If you’ve read a lot of Tessa Bailey’s backlist, you are aware that she has certain writing quirks and word choices that will either work for you, or really won’t. With that in mind, I think it’s fair to say that The Au Pair Affair is Tessa Bailey at her Tessa Bailey-est. The first half of this book was over-the-top and unhinged in the best way. All the hallmarks of Tessa’s writing were present and turned up to 11 and I was having so much fun with how whacky this was. Unfortunately, the baffling third act conflict completely ruined this for me - the hero behaves antithetically to how his character was built up. The things he says to the FMC are unforgivable and I felt like there were so many other ways the conflict could have been played that would have aligned better with the characters’ established traits and flaws. This had so much potential to be another win for me (I really loved Fangirl Down) but it didn’t stick the landing.

Classic Tessa Bailey! This felt familiar to her previous books, sharing a lot of the same elements that she’s known for without being the same story. I also love that Bailey is writing sports romances…I really hope we get an Sig/Chloe story next!

This book features hockey captain and single dad, Burgess aka “Sir Savage” and his nanny, Talulah. In Fan Girl Down, we caught a glimpse at the “lust at first sight” between the pair, and in this book we really get to experience it and the couple’s chemistry. Burgess falls hard and fast—super fun to read—but Tallulah has experienced some pretty heavy things in her past which causes her hesitancy around relationships. Overall, a very entertaining read.
4.25⭐️ 3🌶️

This book features the following tropes:
-forced proximity
-age gap
-single dad
-grump sunshine
-hockey romance

This book was 3.5 stars. It was cute and fun but very cringe worthy at times. Overall it was a quick fun read that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

Tessa Bailey does it once again. I loved getting to know this couple. While au pair and single dad is not my favorite trope I thought the author handled it really well. The longing coming from the male main character was my favorite part! A fun read! I will be recommending it to my friends, because I love them and they deserve to read a good spicey book!

I just love the characters Tessa Bailey creates. They are all so human. This is a continution of Wells and Josephine's story in Big Shots #1. Tallulah is Josephine's BFF who was in Antartica studying penguins from the first book. She has returned after agreeing to be Sir Savage, the hockey players, live-in au pair. If you remember correctly, he was quite taken with her. Tallulah gets all the way to Boston and realizes that living with a total stranger might not be the way she needs to live. She has a past and some scars that still haven't healed. That is why she goes on all the research trips she can get in on that take her to remote places and away from men hitting on her.

Sir Savage is a great character. He is the hot headed, known bad buy of the hockey world. The Bostonians LOVE him. But, he is aging and with that comes the knowledge that hockey is all he knows and how can he give it up. His daughter is growing up and he has no idea how to connect with her.

This is a great story of how characters are flawed and how they come together when things are meant to be.

Tessa has done it again. How much did I absolutely love this couple? More than anything candidly. I like them more than Wells and Josephine. The tension, the love, the family, the dirty talk, all top notch. Just absolutely loved their connection. Big giant hulking man falling first? 100%. I don’t love their conflict which is the only reason this is getting 4 stars, but his groveling was wonderful and he was dedicated to getting! Her! Back!!

This was a cute sports rom-com with a single dad/age difference trope. I love that Tessa Bailey has gotten into the realm of sports romance!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC.

If you’ve read Tessa Bailey you know what to expect. Funny likable characters, scorching chemistry, dirty talk, a third act break up with groveling to recover for a HEA. This book is no exception.

We have a little bit of forbidden romance cause he is her boss and she is his daughter’s au pair but honestly that doesn’t keep them away for long.

This book was hot. If you like Tessa’s previous books you will like this one. No question.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for the ARC.

The Au Pair Affair is the second book in the Big Shots series, but can absolutely be read as a standalone novel.

Tallulah is a 26-year-old grad student studying Marine Biology at Boston University. Living in Boston is expensive, so Tallulah jumps at the chance to work as a live-in nanny for single dad Burgess Abraham, a professional hockey player.

If the aches and pains have anything to say about it, Burgess is nearing the end of his hockey career. Raising a 12-year-old is a little out of his wheelhouse, so Burgess is grateful that Tallulah and Lissa hit it off right away.

There are so many tropes in this one (single dad, he falls first, grumpy/sunshine) but they are all so well done, and this was a typical Tessa Bailey steamy read. Seriously, the spice level on this one was 🔥🔥🔥🔥.

Burgess was so protective of Tallulah from the very beginning, but it didn’t feel overbearing. He would do anything to make sure she feels safe - even if it means finding her another place to live.

Tallulah’s past trauma was handled with care, but may still be triggering to some.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a seasoned fan of Tessa Bailey and I’ve requested arcs for all of her upcoming books, so to say I was excited for this book was an understatement.

Synopsis:
A match made in heaven, Burguss needs a nanny for his daughter and Tallulah needs job and a place to stay for her graduate program. While Tallulah is adventurous, events from her past make her feel unsafe with taking risks, so safe, protective Burguss offers to help her out in her attempts to get back into the world. However, can they stay apart from each other?

While I had fun with this story it fell a bit flat for me with the characters emotional connection. While Bailey’s romances are filled with hilarious and even ridiculous scenes, they’re usually pretty fun-loving and adorable. However, there were times I just felt like it was too ridiculous. Also, I didn’t feel organic chemistry with the two romantic leads, it was very curated within the writing. The storyline and emotional connection felt forced so that they could fast-forward to the physical aspects of their relationship. While this makes sense for some stories that don’t hide that this is their intention, this was supposed to be a story about a love match.

While, I love Bailey and her writing, this one just wasn’t a favorite. If there was more character building with the individual characters, I think it wouldn’t have seemed so forced. I can’t wait for the next story. Chloe and Sig might be my favorite couple, and no one writes tension like Bailey. So hopefully, in this next story, it will focus more on the emotion than the physical, and I also would love a slower burn for sure.

**Thank you NetGalley for providing me this arc! All opinions and views are my own, as promised to provide a honest review to the publisher.**

Oh tessa. I can’t really give your book a bad review because I love you so much but this was not the vibe. Both characters were annoying and the tropes did not hit like I wanted them to. The whole age gap nanny thing should have been spicy but the whole time I just wondered why this grown ass man couldn’t seem to do anything on his own.

There is way too much insta-lust in this story. They barely have any real conversations in this book and it's just them lusting over each other. Their relationship felt very shallow because of that. They also claimed to have feelings and "love" each other extremely quickly. I would have liked this book a lot more if this was after they actually developed a friendship/relationship and got to know each other first. Since there was no chemistry, all their words sounded sleazy. Burgess sounded like he was just trying to get into her pants the whole time. I was barely halfway and suddenly, they were randomly kissing each other and apparently she was comfortable being alone with him despite what had happened. There was absolutely no development. The book jumps right into the physical aspects too quickly and they didn't know each other at all.

I personally did not like Burgess. His character had so many red flags. I hated the way they both handled the conflict. Tallulah was also such a disappointment because she would just focus on how "hot" he is and would just give in because they wanted to sleep with each other. She was so fickle and it frustrated me so much. As soon as Burgess respected the boundaries she wanted to set, she immediately wanted to take it back for her own physical desires.

Overall, if this whole book happened after they actually got to know each other, I would have said it's cute and flirty. But because they dive right into it, all I can say is it felt sleazy. I feel like the author just relied on the first book in this series (Fangirl Down) to establish their connection and that was it. But even in Fangirl Down, we really only see them meeting briefly for the first time... As much as I loved Fangirl Down, this book was disappointing. There was no connection; there was only physical attraction. There were also very random ideas introduced that made the plot feel messy, like Lissa and then Tallulah's internal struggle. Lissa barely even shows up. It would have been much better if we were able to see how her relationship is like with Burgess, and even Tallulah. Tallulah's internal struggle is also very briefly mentioned. I'm not really sure what it really brought to the story because she apparently gets over it very quickly with Burgess, despite not knowing him at all. If I had to choose my favorite thing about this book, it would be the Wells cameos.

If you loved "It Happened One Summer" by Tessa Bailey, You are going to LOVE this one. It was my new favorite Tessa Bailey book.
Funny, great characters who actually COMMUNICATE! Spicy, spicy, spicy. Great story and great romance!

5 Stars!

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

After adoring Fangirl Down, I requested The Au Pair Affair the moment I saw it listed on NetGalley. The powers that be at Avon deemed me worthy of the arc (thank you! ❤️) and I began this one eager to read what would happen next after their meeting at the end of Fangirl Down where he obviously falls in it at first sight.

I adored Tallulah - absolutely adored her. She’s strong, smart, and sensitve and a MFC that you’re rooting for.

Burgess was becoming wonderful, but then “Jesus, that’s a hot squeeze” made me cringe so so so badly. As did all of Burgess’s sex talk. All of it. Not to mention that he was a giant tool in the third act breakup (which I really dislike as a trope in general). These issues did detract from my enjoyment of this one.

I am definitely looking forward to reading Chloe and Sig’s story.



Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the DRC

As an avid Tessa Bailey fan I am disappointed but not in a way most readers will hate.

The spice and tension between the main characters is amazing. The plot is great. The steamy scenes are on fire.

For me through I can't do an age gap where the reference "daddy". It's a big no for me in that regards and it's a personal reading preference.

But this was a great story.

I hope we see a story about Sig and Chloe. Please tell me there is a 3rd book to this series.

I absolutely loved Fangirl Down and was so excited when I received an early copy of The Au Pair Affair, but unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations. I couldn't connect and ended up giving up around 25%

This book literally made me giggle and kick my feet…the banter and dialogue between Tallulah and Burgess is delicious. Slowish burn (at least when it comes to Tessa’s books) and it broke my heart in places. I consumed the entire book in less than a day. This will definitely be on my favorite romances of the year list!

Tessa Bailey is good at what she does! I loved the characters and connected with each of them quickly. It was the perfect amount of spice. I gave 4 instead of 5 because it felt a little predictable.

I know Burgess Abraham.

Or, I should say, I know a real life human who comes pretty close to the hero of “The Au Pair Affair.” I’ve spent a decade with my own hockey player who is full of big emotions and feelings only the people he loves ever see.

So for that reason, when we first encountered Burgess in “Fangirl Down” as the seemingly stolid BFF of the MMC, I gave him a little eyebrow lift. Just enough to say, “I see you quiet riot.”

Tallulah didn’t need the same side-eye. We knew from the jump that her outside was a closer match to her inside…or perhaps not.

One of these days I’ll learn not to assume what Tessa Bailey is going to do. Much like I should not assume that she can’t get me to like a golf romance because she pulled that off too.

I expected “The Au Pair Affair” to be a forced proximity, live-in nanny, hockey rom com.

Basically: Mary Poppins meets Slap Shot.

Sure, “The Au Pair Affair” could be described by those tropes. Sort of. But from the first chapter we realize that the Tallulah we saw in “Fangirl Down” is far more complex, and far less bold and confident, than the woman in “The Au Pair Affair.” She is in a very difficult position emotionally and lacks a solid tether to friends or family in a new city. Her only connection is to a man she knows not at all except through the way the media portrays him and a brief encounter.

We also realize that Burgess was operating under the same allusions we were as readers in that previous story. So when he realizes that Tallulah is far more vulnerable than she let on, he is able to allow his own vulnerable spaces to show as well. But this is not a comfortable process for a man who doesn’t understand what the women in his life want from him, or how he can make them happy without losing his shell of protection.

Their love story is full of the fun scenes and set pieces that Bailey’s readers expect. Tallulah and Burgess try, and fail, to keep their hands off each other until it’s nuclear reactor meltdown level in that apartment.

The road is never conflict free - but even in the heart-wrenching moments when both Tallulah and Burgess stumble backward, their path feels right.

Fans of Tessa Bailey’s other sports romance novels like “Fix Her Up” and “Fangirl Down” and hockey romance in general will find much to love in the heartwarming and ultimately uplifting, “The Au Pair Affair.”
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Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Collins Voyager for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. This title will be released on July 16th, 2024.

This was my first Tessa Bailey book, and it did not disappoint. Burgess is a single dad, professional hockey player, and he hires Tallulah to help nanny his daughter. Burgess is a very understanding, calm, HOT and protective MMC. He is doing his best to parent his teenage daughter Lissa, and he convinces Tallulah help them both out. Tallulah is a strong, cool, HOT and independent FMC. I loved the dynamic between the two main characters. They are understanding and patient with each other, and obviously have lots of chemistry. This book made me more emotional than I expected to be. I really enjoyed it! I will definitely be exploring the world of Tessa Bailey more!

I didn't really like the third person narration, and I did not read Fangirl Down, so I do feel like I missed a good chunk of background information.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Publishing for the arc!