53 pages • 1 hour read
Tessa BaileyFangirl Down
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Tessa Bailey
Tessa Bailey is an American romance novelist. She has published over 40 books in the genre, many of which are members of a romance series. These series include the Bellinger Sisters Series, the Fate Series, the Serve Series, the Hot and Hammered Series, the Academy Series, and others. Fangirl Down is the first book in her forthcoming Big Shots Series, novels that trace romantic entanglements in the context of sports. Bailey has also published a number of standalone romance novels including Window Shopping, My Killer Vacation, Unfixable, and The Major’s Welcome Home. Although all of Bailey’s publications are works of adult romance, Bailey’s catalog evidences her authorial scope and versatility. She has worked in subgenres including paranormal romance, erotica, and, most recently, sports romance.
Bailey grew up in Carlsbad, California, and earned a degree in English from Pace University. She also studied at Kingsborough Community College. Since her authorial debut in 2015, Bailey has won several awards and industry accolades for her romance publications. Publishers’ Weekly gave her a starred review for her 2019 novel Fix Her Up. Her 2021 novel, It Happened One Summer, and her 2022 novel, Hook, Line and Sinker, were both New York Times bestsellers, with the former novel given a starred review by Kirkus Reviews. Bailey has a significant following on TikTok, where she is known for her down-to-earth communication style with her fans regarding her work and the romance genre.
Genre Context: Adult Romance
Fangirl Down is an adult romance novel, which incorporates the world of golf into its primary characters’ lives, relationships, and experiences. Originally published in 2024 by HarperCollins, the novel appeared alongside other sports romance publications, including Grace Reilly’s Wicked Serve, Lauren Blakely’s The Boyfriend Goal, Simone Soltani’s Cross the Line, Sarah Adams’s The Cheat Sheet, and Kate Cutugno’s Heavy Hitter. Like these other novels, Fangirl Down contextualizes its primary romantic relationship within the intense world of competitive sports. This subgenre therefore pairs the intensity of sexual and romantic dynamics with the excitement and rivalries of the sporting world.
Fangirl Down is also in conversation with other workplace romance novels, including Jennifer Yen’s A Taste for Love, Rachel Lynn Solomon’s The Ex Talk, and Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry. These romance novels explore the complexities of falling in love with a coworker. This literary subgenre further complicates Fangirl Down’s central relational dynamics and deepens its overarching thematic explorations, particularly regarding autonomy and empowerment.
Bailey relies upon romance tropes for Fangirl Down’s primary narrative conflicts and stakes. Abiding by the “opposites attract” trope, Bailey explores the ways in which two individuals with contrasting personalities might, in fact, balance one another out romantically and professionally, teaching each other important lessons about life and love. Such tropes are characteristic of the romance genre and afford Bailey’s novels familiar narrative scaffoldings that are often expected by many fans of the genre. The novel also features a happy ending, which is another common trope in adult romance.
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