A big thank you to Netgalley And HarperCollins Australia for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey.
I don’t usually read sports romances, but I keep seeing Tessa Bailey’s books in the shop. When I saw she had a new one coming out via Netgalley, I requested it straight away. One of thing I loved was that you don’t have to have read the first book in the series for the Au Pair Affair to make sense. Each book, from what I’ve seen, is pretty much standalone.
When Tallulah, a Marine Biology student, meets single dad and pro hockey player Burgess at an event, she accepts the position of Au Pair for his preteen daughter, Lissa. However, on the day she is due to start, she chickens out and quits.
After a little bit of probing, Burgess, who has had the hots for Tallulah since they met, learns she was kidnapped and almost murdered by a guy who became obsessed with her. Her deep- seated trust issues with strangers comes with their challenges, but she slowly over comes them.
The day she moves in with Burgess and Lissa, she goes out with fellow students and Chloe, the soon-to-be stepsister of Sig, one of Burgess’ teammates.
As the story goes on, it is crystal clear that Burgess has been wanting to bone Tallulah since basically the day they met months earlier.
Enough With The Boobs And The Todger!
What was apparent to me with this book is its very spicy and Burgess’ todger and Tallulah’s boobs are mentioned so many times.
Towards the middle of the story, there was almost mentions of ‘dick’ and ‘cock’ on every page, especially when Burgess and Tallulah are about to have sex after Lissa is sent to spend time with her mother, per the custody agreement. Luckily, this doesn’t happen as it would be super annoying.
The book is not bad, but there needs to be more synonyms used for penis. Also, ‘penis’ wasn’t used once. Not to mention, there were so many uses of the F word that got eye-rolling nauseating. Usually, I don’t care if it’s used.
But it was used for every context. Sex. Calling someone out. You name it, it was in there.
Okay, now let’s get to Tallulah’s relationship with Lissa. They are more like sisters than it being a professional setting. I have no idea what an Au Pair does outside of being a nanny, so I can’t comment too much.
There’s Nothing Wrong With Wanting To Know About Our Boss’s Relationship His Baby Mama… Right?
Tallulah also becomes curious about Burgess’ relationship with his ex-wife, Ashleigh. It’s clear that the former couple are still friends, not just because they have Lissa, who wants them back together.
Ashleigh is now engaged to someone else and is not in the story that much. She is referenced several times though.
Why I gave this book two stars is due to Burgess and Tallulah having limited self-control. They each have a handful of things swimming around inside their heads at all the time.
Burgess only thinks about hockey, not telling the doctors about his back issue, his penis and wanting to bone Tallulah. You know what he has little concern for? His daughter. Lissa’s barely in the story and when she is, she does very little.
Then we have, Tallulah. She has some character development which is great, but all she can think about is Burgess, his penis and trying to resist him, knowing full well she can’t.
The Only Redeeming Quality Of The Au Pair Affair
One redeeming quality that the book does has are the side characters like Sig and Chloe, who are probably the more frequent out of all the secondary characters. They have Burgess and Tallulah’s backs.
The best scene in the whole book is when Sig and Wells, who is a golfer and the fiancée of Tallulah’s best friend, Josephine, go to the hospital after Burgess’s back surgery and tells him to pull his head in.
Would I love a book about Sig and Chloe? Hell, yeah.
Oh, and we’ve published a short review on Goodreads for The Au Pair Affair.
