Review: "Fangirl Down" by Tessa Bailey (Big Shots #1) ★★★★

Review: Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey

A sports romance filled with beloved tropes like opposites attract, grumpy meets sunshine, insta love as well as witty humour and an inspiring story of believing in yourself and taking risks, or should I say shots. Literally, shots – as we witness a golf player’s comeback against all odds thanks to encouragement from the girl who has been there, rooting for him all along.

This human being had kicked down her door, both literally and metaphorically. She’d never seen him coming. Not like this. Perhaps because she’d known him first as a celebrity, not a real person, the way she did now. How could she have known he would balance her… respect, challenge, arouse, and protect her, all at once.

PLOT SUMMARY
Former number one professional golf player and bad boy, 29-year-old Wells Whitaker from Miami, has lost his touch for the past 2 years. He is on the verge of quitting golf forever and cannot stand 26-year-old Josephine Doyle (“Well’s Belle” as she likes to call herself), the fangirl very knowledgeable about golf who has been there since the start, encouraging him to try again. With nobody on his team, abandoned by his parents as a child and passed over by his manager because he had no faith in him, she is the only thing to get him to show himself at events.

After a hurricane strikes Florida, Josephine’s family’s golf pro shop The Golden Tee is flooded and she stupidly forgets to renew its flood insurance. Unwilling to get her parents’ help, desiring to fix the situation herself, opportunity knocks in the form of Wells – or, rather, as his caddie, helping him on the golf course.

The plan is simple: he will try for her sake to do well in the game, they split the prize money fifty-fifty, they part ways and she restores her family pro shop. In practice? Totally doable. In reality? Feelings are caught. With media scrutiny of their “professional relationship” left, right and center, along with the pressures of being Wells’ “lucky charm” and the discrimination of being a female caddie, Josephine wonders if the man she has been crushing on for years is worth fighting for.

This is told from the third-person past-tense POV of both Josephine and Wells.

OVERALL OPINIONS
This has to be one of Tessa’s best books yet. She admits herself in her acknowledgments that this is her all-time favourite thus far – and it definitely shows! I could feel the passion behind this. This tied in some themes from her old books: another book about sports like Same Time Next Year, obsessing over someone for years like Secretly Yours with her usual writing style and witty banter that harkens back to the vibes of It Happened One Summer.

I would ultimately give this book a 4.5 because oh my goodness I really did enjoy this there were just a few elements that I felt could have been better or expanded upon! I really loved Wells – the man he becomes because of Josephine. And the humour was all up my street: their banter is very witty I was smiling the whole time, and we have puns (my favourite). The bit that made me really laugh out loud was when Wells drives all the way to her home thinking she is in danger, breaking the door down, causing Josephine to scream (all because he did not know her app that tells him the sugar levels will not show any readings when she replaces her monitor, and she had fallen asleep and her phone was on silent so missed his calls of concern). It was so sweet he did all that to make sure she was okay, but funny the way he scared her. The other moment was definitely when they bribe Ricky with 10 lizards if he distracts the crowd.

She was going to be fine. Blood sugar corrections were just a way of life. Fixing lows and highs. That was her normal.

I loved this line! It was so poetic considering she is also fixing Wells’ highs and lows in golf.

Tessa introduces us to Josephine’s best friend marine biologist Tallulah and Wells’ friend single father hockey player Burgess and very nicely sets up the premise for her second book in this duology, The Au Pair Affair in which Tallulah agrees to be a nanny for his daughter Lissa. I will be looking forward to reading this very soon. I really love the description of Burgess looking at Tallulah “like she’d just arrived on a cloud wreathed in sunbeams”. That was very adorable!

Also, yes Wellsophine is probably a viable ship name, Wells. Unless we go with Jells? Or Woey (Joey)?? Woey-Roo!

<< Positives >>
🠚 The cover is adorable! I am a sucker for when a moment in the book is conveyed on the front cover. This happened here: due to their height differences, Josephine feels she cannot see very well to advise Wells where to aim his next shot and he insists she piggy-backs him so she can be his height. It is a very cute moment, an excellent choice.
🠚 The type 1 diabetes representation was nice. I am sure quite a lot of people can relate to this. You are all so strong, just like Josephine!
🠚 Josephine and Wells’ relationship. It is an interesting dynamic having a celebrity falling in love with his fan. The chemistry was perfect. I loved their honesty, passion, and teamwork. He is so protective of her (to the point of possession is neither here nor there for me in this book) but not to the extent that she feels mollycoddled. They look out for each other too. The way they can read each other so well is refreshing (but I suppose having stalked/fangirled over him for years helps).
🠚 The moment when Josephine lets Wells celebrate his birthday with her, blowing out the candle, to make up for all the birthdays he spent with nobody.
🠚 Wells constantly guessing who Josephine’s favourite band is throughout the book was a fun concept! I was intrigued as to who it would be too.
🠚 Wells’ development as a character. That was lovely to see.
🠚 The relationship between Josephine and her parents was heartwarming. Reminds me of my own family.

<< Negatives >>
About four of these points concern parts of the story that I felt could have been expanded on to make this story even better.
🠚 While Tessa covers the moment Josephine first saw Wells and thought he was a good man, I would have wanted to have learned where it got from simply fangirling to becoming on speaking terms with him.
🠚 The golf itself really got skipped over. Particularly, after the halfway point. I would have preferred more day-by-day stuff.
🠚 I liked the livestream that Josephine listens to at the start of the book. This literally only appears there, I feel like there was potential for more moments with them. This idea reminds me of the podcast in Elena Armas’ book The Fiancé Dilemma but was executed far more effectively there.
🠚 Characters I thought would be more prominent disappeared. What happened to Ricky? Did he get the lizards? I sure hope he did! He disappears after the halfway point of the story too. I quite liked him.
🠚 There is somehow always something spicy Tessa will write and I’m like “Nah girl, really?” – this time it was the “butt” of the situation (iykyk). For those who don’t, if you don’t like ass-licking, skip the shower scene. From a glance at reviews, I was definitely not the only one who got the ick. Considering this book is dedicated to Tessa’s daughter, Mac, and she herself hoping she won’t read that part… ma’am, there is still time, delete this.
🠚 Once again just like Julian Vos in Secretly Yours, all Wells does for the first half of the book is has an obsession with Josephine’s breasts.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Josephine꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ She is the sweetest thing. I was not sure about her at the very beginning (as with most Tessa Bailey books, it is a slow start and I usually somehow dislike the characters until getting to know them better) as she came over very obsessive, like putting her name down for that competition around 60 times. But the moment we got to her working with Wells, I loved her.
🠚 I relate to her being upset when people do not take her offer to help, and not wanting people to think her weak.
🠚 She puts up with an awful lot of sexism, people not believing in her, but she believes so much in everyone else. I love that she would even give up her own dreams to help Wells achieve his. Stubborn to a fault.
🠚 I actually feel like her running the shop is a little wasted considering how good she is at golf? I am proud of her for running the shop and achieving something for herself.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Wells꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Well, well, Wells (sorry I had to). What a man. He goes from having anger management issues and drinking problems, not letting anyone in and assuming the worst in others, to bettering himself learning to let things go, but also realises he himself caused most of the rift between him and others. He goes from someone without friends and feeling alone to feeling like he belongs, people respect him more, and his life is pretty much complete.
🠚 It has been a while where I have seen a lot of character development from a man. Usually they are (reasonably) perfect, and the woman character is changing for them. So again this was refreshing to see.
🠚 The amount of deeds he does for Josephine! Especially managing to get Tallulah to visit Josephine, to make up for disconnecting their phone call. Something about the way he says “I’d have driven to the ends of the earth” is so swoon-worthy. Also the fact he is not a hugger but then bear hugs Josephine all the time? This all made me love him so much.
🠚 The only one time I was like “dude no, now is not the time” was when she tells him she needs space and does not want to jump into a relationship for fear people won’t see her worth. She needed time, not “Kiss me and tell me if you still believe that”. Not your best moment, sir.

FAV QUOTES
• “I won’t give up on you as long as you don’t give up on yourself.”
•Kissing her was like the words to a favorite song. He simply knew the lyrics.
• she could practically feel him coming back to life. Deep down, Wells Whitaker loved golf and finally, finally she could see him allowing that to be true again. Out loud. In his every action. What a glorious thing to witness.
• She was strong because of her struggle, not in spite of it
• Why was it that this man saying he didn’t hat her was the equivalent of another man promising to build her a kingdom?
• “I’m glad I trusted you to follow me on the app.”… | “Even after I kicked in your door?” | “Especially after you kicked in my door.”
• “She’s too loyal to leave me.” Just like she’d always been. Standing on the sidelines, his stubborn fangirl to the bitter end, no matter how badly he played. Holding up her sign. Wearing his discontinued merchandise. Rain or shine.
• “I had no idea what unconditional love looked like until you, Josephine. You taught me how to be like this and I will love you whether or not you’re helping me win some fucking game. We are bigger than a game.”
• It was the Josephine effect. She wasn’t even here and she was making things better. Brighter.
• He took the putter from his caddie and lined up the shot. And he took it for Josephine, but also for this directionless kid he’d been at sixteen, the guy who’d lost his will to win at twenty-six but found his way back at twenty-nine.