I mostly liked this story, but found the beginning and end to drag a little bit. I'm giving it a 3.5 rounding out to 4 because there were some really great moments. The ending could have used so much more groveling, and she took him back too easily. This dude was straight up cruel when he got injured, like bro STFU you're gonna live. It kinda felt like bad behavior was being rewarded just because he had a major ouchie. Big whoop bro that's life! I understand that your career is done but you made it into your 30s and that is good for the sports industry. I did however, enjoy all the smut throughout, so that was a positive. Overall I had a good time and I do love a hockey romance and it was an auto read because it was a Tessa Bailey book.

this was such a fun read! tessa never fails to disappoint -- both with her storytelling and the men she writes. i adore this series so much and i cannot recommend it enough!

My favorite of Tessa Bailey’s works to date. I really enjoyed the relationship between the main characters. This is an age gap but they are both adults here and it’s very good!

The way the author handled the fmc’s trauma was relatable and powerful. It is hard to let someone in when you’ve been hurt so badly.

I liked the way the characters tied into the previous story, Fangirl Down. The sports references were fun and the struggle of an older athlete was thought provoking. Something I hadn’t considered in this way before.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and I recommend it. I’m excited for the third couple’s story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was so pleasantly surprised with Bailey's Fangirl Down that I couldn't wait to read this second book. It was such a disappointment. Character development was lacking and inconsistent. I wanted to fall in love with them, but found them just annoying. I'm still anticipating the release of #3 and hope it comes back around to the writing I've enjoyed in Bailey's other books, 2 stars

Tessa Bailey is very hit or miss for me and unfortunately this one was a miss. I so badly wanted to like it but the characters weren't very likable.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC of The Au Pair Affair. The pacing of this book felt like a hurricane, sweeping us into the chaos right off the bat. At points, I wished for their relationship to slow down, but I did like seeing Burgess and Tallulah together. Her traumas were well represented, and Burgess’s struggles with family life and career things were well done as well. I wish there were more of her being an au pair, as I feel like that part of their relationship blew by very fast. Lissa’s turnaround also seemed very fast, but this book was nevertheless enjoyable. Can’t wait for more from Tessa Bailey!

I do fear that the longer I sit with this book, the more things I find to dislike about it! I picked it up because I loved the premise and I wanted a fun, contemporary romance read, and I know Tessa Bailey always delivers on that! And honestly, as I was reading it I had a blast, it was the perfect summer read!

However, the really deep trauma that Tallulah experienced wasn't handled well and didn't fit in with the romcom vibes of the book. I fully support Tessa Bailey exploring these darker themes, but I feel like they need to be handed more carefully than they were done here. And then ending felt so forced and rushed, and dear god I needed a full books worth of grovel and growth from Burgess. He was such an asshole and then we didn't really see any of that recovery and development from him? I loved the glimpse we got with the magazine article, but it wasn't enough.

So it's hard to really rate this because did I have fun? Yes. Is it a good book? Not really. And that's ok, it just needs to be said!

Who doesn’t love a grumpy to sunshine kinda book?! I thought the story line was good, I just wish there was a little more drama between the two main characters towards the end of the book. But overall love hockey romance and grumpy guys who turn soft!

Tessa Bailey is one of the queens of steamy rom-com. She has the perfect combination of laughs, romance, and spicy. I can't resist a gorgeous hockey player either... So this was quickly put on my reading list. It's a little bit of "The Parent Trap" but with Tessa's amazing twist and a lack of twins... Okay, maybe not much like it, but still a tween trying to intervene in the dating life of adults. Pick this book up, find a comfy chair, and dig in!

This book had so many 'Wait! What?" moments. I found it hard to believe that Tallulah with her past experiences would take a live-in job with a man she met once. NHL players cannot just head to Costa Rica for a week-long wedding in December. They are playing 3 games a week. The biggest one is...
<spoiler>there's so much wrong with Burgess' injury. The team wouldn't leave him behind in a Pittsburgh hospital for weeks. An artificial disc replacement is an outpatient surgery. In his case, he'd probably have surgery in the morning and be up out of bed that afternoon. He'd be discharged and sent back to Boston to recover and rehab. He wouldn't go to a rehab center weeks after surgery. But then we're also supposed to believe that this guy who was injured in late September/early October is then cleared to cliff dive and zipline by December?</spoiler>

On top of all that, there was so much cringey dialogue, especially in the sex scenes. This book needed more hockey and a better fact checker. I just didn't buy this relationship.

Thank you to Harper Voyager | Avon and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. I am required by law to disclose this.

Oooh I loved this so much, I thought it was so cute the way Tallulah and Burgess fall for each other and I love the descriptions of his love and face, like he is top tier man.

I have yet to read a bad Tessa Bailey book and The Au Pair Affair is no exception. You will fall in love with Tallulah and Burgess and the ways in which they really come through for each other.

3.5 this one kinda missed the mark for me after I loved fangirl down so much. Burgess sometimes treated Talulah like a child and it gave me the ick especially when they were in Costa Rica with the third act breakup

True to fashion, enjoying another Tessa Bailey delight. Fun, flirty and the audiobook did not disappoint with the engaged verbal banter given to us by the narration. The narration added to the story line highlighting the great importance of voice actors! I don’t need movies give me great narrators any day.

*2.5 stars rounded up*

ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Why are you taking your clothes off outside my room? If beefcake was on the room service menu, I didn't order it.”

I would like to thank Avon, Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the copy of this eARC. I'll be honest that I had avoided Tessa Bailey for a while as she was a popular Booktok author, and I tend to steer clear. That said, after reading and loving Fangirl Down I instantly jumped at the chance to read this book.

That said, when Fangirl Down's ending set up Burgess and Tallulah I was so excited, but at times I feel like this entire book was just a set up for Sig and Chloe. I understand the close friendship to both of them and that they were in the same city this time rather than separate states/continents, but it just felt like very obvious. Kinda like getting too much Benedict in what was supposed to be Colin and Penelope's season, for those who will get this reference.

Meeting Tallulah in this story I felt like I didn't recognize her at all from the previous book. It felt like being introduced to an entire new character, and while I love her, I felt her trauma at times was almost overly focused on. I even at one point worried that Bailey was going to make the climax of this book be someone assaulting/harassing her.

There was a small point of this with her class partner and while I know it showed her growth and standing up for herself, this conflict/person was never even mentioned again throughout the story. It just felt a little disjointed to completely drop this arc, and then bring in Lissa's left field thoughts that her mom and dad would get together. It made the classmate storyline feel like a red herring--almost throwing a bunch of potential conflicts out to see what would stick, and weirdly the classmate conflict felt like it made more since than Lissa's delusions--girl, your mother is literally engaged.

Side note: Super pissed that T got the entire blame from Lissa after Tallulah literally told Burgess he needed to talk to her. It made this so obvious that they were going to get caught.

Despite it all I feel like Talullah and Burgess never really had a true connection. Everything was always about her attraction to him, and him having a desire to be overly protective of her due to her past. I wanted more basic interactions, send them grocery shopping I beg. something simple. Have more conversations about her family in Istanbul even. I just needed more relationship building on things other than their trauma and their relationships to those around them.

Maybe I'm being unfair, but for all the times I was enjoying the writing style and descriptions, I felt like I was pulled down by the lack of deep relationship building. Maybe its as simple as just not being one for the "overprotective teddy bear" type of guy. I wanted Tallulah to be able to find her self and grow without him, and her only finding that drive to do so in spite of him after their break up drove me crazy, right alongside her flightiness and constant fear to commit. Her fear was understandable, but to have no growth on this adds to my point of them not having a deep connection.

I think so many people will adore this book for the exact reason I found it was not my cup of tea. Age difference, single dad, hockey romance--readers will eat it up--but I was left skipping my meal and hoping for desert at a place that had none on offer.


8/21/24 -- First thoughts after finishing
This might be a controversial opinion, but I just couldn’t handle the overbearing protectiveness 2018 and the “I don’t want to define this” repetition. The ideas are great in theory, but it was so repetitive in the dialogue and I wish I was shown rather than told constantly.

I’ll try and do a full review soon but I just felt let down. I’ve avoided Tessa Bailey because I worried she was overhyped but after reading “Fangirl Down”, I thought I had been wrong. Don’t get me wrong. The story was fun and I enjoyed her writing style which is why gave it that extra half star but the dialogue just falls flat for me for this relationship.

So good. So, so good. I loved Wells from the first book, and while he wasn’t knocked off his best book boyfriend spot, this book and characters are close to perfect!

Now when I read a Tessa Bailey book I don’t have high expectations. In their simplicity though it can be enjoyable or an easy read after a heavy book. In this book Tessa attempts to touch on a more sensitive topic, the trauma of kidnapping and stalking. Now there can be important dialogues to open up on these subjects but instead it was mentioned and we went right back to the sexual advances a man is making on his younger employee. It lacked the sensitivity the material called for and their seemingly random chemistry made all of the intimacy super cringe.

This might be Tessa’s hottest book to date. It is a master class in soul, steam, and heart, a combination that Tessa works magically. Tallulah and Burgess are so incredibly human and complex that it is easy to forget they are fictional. Throw in Burgess’s daughter and it’s easy to see why this book has become one of my favorite romances of 2024.

2.5 stars rounded down

I'm still chasing the high of the Bellinger Sisters, and Big Shots #1 should have told me that this wasn't necessarily the series for me. But alas, I requested this book before I realized that, and so I'm reviewing this book.

This was one of those books where I could feel the review yo-yoing around as I read. It went as high as 4 stars, but splatted as low as 1.5 stars, so here we are. I think my biggest issue was how Bailey treated and used Tallulah's trauma throughout the whole book, and how Burgess reacted as a result of that trauma. I also really struggle with kids being used as a plot device, and I don't feel like Lissa was done a service in this book.

Bailey's spicy scenes did seem more accurate to her characters, which was something I'd noted in the past that she didn't do particularly well, so if that's why you read Tessa Bailey books, I think you'll be pleased. But if you're looking for something that resonated with you like the Bellinger Sisters, this just didn't hit for me.

This book was gripping and hard to put down. It didn't feel like everything else you see out there, it felt very fresh. I really enjoyed this book!