Actually review - 2.5 stars

Tessa Bailey is very hit and miss for me and this book was sadly a miss. I absolutely loved Fangirl Down and was over the moon excited when I got approved for an ARC of this book on Netgalley only to be let down.

I'm going with a quick with my review because I just don't have it in me for the full number of words to express my disappointment. Basically the whole book fell flat - there was no chemistry between Burgess and Tallulah, the attempt at emotional things was meh and some of the steamy scenes seemed to occur at the strangest of times.

I also really didn't like Burgess as a character. He is completely obsessed with Tallulah and not in a good way which is icky given Tallulah's past trauma.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC.

Whenever I read a Tessa Bailey book I always think we would be friends. I love her humour, I love her worlds she so expertly creates and I love the banter, it's perfect and addicitve. The Au Pair affair is yet another example of why I think me and Tessa Bailey would be friends.
Loved it!

I’m a huge Tessa Bailey fan and i’m a nanny romance fan in books it’s one of my favourite tropes!! This was such a fun read and one of my most anticipated reads of 2024!! thank you so much for the arc opportunity of this book, absolutely loved it!

I really enjoyed this Tessa Bailey story. I've enjoyed quite a few of her books in the past and this one did not disappoint.

It tells the story of an au pair and the hockey player single dad she's working for. I loved how strong and sensible our FMC is, she's been through a lot of horrible things and is so strong despite everything. We see her mental health and coping mechanisms worked on throughout her arc in this novel.

Our MMC is strong, but needs work being more sensitive and he softens and grows throughout the story. They bring out the best in one another and it's great to see that for them as a couple.

Although I'm not sure I would have forgiven Sir Savage if I was Tallulah after the comments in the hospital. There was one unbelievable bit (after the cliff jumping) where they have a spicy moment on the beach, but surely the instructors would be looking for them after a few minutes if they disappeared?

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to other Tessa Bailey fans.

I'm also really intrigued by Sig and Chloe's story... So keeping my eye out for that one!

Firstly, a big thank you to Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to review the Au Pair Affair. I wanted to give Tessa Bailey's books a shot and I have to say I was not impressed.

While I understand why people love Tessa Bailey's books, I did not love this and it has nothing to do with the sports aspect. The characters were way too horny for their own good.

Burgess was more focused on shagging Tallulah against a wall or in the car and then actually being a dad to his daughter. He also appears to have too much appreciation for his penis and his fling's boobs. Oh, and his back injury.

Tallulah actually had personal growth. She got over her fear of strangers, thanks to Burgess, but she loved his penis too much and seemed mesmerised with it.

The Au Pair Affair is a single dad/nanny romcom and the second book in the Big Shots series from Tessa Bailey.

Tallulah accepted a job as Au Pair for Burgess Abraham’s daughter, Lissa, but just before arriving at her new home she see’s a video of Burgess in a hockey game that gives her cold feet. Tallulah is a victim of past trauma and doesn’t trust men easy and of course she expects Burgess “Sir Savage” to have a bite to match his bark. After Tallulah see’s how desperate Burgess is for help with his daughter, she reluctantly agrees to take on the job with some assurances that she will be safe. As Tallulah’s trust for Burgess grows, so too does her affection. Burgess can’t help but return those feelings, even though he thinks he is too old for her and she won’t want to be with a “has been” hockey player.

You can expect forced proximity and age gap in addition to the single dad/nanny trope. I felt like The Au Pair Affair had a different vibe about it compared to Fangirl Down. I found Fangirl Down super quirky, but The Au Pair Affair seemed a little more serious but still fitting of the rom-com title. Of course, that is probably due to the contract between the characters and their personalities. I loved the easiness of the interactions between Tallulah and Burgess. Despite Tallulah’s concerns you could see her comfort around Burgess and the importance of her trust.

There is a nice balance between the romance and sport in The Au Pair Affair and we are treated to a nice crossover with Wells & Josephine. The crossover and interactions felt like a nice addition to the story of Wells & Josephine, without overshadowing the story of Tallulah and Burgess. Similar can be said for Chloe & Sig, who are definitely being setup as a focus in a future book (I really can’t wait to see how that plays out).

Thank you to Harper Collins Australia & NetGalley for gifting me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the book and the characters. The spice was 5⭐️. I’m a HUGE fan of Tessa Bailey and the work she writes! Thanks Netgalley for chance to review this

The Au Pair Affair is the first book I have read by Tessa Bailey... and it definitely wont be the last, I was hooked on this book from the very beginning!

Tallulah is a marine biologist student who becomes a live in au pair for a veteran SINGLE dad hockey player (Burgess). Tallulah gets along amazingly with Lissa (Burgess' daughter), and also decides that Burgess needs help getting back on the dating scene. As you can imagine Burgess falls hard for Tallulah but Tallulah is nursing some old demons so doesn't make it easy on Burgess.

The chemistry between these two is felt from the very beginning. I really enjoyed Tessa's writing style and the spice!!! Oh the spice was amazing. It was a nice and light addicting read that I couldn't put down. I may or may not have rushed to the book store to get my hands on as many Tessa books that I could!

I loved this book! I enjoyed Burgess and Tallulah’s story so much… the angst was angsting, romance was romancing, and the spice was spicing. All the things you expect in a Tessa Bailey book!! I will be purchasing a physical copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️ 4.5 stars!

I loved this book and I’m a slut for anything Tessa writes.
• age gap
• grumpy x sunshine
• single dad
• hockey romance
• forced proximity
• love at first sight
• nanny x boss


This book was definitely a lot spicer than I was expecting but I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers and Tessa Bailey for the ARC!

While this book was easy to read it wasn’t a favourite for me. There was a lot of spelling mistakes through out which made me not finish reading it. At this point in time I will not be reading anymore and will not be posting a review anywhere else.
Thank you for this opportunity to read this.

The Au Pair Affair

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy of Tessa Baileys new book, The Au Pair Affair. Thank you to Net-galley for this amazing opportunity to read this in return for an honest review of what I thought of this book.

Please be aware that this review will contain minor spoilers!

Tessa Bailey has once again hit the ball out of the park, or in this case the puck straight into the net!

I’ve rated this:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️.5 (two full scenes and a couple heavy kisses and touching)

And within this book you’ll find the following tropes:
🏒 Age gap (Burgess, our MMC is 37, and Tallulah, our FMC is 26)
🏒 Boss X au pair (nanny)
🏒 Single dad
🏒 Grumpy X sunshine (opposites attract)
🏒 Forced Proximity
🏒 “He falls first”
🏒 It’s writing in third person but dual POVs
🏒 I’d also like to add a bit of a trigger warning here for past abduction and some PTSD that goes hand in hand with that.

Now, down to my review, I fell head over heels in love with Burgess and Tallulah with pages of their story and literally read the entire book in one sitting. I did not get up from the couch except to pee! From the get go I was so invested in the story and before I knew it, I was half way through. The story flowed so well and I love that for the first time in a long time, the MMC and FMC has open lines of communication and that they weren’t afraid to tell each other what they needed, or didn’t need.
It’s so refreshing to see the “he falls first” trope end so well, and despite the third act break up, Burgess picks up on what he did wrong and wastes no times in fixing what was he broke.

I loved the relationship that Tallulah forms with Burgess’ tween daughter, Lyssa and how through their growing bond, Burgess is also able to strengthen his own relationship with his daughter. I also love that co-parenting with his ex-wife isn’t the drama be associated with divorced parents.

I love that we got to also see Wells and Josephine (our MMC and FMC from FanGirl Down) get marries and how as the two best friends, Burgess and Tallulah fit into that narrative.

Over all, I absolutely love, LOVE this book and I can’t wait for Dream Girl Drama, the throes instalment of Tessa’s Big Shots series! (I have a feeling who I hope the couple will be, fingers crossed!!)

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey follows Tallulah, a marine biology student, and Burgess, a single dad and hockey veteran, as what began as an au pair situation turn into much, much more.

This was my first time reading a novel by Tessa Bailey and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style, The Au Pair Affair was an effortless and utterly addicting read. The relationship, which at first read like an insta-love, a connection of mutual unexplained attraction that had developed throughout the planning and organization of Tallulah Au Pair position, only to growing deeper as they help each other gain a new appreciation of the world.

Burgess was my favorite character; I appreciated his layers of development subtly demonstrated as the novel progressed. Additionally, his character was able to demonstrate perfectly the difference between protective and powerful men, being threating or attractive. I loved the intentional communication that clearly showed this, and how it was clear from the beginning that he understood her boundaries, had his own and would never purposely cross them.

My only two negatives about this read, are the time jumps that were not easily identified until you read a couple paragraphs, and with them the missed scenes that I feel would have added so much more to the novel. Combined these factors left me confused at times and disappointed about having missed a scene, for example I would have loved to see more interactions between Burgess and his daughter, especially the scene after she finds out about him and Tallulah.

In conclusion, this was a fun and addicting read, that was relatively light. I would definitely recommend this novel to romance fans and anyone looking for a relaxing winter read.

I personally had to unfortunately soft DNF this one for now. I think I started it at a time that I wasn’t in the mood for this story so unfortunately couldn’t really get into it. Will probably come back to it later though 🩷

Honestly I’m torn on this one. Is it bingeworthy? Yes. Is it cringeworthy? Also yes. Told in third person, we get both POVs, but it doesn’t flow as well as previous books from this author. This felt rushed, and not fully fleshed out to make me fall for the characters.

Has Tessa Bailey done it again? Check out the much anticipated THE AU PAIR AFFAIR

In The Au Pair Affair, we meet Burgess and Tallulah, who he hires to be his daughter's live in nanny after they meet at the end of Fangirl Down. Unfortunately, this one just didn't hit the mark for me!

I love a single dad trope but would have loved to see more of the relationship between Burgess and his daughter. I loved Tallulah's growth - particularly at the end when she forced herself out of her comfort zone.

There were a few elements I struggled with - I didn't love that Burgess knew about Tallulah's previous trauma and threw it back in her face so viciously. Not cool man!

I LOVED Fangirl Down so maybe my expectations were a little too high - sorry Tessa!

Read for:
Single Dad x Nanny
Age gap
Spicy

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for the ARC! Opinions are my own

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this one!! The Au Pair Affair follows single father/superstar hockey player Burgess and marine biologist Tallulah, who he hires as his live in nanny after they meet at the end of Fangirl Down. I enjoyed the forced proximity of it all as Tallulah became a constant in Burgess and his daughter Lissa’s life, and watching the two of them first try to fight the attraction between them and then try to figure out who they are going to be to each other.

Burgess feels like he’s not good enough for Tallulah, a reflection of his hockey life as he gets older and closer to retirement from the sport. Our girl Tallulah has a lot of past trauma she’s dealing with that makes it almost impossible for her to trust or feel safe around a man. Burgess was super thoughtful in the way he made her feel safe and comfortable and I really loved his character at the start of the book, however towards the end he frustrated me a lot. Mostly I just wanted more grovelling!!! I think what disappointed me most was that after (to be vague and unspoilery) some things were said and some things happened I felt that Tallulah was definitely owed more than what she got from Burgess. His attitude towards the situation was kinda toxic, in terms of what he thought he deserved from her. Maybe it’s just me but I would’ve been MAD and it kind of annoyed me how he used their physical attraction to try to gain her forgiveness and that she gave in pretty easily.

Overall this was a fun and easy read, not my favourite of Tessa Bailey’s but I’m looking forward to the next book.

🌈 Age Gap
🌈 He falls first
🌈 Close proximity
🌈 Single Dad
🌈 Sports romance
🌈 Past trauma

I loved the first book in this series so I was very excited to read this book from Tessa Bailey. Tallulah becomes a nanny for a hockey player, Burgess, who has a 12 year old daughter. She's got some understandable trust issues with men due to a past experience and, although she feels attraction to her new employer, she's wary of him. Burgess was bowled over the first time he met Tallulah but even though he tries to keep things professional he finds it difficult to disguise his attraction to her.

These characters have feelings of inadequacy and trust to work through before they can really be with each other. As with all Tessa Bailey novels there is plenty of steam to convey how much the characters want each other but I think this book lacked the electricity I usually love about her romances. It's possible that I was a bit thrown off by the 'daddy' talk - not my thing - and when combined with age-gap and single dad elements, it just didn't work for me.

However, I know this is a personal preference and the writing is still good. The plot is entertaining and I still would love to read anything from this author in the future.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book was such a fun read! I read most of it in one sitting because I was really rooting for these characters.
The chemistry between Tallulah and Burgess was intense! I loved how considerate and thoughtful the big grumpy man was after he heard about Tallulah’s ordeal. I feel like the communication between the two of them was done really well by Tessa, my only criticism is that towards the end the conclusion felt rushed. Like it needed to be wrapped up in a bow too quickly.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book though and I’ll definitely be reading Sig and Chloe’s story!
A massive thank you to NetGalley and Tessa Bailey for the opportunity to read this!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Tessa has done it again. The banter and chemistry between the two main characters is sizzling. There are some serious topics, some spice and who doesn't love a bit of a grumpy/sunshine sports romance. Would definitely recommend!