Afternoon Everyone,

Happy Sunday! I hope you’ve all had a good weekend and you’re making the most of what is left of Sunday. I’ve had a lovely weekend actually. Took the puppies to an enclosed dog walking field yesterday which was good fun and good training for the new puppy. I’ve spent all day today painting our garden arbour which at the time felt like it was never going to end, but I’m so pleased with the end result. Will be featured in a blog picture soon I am sure.

Book 📖

Thank you @AvonBooksUK and @GCrossAuthor for this advanced audio copy of Nanny Needed in return for an honest review. Nanny Needed is due to be published on 28th April 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

A job advertisement is left in the lobby of an apartment building in New York; Nanny needed, special conditions apply. Sarah Larson happens to be the first person to see the notice and snaps it right up. She’s never been a nanny before but she needs the money and how hard could taking care of a little kid be?

At the interview, Sarah cannot believe how lucky she is to be considered for this role. The family seeking a nanny live on the upper west side, in a penthouse apartment and ooze glamour. The mother seems more like a friend than a boss and the salary is too good to pass on. So when Sarah is offered the job, she jumps at the opportunity and signs the NDA without a question.

There has to be a reason that the Bird family require an NDA though right? Sarah soon finds out there is something not quite right in the Birds’ penthouse but by the time this starts to become clear, it’s too late to ask anyone for help.

General Thoughts 🤔

The first third of this book was amazing. I was drawn in immediately and was desperate to know what was going on with the Birds. There were so many red flags and I was almost screaming at the characters to wake up and smell the New York coffee. Then the bomb was dropped and I have to say I was gobsmacked. But then the second third of the book was a bit of an anti-climax. Nothing much happened and it seemed like story filler to me which was a bit disappointing after such a good start.

The book did redeem itself within the final third when there were some other reveals and twists revealed that I didn’t see coming. There were probably some signs of this coming earlier in the book but unfortunately I had become somewhat disengaged so potentially missed them.

Characters 👫👭👬

Sarah was so naive I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think she had ever heard of the expression “if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is”. I should cut her some slack as she was quite desperate at the time of taking the job (from a financial perspective) so maybe I would have conveniently overlooked the warning signs if I had been in the same position. I don’t know how she managed to adhere to her NDA for so long as I am far too loose lipped to have kept something that big a secret.

I really liked Mrs Bird. I thought she was a really endearing character and I found it impossible to not feel sympathetic towards her. The woman had obviously been through a lot and never had anyone in her life to help her work through her problems. It proved that money really can’t buy you everything.

Writing Style ✍️

If I put the middle section of the book aside, I enjoyed this authors writing style. The plot was crazy, don’t get me wrong, but it worked. As long as you can overlook the cray cray and allow yourself to go along for the ride, you will get along fine. I could imagine this book translating well into a drama or movie.

I listened to the audiobook of Nanny Needed and it took me some time to get used to the narrator. I felt like she added pauses and breaths into places that weren’t required and it sounded so odd. It may be petty, but once I had picked up on it, it was so difficult to listen past it. I did eventually manage to ignore it, but it took some effort.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Although there was some aspects of this book that I was disappointed with/didn’t get along with, I did really enjoy the beginning and the end. There are certainly some twists and surprises within the story and there was plenty of crazy which I love. I do honestly think this story would work well on screen and someone should snap it up to write a screenplay for it. If you’re going to read Nanny Needed, I think I’d recommend reading as opposed to listening. Otherwise, go into it expecting looney tunes and you’ll enjoy it.

😍😍😍😩😩