It Happened One Summer is a romantic comedy novel published in 2021 by best-selling American author Tessa Bailey. The novel is the first installment in a duology featuring the Bellinger sisters. Inspired by the TV series Schitt’s Creek, It Happened One Summer follows the adventures of young, wealthy socialite Piper Bellinger after she is banished from Los Angeles to the small fishing town of Westport, Washington. As Piper learns more about Westport and her past, she falls in love with crab fisherman and Westport native Brendan Taggart. The novel alternates between Piper and Brendan’s points of view, showing their personal growth as they begin a relationship and come to care for one another.

The novel was a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestseller, enjoyed high visibility on the social media app TikTok, and was optioned for a feature film. This guide refers to the paperback edition published by Avon Books in 2021. The novel includes graphic sex and adult language.

Plot Summary

The novel opens in present-day Los Angeles when 28-year-old Piper Bellinger, a pretty, rich party girl, gets in trouble for breaking into a hotel and throwing a party in the pool, a stunt she dreams up to divert attention from an embarrassing breakup with her boyfriend. Piper’s stepfather decides to teach Piper a lesson by sending her to a small coastal village in Washington state where she owns a bar left to her by her father, a fisherman who died young. Her stepfather hopes that being on her own for three months will teach Piper responsibility, and Piper’s mother, who left Westport when her daughter was very young, agrees. Piper’s younger sister, Hannah, goes with her. They find that the bar is rundown and has been taken over by locals, including one tall, bearded fisherman who seems especially hostile. He tells Piper bluntly that she doesn’t belong in a place like Westport and should go back to Los Angeles.

Brendan Taggart has been widowed for seven years, and he’s fallen into a routine both on land and as captain of the fishing boat Della Ray, which his father-in-law turned over to him. Brendan doesn’t like surprises, and he believes that the fashionable, attractive young woman from Los Angeles doesn’t fit with the settled, serious character of Westport. Brendan is aggravated by his attraction to Piper, but as he encounters her in various places around town—and rescues her from a cooking fire—he gets glimpses behind her glamorous façade. What he sees intrigues him, and Brendan decides to pursue Piper, even though he’s not sure what a girl with millions of followers on Instagram could see in a set-in-his-ways fisherman.

Piper is attracted to Brendan but resists flirting with him because he still wears his wedding ring. When Brendan stops wearing the ring and shows interest in Piper by helping her and Hannah restore the bar, her attraction grows. She tries to remain flirty and, when Brendan invites her to dinner, Piper insists that things between them remain casual because she is going back to Los Angeles. But their first sexual encounter is explosive. Brendan leaves for an extended trip to fish for king crab, a dangerous job that killed Piper’s father, and Piper occupies herself by working on the bar and getting acquainted with Westport. She makes friends and meets her grandmother, Opal.

When a storm causes an accident on Brendan’s boat, Piper thinks Brendan is injured and rushes to the hospital in a panic. This sign of her attachment to him is a turning point for them both. They make love at the hospital, and Piper wrestles with conflicted feelings. She is drawn to Brendan but still plans to return to Los Angeles. As work on the bar progresses, Piper plans a Labor Day party, and Brendan takes her on a trip to an expensive hotel in Seattle to prove he can give her the expensive things she likes.

In Seattle, Piper realizes she loves Brendan, but her friend Kirby wants to throw a glamorous party to welcome her back to Los Angeles. Piper isn’t sure where she belongs and hesitates to tell Brendan that she wants to stay in Westport. Fearing he will lose her, Brendan walks out the night before he leaves for another fishing trip, and an accident with one of her new Westport friends prevents Piper from seeing him off at the dock and telling him how she feels. With Brendan gone, Piper fears she doesn’t belong in Westport after all and returns to Los Angeles.

As soon as he returns, Brendan wants to tell Piper he is sorry for walking out. He drives to Los Angeles and appears at the party to tell Piper that he wants to be with her. Piper has realized that her life in Los Angeles doesn’t have what Westport can offer her; Westport has Brendan. They confess their love and the novel ends with Piper settling into life in Westport, welcoming her boyfriend back from a fishing trip.