Grumpily Yours (Stick Taps #2) by Teagan Hunter (ARC Review)
3 Stars!!
Thank you to Valentine PR, Montlake Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. Thoughts and opinions are my own.
Honestly, I wavered on my rating for this. And a lot of that was due to Summer. She was just such an insufferable brat at the beginning that I really, really, really needed someone to smack her. And there wasn't really even a reason for her bad attitude beyond "well f*ck the patriarchy and my dad always taught me to stand up for myself". But the whole reason she got arrested? We can discuss the whole "date auction" aspect and everything tied to it, sure. But a)that wasn't even a plot point beyond being a reason to introduce Summer the Brat and b)did she even bother to ask people if they hated it? If people were talking about only doing it because it's tradition, then sure, Summer's crashing the thing could be justified. But if people were doing it because they genuinely wanted to, then Summer can take her reasons and shove them. She doesn't get to decide what everyone else gets to believe. And up until about 25-30%, she had the same attitude. Like her first day at Stick Taps, where she freely admitted to being late because she was deciding if she even wanted to show up. I get that she didn't want to do it (and neither did Ezra in the beginning), but her father literally threw her a lifeline in not charging her. She thought she had issues in Chicago? She would have had 10x more if she'd been arrested doing something stupid. Her father's point of there being a time and a place was 100% correct and I wished she'd thought about it more. She just wasn't all that professional and it grated, especially with the number of times we had to deal with her internal "I'm only here for a short while for my dad", but like, again, if she got arrested, she wouldn't have an easy time finding anything anywhere, so wouldn't it be in her best interests to at least be on time and quasi-professional?
I've wanted Ezra's story since reading Grumpily Ever After , and it was interesting seeing more of his background. Finding out the self-loathing and blame he had for his accident. The reasons he might not want to get to close to people, all of it. Although I will say that while I get his reasons for driving at the speed of light, I feel like he needs to be a little more careful, especially when squealing into parking lots where he's only assuming it's going to be empty. Yes, it might be a good bet because of time of day, but still. I did like that once he and Summer got over their animosity, and he started spending time with her, he loosened up a lot. He didn't want to, but it just happened and we were hit with a lot of "oh, where'd that come from?" which was honestly hilarious. When Summer was sick, I loved the fact that he wanted to take care of her and how he didn't back down. Same with when her father ended up in the hospital and Summer tried to shoulder the blame.
I did like seeing the way Ezra was with the kids at the Iceplex, how he was able to pull Marshall out of his funk. It was sweet knowing why Ezra wanted to do it and how much he tried to be involved.
Book releases July 21st, 2026
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