Thank you so much to Avon for the copy of this eARC!

Fangirl Down is one of my top romances of the year and I knew once we were introduced to Burgess and Tallulah that it wasn't going to be the last of them.

"When two people love each other, they create a love snowflake, and it can never be re-created by anyone else."

I am very torn on how I feel about this book. There were elements that I absolutely loved about this book but my biggest qualm had to be with the Tallulah's character. It wasn't her past and her fear of being around men that was my issue it was how she kept leading Burgess on and being so hot & cold with her feelings. I really felt bad for him that she only seem to come around when it was convenient for her and that wasn't fair. And then on the contrary, there was a moment when Burgess was injured and he was nasty for no reason. I would have love for Bailey to have used that opportunity for Tallulah be a caretaker and let that help be the bridge to repairing the relationship with Lissa. But hey I am not a writer and she knows best! I don't know if I would necessarily say that they are toxic for each other but I feel like sometimes I find them both doing questionable things.

Despite all the above I still really enjoyed the book! I loved the relationship between the two and the overall story. I was engaged the whole time and their flirtatious energy was superb! Tessa knows how to write tension and a sex scene - whew!

I have been really lucky with the romances that I am reading lately where the male falls first and this one was no exception. There was no question whether or not if Burgess was into Tallulah. He made it very well known from the beginning how he felt towards her. "The only woman I'm calling is you." I mean come on SWOOON! Burgess was so protective of Tallulah and towards the beginning we learned that when he had to pretend to be her boyfriend to scare off her classmate.

I love in sports romances when we see the actual sports being played so I was happy that we got to see Burgess playing on the ice. And even better that Tallulah at the game. Cue sweet moment with her and a sweatshirt - iykyk.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I love Fangirl Down so I was extremely happy to see Wells and Josephine pop up throughout the book. And that we got a sneak peek into the wedding!!!

There is going to be a third book and I am very nervous at how that book is going to be. I don't think Tessa will go so taboo under Avon but who knows! I don't like the idea of a future step brother/sister having a relationship but I don't think she will let me down in it.

PS - Of course I have to shoutout Yuengling being mentioned in the book!! Love seeing a localish beer being mentioned!

4.5

Well I didn’t realize this was the second book in a series when I applied for the ARC lol. Despite that it still made sense and I enjoyed it overall.

I liked their chemistry a lot but my main complaint was the third act breakup. The vibe completely changed and brought things down which made their makeup seem a bit rushed at the end. I thought it was unique while following some tropes most people like:
-Grumpy x Sunshine
-Age gap
-Single dad
-He falls first
etc.

And please consider changing their names or at least Burgess’s because it sounds like two last names together.

The Au Pair Affair continues in one of my favorite universes of characters Tessa Baily has created. (Honestly, it's equally tied with the character universe of It Happened One Summer.) I loved Fangirl Down, so the Au Pair Affair was at the top of my most anticipated summer reads, and Tessa Baily did not disappoint. Burgess is a hockey player and single dad who hires Tallulah as his Au Pair. The chemistry between these two was sizzling. I also loved the multiple appearances of Wells and Josephine throughout this book. I highly recommend reading both of these books, Fangirl Down and The Au Pair Affair. Reading them in order made me love these characters even more.

Seriously, Tessa Bailey is a genius at romance. Her banter is always on point and her love scenes are sizzling hot. I have loved every single thing I’ve read of hers and this is no exception. Perfect love story and very hot. Highly recommended.

Thank you @avonbooks for a gifted copy of this wonderful book!

💛 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 💛
Sir Savage! Burgess! 🥵 Tessa just nails it with the hot athletic men! I’m a sucker for a grumpy leading man, who grunts, so Burgess just fit the leading man perfectly. Throw in single dad too?! Sold!

Tallulah, girl, she is someone you root for! She has something in her past that makes her wary of men now, and I love reading a story where you see the character work through their trauma and come out on the other side! I also love when that gets incorporated into a romance, and the two can work together to grow!

Burgess and Tallulah just brought out something in each other that was lovely to read about. Tallulah is hired as a live in au pair for Burgess’s 12 year old daughter Lissa, and from the start she naturally starts making their house a home. Burgess doesn’t know how to relate to his daughter, and Tallulah walks him through that and it helps their father/daughter relationship!

Also, side characters! The hockey players we meet and new girl friends. I enjoyed them all. And I can’t wait to learn more about them in the future! 👀 More sports romances Tessa please!!

💛 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
💙 Hockey Romances
💛 Single Dad/Nanny
💙 Age Gap (11 years)
💛 Grumpy Sunshine
💙 Spicy Romance! 🥵🌶️
💛 Fun Adventures
💙 Strong FMC

The Au Pair Affair is a heartwarming hockey romance with some humor and all the feels. I love a good single parent book especially a single dad and Tessa Bailey knocked it out of the park with this one.

I loved both Tallulah and Burgess separately, and even more so together. Their attraction to each other was undeniable and you could feel the tension between them. Of course, Tallulah being the au pair for his daughter gave it a bit of a forbidden element and I'm always a sucker for an age gap.

I did not read the first book in the series and did not feel like I was missing anything. But I will definitely be adding Fangirl Down to my TBR.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another great spicy romance from Tessa Bailey. I was worried there would be too many sport references and sports talk but it was fine. Burgess is a hockey player who falls in love with his au pair with some bumps along the road. This can be read as a stand alone. I did not find it confusing even though I did not read the first in the series.

I wanted to like this more than I did but sadly it felt very similar to The Nanny by Lana Ferguson. The plot line at times felt predictable and if it weren’t for the main characters charming banter I wouldn’t have continued on.

Their relationship at times felt extremely rushed and unrealistic based on Tallulah’s past. I haven’t read any of Tessa’s books before and sadly this isn’t making me want to run out and pick up another.

Thank you Tessa Bailey, Avon, and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

At this point, it is a known fact that I am a Tessa Bailey girlie. If she writes it, I'm reading it. Earlier this year I devoured the Fangirl Down and basically started drafting my review copy request the minute I finished (thank you past me for doing that).

Tessa Bailey + sports romances are a match made in heaven - further cemented by how I could not put this book down. I'm not a hockey watcher but damn was I invested in not only Tallulah and Burgess's love story, but also Burgess's experience as an aging player in professional hockey. This story also hit the sweet spot for the amount of angst I like in my romcoms - enough to keep me engaged but not enough to make me doubt the main couple.

It's not a Tessa Bailey book if the spice isn't spicing and the banter isn't bantering - and this book had both in spades! I think I say this every time I read a new TB book, but Burgess and Tallulah are one of my favorite book couples she's written. They had all the elements going for them - insane chemistry, excellent banter, A+ sexual tension, and they just worked together so well from their first interactions. I also liked how these two evolved - both characters had some serious growing to do, and they did it together.

Having both Burgess' and Tallulah's POVs really helped build their overall tension - between their age gap and her being his employee there were plenty of factors working against their inevitable romance. However, getting to read about their mutual pining from each of their POVs was so fun! Also, I am a sucker for a single dad in a romance book, and Burgess and Lissa brought such a fun dynamic to this story.

As much as I loved Fangirl Down, The Au Pair Affair has officially become my favorite of this series - Tallulah and Burgess were too good together - and their story was unputdownable. I'll definitely be rereading this one in the near future as I wait for Sig and Chloe's story next year!

One of my favorite authors!!! Tessa has the most amazing way of sucking me in with her words! I always have a fun time reading her books and the spice is always chefs kiss!

This was my first hockey romance and man did it deliver! It had the perfect amount of humor, heart and heat. Burgess was a likeable guy and obviously down bad for Tallulah which was adorable and attractive. The way that the characters all seem to better one another is very endearing as well. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to any rom-com or romance fan!

I absolutely loved Burgess and Tallulah's story. I enjoy a good hockey romance and the grumpy overprotective male interest trope is a favorite and was so well done here. Tallulah was fun and interesting, and both characters had interesting backstories and good development. Can't wait for Sig and Chloe's story next!

Bailey always delivers on a fun, steamy book. I did love the grumpy meets sunshine and the important message of trauma in this read.
Overall it was fun, steamy and swoony.

Intense and broody hockey player Burgess is in need of a nanny for his daughter and when he first met Tallulah they actually hit it off and she agreed to help him out, but when they day arrives she backs out. Tallulah was an interesting character that is so smart and sweet, but her past traumas haunt her and even though she states how safe Burgess made her feel she can’t get over how violent his career can be. Eventually things kick off for them and she agrees to help him out and Burgess feels this chemistry with her that makes him determined to figure it out, but they have a lot of things that lay between them that could break it before it ever begins. While Burgess could come across as not only gruff, there were times he would seem a tad controlling, but his patience and kindness towards Tallulah is what made him endearing to me and while Tallulah was intelligent that were moments I found her to be too naive for me. I understood her traumas of her past because that was extremely traumatizing, but she felt safe with Burgess and fell into this relationship with him somewhat fast only when it came to Burgess and his moment of struggling and high emotion situation she felt the need to hassle him with questions and statements that were not right in the moment. I found myself saying “girl time and place and this isn’t it” when she leaves him in this moment and compares him to her ex which to me was the epitome of horrendous and I didn’t like that. Overall, this was a great read with fun banter and emotional moments that I know people will love.

DNF at 38%. This was just not for me. I enjoyed some of Tessa Bailey’s other books, but this one was just a bit too cringey for me. A bit all over the place, risqué comments out of nowhere. Just a tad uncomfortable reading. I’m sure it’s someone else’s cup of tea, but just not mine.

Thanks so much to Avon and Harper Publishing, Tessa Bailey, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I absolutely love Tessa Bailey. This book was a beautiful love story and the spice was definitely spicing. Thank you so much for giving me this ARC. I loved Tallulah and burgess so much. I felt all their pain when he had surgery and broke her heart and I also fell in love with him in the process

3.75⭐️; 5🌶️ (there were quite a few spicy and steamy scenes and the scenes were very graphic. They also mention things that happened in the spicy scenes which makes it harder to read this with no mention of spice)

I read the first book in this series, Fangirl Down, and loved the concept and the writing but ended up rating it 3.5 stars because I felt the relationship was more physical than emotional and that’s just not for me. But the characters for this book got introduced at the end and it made me so excited for this one.

I really loved reading about these characters and following a professional hockey player was so cool! Tessa Bailey did a really good job writing Burgess as a single father and she wrote the girl, Lissa, really well. I loved seeing her and Tallulah interact.

I was really enjoying this book until near the end. I really didn’t like the 3rd act conflict. I felt it was not realistic and the ending felt really physical and corny to me. If I could read this book without the graphic spice I would’ve liked it better.

“There will never be an adventure that lives up to you.”

This has been a highly anticipated read for me since I devoured the first book of Tessa’s Big Shots sports romance series with Fangirl Down. But while that one was about golf—something I never thought I’d enjoy reading about, but did, thanks to Tessa Bailey—this book is a hockey romance that will grip our hearts tightly before we even know what’s happening.

This romcom is fun, spirited, and most definitely made me laugh—but it also had its heavier moments, and I love how Tessa managed to balance these two so well together.

Tallulah doesn’t trust her own gut when it comes to people anymore—not after what happened the last time she thought she knew someone. But when she gets hired to be Burgess’ nanny to his tween daughter, she says yes instantly…at least, until she sees a video of him violently slamming into someone’s nose on the ice.

Hesitant to trust, Tallulah struggles between her desire to be there for Lissa, help Burgess through tween parenting, and also protect herself as much as possible. But she can’t deny the pull between herself and Burgess that they’ve shared since the moment they met…and it only seems to be getting stronger once she moves in to take care of his daughter.

“Love doesn’t always come around twice. And even if it does, it’s going to be different. There are no two exact types of love…When two people love each other, they create a love snowflake, and it can never be re-created by anyone else.”

I couldn’t put this book down. I devoured every page, every honest reaction and funny fumble. I loved the rawness they shared as well as the hidden moments, and I couldn’t get enough. And to know that we will be getting Sig and Chloe’s story next makes me GIDDY. I can’t wait.

“It’s not a home without you.”

Read if you like:
- Single dad/nanny
- Grumpy/sunshine
- Forced proximity
- Sports romance: hockey
- Age gap
- Working through past trauma
- Massages

If you are looking for a fun and lighthearted series than this is it! I was a fan of Wells and Josephine’s story in FANGIRL DOWN and this was a lovely sequel. The pacing/romance happened quickly in this but I was able to overlook it since both MCs were so in need of love. This one is full of character and has a wonderful father-daughter relationship that will make your heart swell.

I’m in love with everything about this book. Already when I read book one I was excited about this couple.

The dynamic between the hero and heroine was amazing to read, but I loved the friendship between the heroine and the hero’s daughter so much. The way Tallulah talked to Burgess’s daughter brought tears to my eyes.

I can’t fricking wait for Chloe and Sig’s book!
4,5⭐️