The Nanny

Product Information

Smart, fun, sexy, and sizzling with romantic tension, The Nanny is a mouth-wateringly delicious take on second chances with a healthy dash of steam. I can't wait for more from Lana Ferguson! * Sara Desai, author of The Singles Table * Cassie soon discovers that Aiden is not a stranger at all - instead he's someone who is very familiar with her - or at least, her body. Given that he doesn't remember her, Cassie is faced with what feels like an impossible situation. As their relationship heats up, Cassie struggles with telling Aiden the truth, and the more terrifying possibility - losing the best chance at happiness she's ever had . . . Aiden Reid, executive chef and DILF extraordinaire, is far from the stuffy single dad Cassie was imagining. A woman discovers the father of the child she is nannying may be her biggest (Only)Fan in this steamy contemporary romance by Lana Ferguson.

The same thing happened with Wanda. I loved her characterization and who she was and the dynamic that she brought to the story was next level. It felt like these two characters had more personality and depth to them than our two main characters combined. BUT if you're connecting more to secondary characters than the characters whose heads you have a front-row seat into...that's a problem. I would be lying if I said I didn't read this for the spice. Someone told me it was very spicy and I needed something with a little bit of heat. But you know when something becomes spicy just because you have thrown TOO MUCH pepper in and not because you used exotic spices? Yeah, that's basically this... There is quite a bit of smut but it's pretty much 80% just bland vanilla. I really liked THE NANNY, but it is surprisingly spicy! The spice begins early and does not let up throughout the whole book. So keep a water towel nearby! The story is good, lots of twists that keep the tension tight, but nothing too preposterous. I really enjoyed the character of Aunt Iris as Cassie's foil. Iris is rigid, fearful, and difficult to get to know, but still a good person. She brings wonderful tension into the story. First things first: From a reader’s perspective, it looked like Aiden was having a parasocial relationship with “Cici”, and the author and everybody in the book thought that was totally fine. I couldn’t find a single way to make any of it okay in my head. I thought all of the online interactions (which are all purely sexual) interspersed throughout the book made Aiden sound like an absolute creep, knowing he was trying to meet her in real life. By the time the story EVEN BEGINS, Cassie’s webcamming days are long behind her, which made me wonder why make it a major fixture of the plot in the first place?

Not really, because Ruby is a romance machine and delivers good food at a steady basis, but I digress.)

While the story is told exclusively from present day, each chapter begins with snippets of Aiden and Cassie's anonymous online relationship, when he was paying for the privilege to watch her... ah, play with "toys," if you will. Aiden is a chef who is married to his job, so it was easy to see how his loneliness could lead him to getting a little carried away with a masked beauty online. That certainly added some extra tension and history to the relationship, especially once Cassie realizes the connection. It also makes sense why they connected so easily over the physical side of things in present day, though I think I would've preferred for them to connect emotionally in present day before realizing that they are extremely compatible in the bedroom. That would've been stronger to me, but the way things play out makes this a super sexy read. I also think it was a missed opportunity not to have them connect more emotionally, since Aiden does have so much work to do on himself. He's struggling as a single dad, he's struggling with work, and he's pushing his daughter's aunt away. So there was a lot of potential to dig in deeper there, and that didn't really happen. That being said, I loved the light and sexy vibes. It's a smile-inducing, feel good read much of the time, paired with tons of heat. And I've got no complaints about that! So this ended up being a very solid read for me, but there were too many missed opportunities for me to call it 5 stars. I really like the MCs and side characters. They are developed and somewhat complex. I really enjoyed how sweet Cassie is with Sophie and seeing Aiden figure out how to be more present as a parent. However, I never felt attached to them, and as a whole, they feel a bit generic. Don't even get me started on Cameron. That thigh-tattoo having, darling-calling, pottery-teaching slut of a man (a metaphorical slut, as it were, and we don't slut shame, we slut celebrate). I love him so much. He knows exactly what he is doing, and we are better for it. I love how these two are exactly what the other needs and it takes them almost an entire book to realize. Cassie has to keep this secret and resist the charms of her boss if she doesn’t want to lose her job! Easier said than done because Aiden also cannot hold himself each time they are in the same room. How will they stop themselves before tearing each other’s clothes and let their high chemistry gets in the driver’s seat?I absolutely ADORE Sophie! Sophie. Sophie. Sophie. Sophie!! Oh, she is the cutest, little, stubborn, sassy nine-year-old who thinks that she's 27 and is ADORABLE. If she were not in this book, I would have probably rated it a lot lower because she just made it! Everything and every scene in which she was present just felt a whole lot more wholesome than when she wasn't there. When Cassie loses her job in the children hospital, her plans to keep a roof above her head and pay her school tuitions sound like impossible plan to her! She needs a job covering her expanses urgently! Her dreams come through so fast than she expected when she answers an ad for live-in nanny position and gets summoned to an interview with her future boss at the restaurant he works at. I hate stories where the FMC has no female friends her age. Like, why is Cassie's only friend an 80-year-old woman who's insanely horny? It's strange and unrealistic. I feel like this relationship is here to create comedic moments, but it's just cringe. He’s a chef! He’s extremely hot! And Cassie feels like she knows him from somewhere! And interestingly after having her worst kind of humiliating interview, Aiden still wants her to accept the job and meet with her tough cookie nine years old daughter Sophie who recently loses her mother. ( Don’t worry! Aiden was not married with the mother of Sophie. They had an one night stand ten years ago and they decided to stay friends for sharing custody. )

Wanted: full-time live-in nanny position. Experience with children is a must. Free room and board. Serious inquiries only.”BRING ME ALL THE DILFS PLZ. No but seriously if you like a single dad romance, with sprinkles of humor, amazing characters, & a boatload of steam, then this is the book for you!! I've been eyeing this book since it came out, and c'mon, a former OnlyFans girl becoming the nanny for a single dad, sounds so entertaining, but the execution was just bad! The characters were boring, the plot was non-existent and the spicy scenes were carbon copies of one another. I honestly felt like I was in some Groundhog Day situation for most of the book. The writing didn't help either, it was pretty choppy, I'm honestly kind of surprised this was traditionally published. Just when all hope seems lost, an ad for a live-in nanny position seems like the solution to all her problems. It’s almost too perfect—until she meets her would-be employer. But Cassie has hard time to resist the charm of her boss! And she finds a big secret about him. When Cassie worked as a camgirl for OnlyFans account to make extra money for school tuition, she fell for her customer she had several private sessions. Their sessions turned something more intimate and they decided to have a face to face meeting eventually. But her customer got cold feet and ghosted her. So she felt broken-hearted and deleted her account. Now she finds out the man she virtually felt so hard is the same man she’s ogling daily ! It’s her hot boss! The secondary characters are well-established, which I really appreciated. Sophie is a great kid, and I enjoy reading kids who are actually childlike, and Iris, Sophie’s aunt, is a great source of conflict in the story. Iris is the sister of Sophie’s late mother, and she feels displaced in Sophie’s life. She lashes out at Aiden, and while she’s not a likable character, she has an important place in the story. I also loved Wanda, Cassie’s former neighbor and surrogate family. She’s a snappy older lady, and I adore characters like that. She also pushes Cassie to be her best self and reminds her that life has to be lived.

This book is a trip in so many ways. The characters are awesome. Funny, vulnerable, a tad crazy, delightful. Cassie and Aiden together are on fire. Ferguson makes the will-they-won’t-they sing with complex emotional shading and a strong sense of inevitability to her protagonists’ connection…Rosie Danan fans should snap this up.”— Publishers Weekly, starred review But let’s just pretend sex workers, especially women, don’t routinely get stalked. That’s so not a thing, right? Overall, A wonderful romance with really solid story and character development. I definitely recommend this one for fans of the genre. The word 'silly' is overly used. Whenever Cassie uses this word, she makes herself seem juvenile and dumb.Oh, she also used to be an OnlyFans creator who goes by the name Cici, but she quit because [spoiler]. Nothing exciting happened in the story besides Cassie and Aiden’s romance, but I need more than just a romance plot to keep me interested. So I started skimming around 30% because both characters would drone on with internal dialogue about their attraction to the other or just describe the day. It was boring writing unless the MCs were interacting directly, so the story as a whole was underwhelming. I loved this book, and it’s a particularly impressive début. The story is tight and well-written, the protagonists feel anchored and don’t fall into archetypes, and the emotional stakes are high. I loved Cassie and Aiden, who are both dealing with a lot and have needs not being met. Aiden is emotionally vulnerable, due to being new to single fatherhood, and feeling like he doesn’t have anything to offer a partner. He feels insecure about being a good dad to Sophie, especially due to the fact that his job is incredibly demanding. Cassie came from a loveless home and she’s had to work to support herself since age eighteen, which makes it hard for her to be open with another person. She’s empathetic and caring, but has a hard time accepting love, which makes sense for her character. The other thing that kind of frustrated me is I loved the beginning of the book before our main characters got together. The cute little dynamics and the banter. The annoying and adorable Snapple facts remind me too much of myself! And the attraction between the characters was gripping. BUT then when they finally got together, all of that just got lost and we fell into the realm of being told and not shown. Phrases were used to pass time but I WANTED to see what happened! I wanted to, you know, see the characters connecting. Not just be told, "Oh (time passed) they have connected now".