Love Her or Lose Her: A Small-Town, Grumpy-Sunshine Rom-Com Featuring Family Secrets and Marriage Boot Camp (Hot and Hammered, 2)

I’ve never read a book like this (that I can remember) where the MCs are in a troubled marriage, but they ONLY want each other. The monotony of their marriage gets to the h, and the H is determined to change that.Rosie and Dominic have been married for years, and they have an okay marriage, but lately Rosie’s been feeling the deficit in their marriage, the routine of it all, and she doesn’t want to continue living this way. She gets home from work, on a Tuesday, and before they do their normal Tuesday Smexy time routine, she leaves him (but not before he.. ahem… tries to convince her to stay 🥵🔥). There are things that are missing in their marriage, like their lack of communication, but what’s really bothering Rosie is that she isn’t fulfilling her dream, her dream of having her own restaurant.Dominic was in the military, and all he wants to do is please Rosie, which is why he works so much. He never realized she had something missing in her life. He thought the only thing she was missing was their dream home, but because he never opened up and talked to her about it, he didn’t find out until she walked away. When they see each other again she tells him that they need to seek therapy, and he crazily agrees.Their therapist’s a hippie and has… unconventional ways of doing therapy, but it allows Dominic and Rosie to get closer. It really allows them to look into their souls and see how strong their marriage is. I was laughing my butt off when they were doing the chubby bunny exercise 😂 (the narrator is awesome). As time passes, Rosie realizes all of the things Dominic has done for her, from paying a security guard to make sure that she gets to her car safely after work every day to warming up her seat before she leaves, he’s so swoony 🥰and thoughtful🥺, I kept falling in love with him more and more myself lol.And don’t get me started on the dirty mouth this man🥵Jeeeezus… Tessa Bailey knows how to write dirty talking Hs! He’s ALL ABOUT her pleasure (he keeps himself in shape because he knows she’s a 10 and needs to keep up to her smexiness)- the “just the tip” scene was SCORCHING 🔥 and the hotel room scene (after they pretend to be strangers on the dance floor) was EXPLOSIVE… I’m surprised my kindle survived! If you wanna read a scene where he lays her down on a table so her head is hanging off the side… for… um… deep purposes, then this book is for you💦😅🔥.They reconnect on such a PRIMAL level, and I loved that the whole time, they ONLY want each other. The way Dominic’s willing to sacrifice anything for Rosie is noteworthy and everything we want in an H ❤️. Plus, I love books that have the MCs chemistry off the charts 💦 and they have it in spades 🥵.Loved it!⚠️safety squad⚠️-no cheating/sharing/owd/omd

A marriage in trouble story is basically the most serious of second chance romances, which we all know I have a love/hate relationship with. But Rosie and Dom loved each other so much, and you were pulling for them the entire time. I loved this story.Rosie and Dominic Vega had a picture perfect relationship, until they didn't. How did it happen? Rosie doesn't know, she just knows she can't live like this anymore. Rosie has always wanted to open her own restaurant, but she's shelved her dreams for a long time, never thinking it was the right time to act on them. Dom has gotten so quiet in the years since he came home from deployment, and Rosie doesn't know what to do when he just doesn't talk to her anymore. He just works and comes home, and things never change. They've been dancing around their issues for years, and when things boil over, they're both left not knowing how to move forward. When Rosie finally decides to leave her husband, her love, her childhood sweetheart, she thinks there's no going back. But Dom isn't willing to give her up without a fight. He agrees to do WHATEVER it takes to make her come home, and when she proposes last resort marriage counseling, he doesn't bat an eye.Their marriage counselor was hysterical: a pothead hippie, with office decor straight out of the 1960s. But, he certainly knew his stuff, and he helped them realize they weren't speaking the same love language. As an aside, I learned about the 5 Love Languages in my pre-marital counseling class. And thank god for that, because my hubs' language and mine are VERY different. In fact, they are the same as our hero and heroine. Dom (and my own husband) shows his love with acts of service, and Rosie (and me!) with words of affirmation. This struggle resonated so strongly with me, as we've had to learn to interpret each other's languages over the years, and its not easy. Watching them struggle to understand each other just really hit home in my heart. And Dom's letter to Rosie? *Swoons Forever*Rosie and Dom had flaming physical chemistry like whoa, but their emotional intimacy had been sorely depleted. Watching them find their way back to each other's hearts was painful, and beautiful, and I just loved their love so much. They both had gotten so bogged down in the day-to-day, that things were totally out of control before they knew it. I'm sure everyone can relate to that in some way. But they both compounded the issue by not communicating, and not sharing their feelings, along with other important truths, and it just made everything worse.Rosie and Dom's friend group is truly outstanding, and seeing all their interactions were as enjoyable as they were in book 1 (which I also loved with my whole heart!). Having a new face added, in Wes, and seeing his spark with hilarious Bethany was so great, and I can't wait for their book up next!This book had my emotions on a yo-yo the whole time, but always, I was pulling for Rosie and Dom. Hoping they could each get out of their own way, and make the changes they needed to make to be all they could for each other, and for themselves. They both learned how to support each other, while letting the other person fly, and it was so satisfying. I highly recommend this story.

Sweet and romantic story about how men and women interpret marital behaviour differently and it can cause chaos.

Frustrating, good to catch up with the crew again and get some extension of how they're progressing but one Rosie and Dominic we doing the Hokey coke, in out, shake it about, off on, it was exhausting. Poor communication at its best, I've just walked out on you but now I'm marrying you wtaf!

I really enjoyed this book and getting to see Rosie and Dominic's love story as they try to navigate their way through understanding each other on a deeper level and reconciling their marriage. I love how this book focused on love languages as the couples main flaw in the first place (besides lack of communication) was them not giving each other the love language that speaks to them.I really enjoyed Rosie as our MC - she was so cute and I loved that we also got to see her have more faith in herself and going after her dream which is to start her own restaurant. I loved her friendship with Georgie and Bethany and it was so fun to get lil sprinkles of their lives in this book too as I loved them in Fix Her Up 🥰I still have mixed feelings about Dominic overall. I didn't really like his "olden day love perspective" in the sense that he was only focusing on him being the sole financial provider and that was enough for a successful marriage. Like he didn't really consider what Rosie wanted or even communicate with her to understand what she actually needed. But with that being said, he did have a lot of character growth and I really liked seeing him getting out of that narrow mindset and opening himself up to change and bettering himself for their marriage.

"𝙒𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨. 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬 𝙨𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙪𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚. 𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙖𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨."I'm still fairly green when it comes to the romance genre, but this was so much more than a standard second chance rom for me.At first, I wasn't sure Rosie and Dom would or should stay together. Their relationship seemed strictly physical and outside of that, there was just no chemistry, but once the communication started flowing and secret sweet gestures came to light, it was clear their love was real and I was rooting for them to make it.I really enjoyed the character of the hippy therapist. Removing the physicality of Rosie and Dom's relationship to incite honest and open conversation. It is so common for a couple's individual growth to be stunted when there is an intense emotional connection. When you find the only person you want and need in your life and comfort takes over, then suddenly it's yrs later and you've forgotten to serve yourself and your goals and dreams...Ok, maybe I went too deep 🤣Anyway, my point is, Tessa did a great job at exploring the love language within a relationship. I connected with Rosie and maybe even found myself analysing my own life in a way as well. So I guess what I am saying is, read it! 🥰Oh, and did I mention the spice 🌶 was pretty epic as well 🥵. Never gonna look at a fridge the same way again 🤣.

“..twenty-seven was too young to settle for unhappiness. Discontent. Any age was too young for that.”Do you know what your love language is? Gosh, this book really made me stop to think about that. I’m honestly not sure what mine is. I’d love to sit down with Armie and have a wee chat about it.I loved him so much, he definitely gave a ‘raised eyebrows’ first impression but I quickly started to see the methods behind his madness.The Minions marshmallows scene in particular will always make me chuckle.. and the tent scene.I was torn between wanting to wrap Dom in my arms to tell him that keeping a stiff upper lip is not healthy, and shaking some sense into him.He done so many things for Rosie, little things that would have made her feel cherished and appreciated but he didn’t want to get credit for ‘doing his job' as her husband… It hurt my heart.I wanted to do the same with Rosie. Her insecurities ran so deep that when she stopped loving herself she also stopped loving her husband.I love that we got a look into their past, to see what their love was like before the silence. Then we got to be there to witness them falling in love all over again. It was intense and beautiful.Friendship, love, respect, betrayal, heartbreak, honesty, community, and hot sex. This book has it all.Question, when are we getting a Bethany and Wes book?I need it! xP