for the holiday season as a window dressing-hopeful, a tall, handsome, alarmingly friendly man with a slight southern accent approaches and picks her brain about the décor. The basic premise: Grouchy, self-professed “goth” Stella - recently out of prison after a four-year stint of being incarcerated - stomps by the windows of Vivant, a glitzy department store in New York City, and can’t help but gawk at how awful the Christmas design inside is (the book describes it as “penguin Chernobyl”). Tessa Bailey’s Window Shopping, a new standalone romance from the author of books like It Happened One Summer and Fix Her Up, dares to ask one somewhat unsettling question: what if Ted Lasso was into wild sex stuff? And OK, fine, a few other things.

Tessa bailey window shopping