My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was a good mix of romance and drama. I didn’t know what to expect going into it and to be honest, I would a bit skeptical of the nanny and rich lesbian mom trope, but I feel like this book handled it well. I enjoyed the main and secondary characters a lot. They had well-developed personalities and were entertaining when they were meant to be.
I did feel like there were a couple of story threads that were introduced that were dropped fairly quickly. I would have liked to see them explored more, but they didn’t take away from the story and did serve a purpose however small.
Full Review with Spoilers
In a trope that tends to be repetitive, this book was a pleasant surprise. It did just enough to keep me hooked the whole way through.
College student Cassie has to earn money as a nanny because her wealthy parents have cut her off for dropping out of med school. This is a plot point that at first, didn’t feel like it held much significance to the story. As the story continued though, it became much more relevant and was a crucial part of Cassie’s character development. Her reconciling with her parents was handled well and didn’t distract from the overall romance plot of the book. I enjoyed Cassie’s wit. Her personality was well defined and she was entertaining the whole way through the book.
Brook was equally well written. Because the store was written in first person from Cassie’s point of view she was a bit harder to figure out initially. I liked her though and I really wish that we got to see how feelings developed on her side. Her son, Noah, was also well written and I was surprised that I enjoyed the scenes he was in. I often find moments with children to drag the story down a little bit.
The relatives from both sides were also great, including the antagonistic sister Gwen. Her refusal to accept the relationship unfolding before her was aggravating, but in the way it was intended to. The counter to this, Brook’s sister-in-law Erica was a perfect counter to this. Accepting, funny and a bit of a drinker.
Cassie’s family was also interesting, though slightly less so. We mostly get to know her grandmother who acted as more of a mother to her when Cassie and her parents stopped talking after she was cut off. Her parents become involved more so when her grandmother passes.
My only issue I had was some small story threads that I expected to play a bigger part. Cassie is apparently “chick magnate” to the women in Noah’s life. Both his school teacher and music instructor are VERY interested in Cassie, one of which she goes on a casual date with. Of course this attention she gets causes some jealous from Brook, but to be honest it was so minor that it didn’t really do very much. Brooks discussion of her maintaining a professional relationship with people Noah sees often is valid so the jealous is almost a non-issue. Once that came to light this thread is completely dropped. I felt like more could have been done with this but instead it’s there and gone. It did almost nothing for the story
Overall the story was a bit predictable and it was the characters that really drew me in and kept me reading.
Tome Reader Reviews 
Leave a comment