Summary
A hot mess nanny and her hot nerd boss attempt to fight their feelings and fail miserably!
If aspiring writer Penny Fennimore was asked to write her story, it would include words like desperate and single—or even desperately single. But she’s not writing anything, thanks to an epic case of writer’s block. No stories = No cash to pay her bills.
Penniless Penny’s way out? A nanny gig caring for the niece of billionaire video gaming mogul Rowen Gale. It’s temporary. Just until she gets on her feet or her mojo returns.
There is one problem. Her boss looks more like a Greek god than a gaming geek. She can’t fall for the guy. He’s the king of hi-tech, and she uses a flip phone from the digital dark ages. They’re complete opposites, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to jump his joystick.
She’s got to control her libido and maintain professional distance. But the universe doesn’t always play nice.
When she critiques his upcoming video game’s storyline, she gets roped into overhauling it. Forget distance. Now she’s with the guy twenty-four seven.
That’s where it gets complicated. During those late-night work sessions, the man’s muted veneer gives way to unbridled passion. Forget coding and spreadsheets. They’re hitting the bed sheets—hard.
Is this the beginning of their love story, or will it be game over for the nanny and the nerd?
Excerpt
“No, no, no! Not the blue one!” Penny Fennimore pleaded under her breath, striking random keys as the dreaded blue screen of death flashed on her ancient laptop. “You cannot stop working! Not today! I can barely make rent! I cannot afford a new laptop. And what’s a writer without a laptop? Come on, baby! Come back to me!” she coaxed, begging the machine to give her something, anything. A cursor! A toolbar! Hell, she’d take an emoji of the damn thing flipping her off. Anything but the blue screen!
And what did all that begging get her?
Nothing but a whole bunch of blue!
Stupid technology!
She glanced up and found every person in the auto shop’s waiting room staring at her. She mustered up a weak grin. “I’ll take a felt-tipped pen and a composition notebook over this any day of the week,” she announced, holding up her sad, little laptop. She looked around, hoping to find a sympathetic nod, but no one spoke.
Complete Crickets-ville!
“Yep, good old paper and pen will never let you down,” she murmured, her cheeks growing hot as she closed her laptop and placed it into her tote, then chanced another look around the room. The crowd must have decided she wasn’t completely insane. They’d reverted their attention back to their smartphones and continued to ignore the world.
She exhaled a weary breath when a grating buzz paired with a distorted, creepy chime, like something out of a horror movie, emanated from her bag. Cheeks now burning from embarrassment, she frantically fished through her tote, then plucked her ancient flip phone from the bag as all eyes flicked back to her. “Sorry, sorry!” she apologized as she scrambled from her chair to take the call outside. She pried open the phone and pressed it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Why aren’t you at work, Penelope?”
Oh no!
Review
(audiobook+ebook) I love it when the couple truly becomes a team, and that’s the case here. It doesn’t mean the journey to get there is an easy one though.
Penny and Rowen are polar opposite: she has no money, he’s a billionaire; she hates technology, he’s a tech mogul; she feels like no one is in her corner, he has people looking after him; she’s an escapism artist–or will be once she writes that novel–while he’s pragmatism personified. But that’s exactly why they’re made for each other. They fill the other’s missing pieces. It could be seen as too much, but it works.
They meet when Penny is hired to be the nanny to Rowen’s niece–he’s become her guardian. Let’s just say they don’t really see eye to eye at first. But there’s a lot of attraction. None of this is appropriate for a nanny/employer relationship, so of course they ignore it for as long as they can. But along the way, they learn more about each other, until there’s more than just lust.
The learning about each other isn’t easy. While Penny is more or less open–though she hides her self doubts and inner struggles–Rowen doesn’t understand socializing. He’s neurodivergent, and his traumas run so deep, that he doesn’t get social clues, nor does he have normal interactions with people. Including his family.
Family is the theme. Broken families though. Rowen was an orphan, adopted by a loving family, but there isn’t much left of it: brother and father are dead, mother is ill. Before that, his family life was awful. As for Penny, she has troubles communicating with her sisters and mother, feeling like she doesn’t belong. But the message is hopeful though: despite difficult circumstances, family can be a place of support and love, even when you don’t realize it. And it’s even truer of the family you build, like Penny, Rowen and Phoebe.
While the narrator does a great job, I feel like the audiobook would have been better with dual narration instead of solo. The female narrator’s male voice didn’t work for Rowen in my opinion–though she expressed his aloofness pretty well. The conversations were fluid and energetic. Not bad in the end, just not great.
Quickie
- Series: Nanny love match #1 (can be read as a standalone, but connected to another series by the author)
- Hashtags: #billionaire romance #forbidden romance #opposites attract
- Triggers: mention of car accident, parental neglect and abuse, neurodivergence
- Main couple: Penelope Fennimore & Rowen Gale
- Hotness: 3/5
- Romance: 4/5
- + it was beautiful to see them work together
- – the last revelation, while heartwarming, required a lot of suspension of disbelief
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