The Au Pair Affair

This is a great addition to Tessa Bailey's sports romance series.

Tallulah is confident, courageous, and good at communicating her needs even when she doubts herself. Burgess is protective and possessive while still being conscious of Tallulah's independence. You get both an age gap and a boss/employee trope which can lead to some tricky power imbalances, but in this case Tallulah's emotional intelligence and her superior understanding of how to connect with a 12 year old girl helps even that out. It's not insta-love but there is an instant attraction between the two of them. I appreciated that we see Tallulah think about Burgess's protective actions critically and, with the context of her feelings, decide whether or not they cross her boundaries. It's something that mirrors my own thoughts when I'm reading and wonder if an overprotective character's actions cross the line from heartwarming to controlling.

I think it's pretty standard for a Tessa Bailey novel. It's steamy, funny, filled with charming side characters, and you get great character growth from both Tallulah and Burgess. There are phrases or lines of dialogue that toe the line of almost too cheesy or a little unhinged but, for me, that's part of why I'm a fan. It's fresh, fun, unexpected, and sometimes realistically awkward.

Although I enjoyed it overall, it felt a little incomplete to me. I expected more from the nanny plot. I was hoping to see the growth of Tallulah's relationship with Lissa and how she fits into the family. You get glimpses of that but they're sparse. It felt like Lissa as a character was only brought in when she was needed to move the plot forward or to deepen the relationship between Burgess and Tallulah, and when that wasn't happening she was just out of the picture. This gives space for the couple's relationship to progress quickly but it makes it seem like Lissa isn't not a priority to her dad and that made me like him less. I would have loved to see Tallulah and Lissa interact without Burgess. A large part of her moving in with him was to help nanny, and we see very very little of that.

I think fans of Fangirl Down will enjoy this one. It feels rewarding to watch them learn to trust each other and trust themselves, you get a look into how Wells and Josephine are progressing, and (like every other character who asked about it) I'm dying to find out what the deal is with Chloe and Sig.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing this ARC through NetGalley in exchance for my honest feedback