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avthrill's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use and Misogyny
binevolentbookworm's review
ok so here's the thing...i was entertained at first. i'd never read a hockey romance or a tessa bailey book & i thought hey, what the heck, let's try this. however, i regret to report this read like she put her story idea into chat gpt and asked for it to write a book for her.
the jokes were bad, the writing worse, chemistry??? i couldn't find it. everything was so so repetitive and i felt so exhausted by all the time i had to spend in this lame ass man's head. plus, all the tropes were a mess of let's just throw these at the wall to see what sticks.
i mean, the success of her books baffles me!!!!
and yet it WAS bingeable so i kept reading even tho so much wasn't working for me?????
i finally got distracted with a game and forgot this book existed until i got the notification that it automatically returned and all i can say is, i'm glad that's over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
rachel_jones03's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
booksalacarte's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
3⭐️3🌶️
3rd person
Contemporary romance
Romcom
Sports romance
Divorced daddy
Age gap
Forced proximity
He falls first
Opposites attract
This book is the corniest shit I’ve ever read by Tessa Bailey. She compared it, in her own book, to a p*rn category… that should tell you something, right there. The angst was so over blown and not sexy.
The lack of care taken with the trauma of the FMC is astounding. No mention of therapy or ptsd to help cope. Just “running away to Antarctica”. The MMC could have helped her by suggesting it, or doing something other than beat his chest at her.
There was no lead up to the spice. So often intimate scenes seemed to come out of no where, with internal monologue whiplash. It’s like they went from talking about job responsibilities to making out in public when the FMC is drunk. The MMC went from speaking to her with respect and care to calling her gorgeous and propositioning her in one conversation.
It just wasn’t consistent or in good taste.
The next book looks like it’s going to be about a guy and his soon to be step sister….. talk about an over exaggerated p*rn category. It’s like that’s where she gets her relationship dynamics from… I’m not a fan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Stalking, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to read this book because anything that Tessa Bailey writes, I’ll read. It's simple as that. I adored the first book in this series and hoped that this one would follow. However, I was slightly disappointed compared to Fangirl Down.
This book has two points of view. The first is Tallulah. She is smart, vivacious and studying to be a marine biologist. She is also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighbourhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween. Tallulah wants to keep her head down and get through school without getting any more attention, even though she needs the money from Burgess, she is nervous about living with him and has even asked for extra security measures to be taken. The second point of view is Burgess, he believes his tween daughter needs help with fitting in at school and according to everyone besides Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene and Tallulah has decided to show him how. But as the boundaries set by both of them are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents to get back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the right thing and breaks her own heart and walks away. Though Burgess knows it’s for the best – he's too jaded, with too much baggage – a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.
So unlike Fangirl Down where both are on a character development journey, Burgess has his character development within the last five chapters, the rest of the novel he is a possessive, non-communicated asshole. Burgess knew that Tallulah had gone through hell with her ex/stalker and then says lines that makes me want to throw up and I've not even had a stalker, but if I had a stalker, I would have run for the hills with the way he was talking to Tallulah. Tallulah sort of had a character development as she grows to be more confident but again, they just didn’t speak about the important things and then was wondering why they ended up having a huge fight over miscommunication like Jesus. Plus, if someone locked me in a cupboard for 2 days, it would take a hell of a lot more than a bodyguard whilst doing stupid shit to get over it. She needed therapy. I think it didn’t help that we had such a perfect boyfriend and slow burn with Wells and Josephine and then this book was quite small and besides the smut there wasn’t really anything there, I was waiting and hoping for more. Like the stalker to return, but he was dead so no issues. The main issue was they didn’t want people to get the wrong idea and then his daughter caught them and kicked off like, okay? I would have liked more hockey and the team rinsing Burgess and introducing themselves to Talluah and I would have liked more bonding between Lissa and Tallulah because besides Tallulah doing Lissa’s hair and helping her with lines and knowing her favourite bands, there was nothing and it was pretty basic.
I liked the age gap aspect especially with Burgess falling first and then he fully shits himself when he realised, he fell for someone who was a lot younger than him, and he couldn’t and shouldn’t like her, but he does. The conversations they did have whilst doing things like skinny dipping and going to single mixers sort of helped moved the book along and you realised why they acted the way they did.
I will forever read whatever Tessa Bailey writes, but I don’t think anything can top Fangirl Down with this series and I’m also scared if the next book is a stepsiblings romance with Sig and Chloe.
This book has two points of view. The first is Tallulah. She is smart, vivacious and studying to be a marine biologist. She is also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighbourhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween. Tallulah wants to keep her head down and get through school without getting any more attention, even though she needs the money from Burgess, she is nervous about living with him and has even asked for extra security measures to be taken. The second point of view is Burgess, he believes his tween daughter needs help with fitting in at school and according to everyone besides Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene and Tallulah has decided to show him how. But as the boundaries set by both of them are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents to get back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the right thing and breaks her own heart and walks away. Though Burgess knows it’s for the best – he's too jaded, with too much baggage – a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.
So unlike Fangirl Down where both are on a character development journey, Burgess has his character development within the last five chapters, the rest of the novel he is a possessive, non-communicated asshole. Burgess knew that Tallulah had gone through hell with her ex/stalker and then says lines that makes me want to throw up and I've not even had a stalker, but if I had a stalker, I would have run for the hills with the way he was talking to Tallulah. Tallulah sort of had a character development as she grows to be more confident but again, they just didn’t speak about the important things and then was wondering why they ended up having a huge fight over miscommunication like Jesus. Plus, if someone locked me in a cupboard for 2 days, it would take a hell of a lot more than a bodyguard whilst doing stupid shit to get over it. She needed therapy. I think it didn’t help that we had such a perfect boyfriend and slow burn with Wells and Josephine and then this book was quite small and besides the smut there wasn’t really anything there, I was waiting and hoping for more. Like the stalker to return, but he was dead so no issues. The main issue was they didn’t want people to get the wrong idea and then his daughter caught them and kicked off like, okay? I would have liked more hockey and the team rinsing Burgess and introducing themselves to Talluah and I would have liked more bonding between Lissa and Tallulah because besides Tallulah doing Lissa’s hair and helping her with lines and knowing her favourite bands, there was nothing and it was pretty basic.
I liked the age gap aspect especially with Burgess falling first and then he fully shits himself when he realised, he fell for someone who was a lot younger than him, and he couldn’t and shouldn’t like her, but he does. The conversations they did have whilst doing things like skinny dipping and going to single mixers sort of helped moved the book along and you realised why they acted the way they did.
I will forever read whatever Tessa Bailey writes, but I don’t think anything can top Fangirl Down with this series and I’m also scared if the next book is a stepsiblings romance with Sig and Chloe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Stalking
Minor: Confinement, Death, Violence, and Alcohol
sunshinekmp's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Toxic relationship, and Stalking
Minor: Death and Alcohol
garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Another excellent story from Tessa Bailey! If you like Tessa Bailey, this book has all the stuff we love from her. If you haven't read Tessa yet, what are you doing? Get! Her! Books!
📖 The FMC's backstory was an interesting and a bit surprising choice, but I think it ultimately worked as a good reason for why she acts irrationally at times (moreso than the average person might). I loved the growth we saw in both the FMC and MMC, and the love they both had for MMC's daughter.
🎧 The audio was good. I prefer dual narration when there's dual POV, but this single female narrator did a good job with both parts.
🌶️ There's lots of (vanilla) spicy scenes with plenty of dirty talk, and a slightly complicated power dynamic between the MCs that makes it feel slightly taboo.
💬And I can't wait for book 3 in this series! It was teased pretty heavily in this book so of course now I'm eagerly awaiting it (in 6+ months 😭).
📖 The FMC's backstory was an interesting and a bit surprising choice, but I think it ultimately worked as a good reason for why she acts irrationally at times (moreso than the average person might). I loved the growth we saw in both the FMC and MMC, and the love they both had for MMC's daughter.
🎧 The audio was good. I prefer dual narration when there's dual POV, but this single female narrator did a good job with both parts.
🌶️ There's lots of (vanilla) spicy scenes with plenty of dirty talk, and a slightly complicated power dynamic between the MCs that makes it feel slightly taboo.
💬And I can't wait for book 3 in this series! It was teased pretty heavily in this book so of course now I'm eagerly awaiting it (in 6+ months 😭).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Confinement, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
juanat77's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Au Pair was a fun read. Though I didn’t enjoy it as much as It Happened One Summer, I was pleased by the single dad trope (which I do not see often in romance novels) with the slight age gap. I think that’s what drew me in. There is A LOT of smexy scenes and internal monologues in the book. If you read Tessa Bailey then you know what you are in for. For me, I felt like there was an excessive amount of those scenes but maybe I’m not the target audience. One of my friends would totally eat this up. Besides the spice I really liked the story. There were some serious undertones including PTSD, abduction and chronic pain that really built up the book for me. Alongside the serious issues there was humor thrown in which I always appreciate!!
Thank you NetGalley for providing an early eARC in exchange for an honest review!!
#NetGalley #tessabailey #theaupairaffair
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail