oh of course this ate. has tessa bailey EVER failed?? this book was FIERCELY amazing!!! i loved burgess and tallulah so much. TB will always eat up the boy obsessed trope and this is no exception! also...some of her best steam yet. i cannot WAIT for the rest of this series!! esp the next two...

This is the second book of the Big Shots series. I really am enjoying this series and there’s only 2 books out. I loved that Burgess was obsessed with Tallulah and he would stop at nothing to get her back! Tessa Bailey can do no wrong… I love her writing. I can’t wait to read more in the Big Shots series!

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the arc of this book.

I'm so grateful for the chance to read this arc! Tessa Bailey is one author I keep coming back to, however THE AU PAIR AFFAIR may not be a specific title of hers that I would reread. The tension throughout was great, but overall it was a bit difficult to stay interested. A perfectly fine novel. Just not great.

If I could rate this zero stars, I would. This Labrador of a man turns out to be one of the most toxic male characters I have ever come across in my life. Knows her past trauma (which, holy heck.. trigger warning) and still says the toxic awful things he says and she’s written as finding it “hot” until he pushes too far and yet they still end up back together. Oh too of his horrible things he says to her, he’s unbelievably jealous and not in a hot way. It’s like someone tried to make him some awful alpha character but instead made him creepy possessive and jealous. She was absolutely insufferable through out most of the book. They were so humpy for each other that it actually got boring about half way through. I genuinely found myself rolling my eyes more than anything through this book. I can’t believe how angry the whole book made me. I really, really, really, hated this book. So much.

The fact that Tessa Bailey can make me care about sports is a miracle enough! This book was just so fun!

I think I liked Fangirl Down better but with every consecutive Tessa Bailey, she proves herself to be a growing and talented author. The humor, the light, the steaminess... Signature Tessa Bailey. I don't think she could ever fail me.

This series is shaping up to be a favorite of mine.

As with many of Dare's novels, you do have to really suspend belief, but plausibility of the plot progression is not why we are here. We are, however, here for a scorching semi-slow-burn romance with just enough tragic backstory to make us really root for the protagonists. The "he falls first" trope is always a good time and Tallulah's history with men provides some grit to the relationship without playing up abuse for plot progression. For an otherwise light-hearted sports romance, Dare handles the topic with grace.

I didn't always love the banter (again, I may have outgrown "cute" flirting from 20-somethings), but the spice was top-notch as always. I enjoyed the way the relationship between books and characters within each story wound together. The friendship between Chloe and Tallulah is a nice break from "all cis-het romance all the time" and provides some insight into the network of characters as a whole. Getting to see the characters from the previous book and the vibe of what I am really hoping is the next book makes this "Big Shots" world very fun and rife with options for more stories.

Another cuteeee romance from Tessa Bailey. This was the story of Sir Savage, or Burgess, who we know as Wells’ hockey friend from Fangirl Down, and Josephine’s BFF Tallulah.

I had a lot of fun with this book. Burgess is a single dad/star hockey player (of course) who hires Tallulah as his au pair, and it gets a little messy. While I really did like Burgess and his alpha-hole tendencies, there were a lot of actions of Tallulah’s that didn’t really sit well with me. She tends to be emotionally driven, and kind of reads as a young college student, not a mid-20s grad student. She doesn’t really consider the impact of her actions but insists that others should.

I wish there was more hockey in this and I didn’t appreciate so much back and forth towards the end. Besides that, the story was fun, swoony, and I enjoyed seeing glimpses into the Wells/Josephine wedding. I can’t wait to read Sig and Chloe’s story.

I am all about the sport romance and a single hot dad....... I am in! This Tessa Bailey book was spicy!! Loved it!

This was a cute book though I wish we got more of Tallulah being a nanny and really working through her background and how Burgess handled it all. He just seemed to have changed over night. But over all I did enjoy the book!

} I’ve long been a @tessabaileyisanauthor fan girl (pun intended) so the moment I had the chance to read #TheAuPairAffair after meeting the characters in #FangirlDown , I had to start it immediately, despite pub day in July.

Age gap, single dad, nanny, hockey player, forced proximity ?!? Seriously, how much more could I ask for?! With Tessa’s patented banter and spice, this was another winner for me and I only hope this series will continue (and I’m placing bets on Chloe please and thank you!)

This was so cute and smutty. I loved Tallulah and Burgess! He was just so sweet with her and all her issues. I can't wait to read Sig and Chloe's book next!

This was a good quick read as all of Tessa Bailey’s books are. I think she handled a touchy subject fairly well and i love Tullulah and Burgess relationship. Overally a 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Love this series! These two had my cackling with some of their banter! I love how hard Burgess fell for Tallulah! I do wish some of the issues that Tallulah solved at the end had been on paper, I think that would have been nice to read about as it was a big deal to her. Very much enjoyed this book and the “nanny” trope! I do think some of the dialogue in scenes…you know the ones, wasn’t my favorite, but it also wasn’t the worst I’ve ever read by Tessa. I think this series is going to be a great one for Tessa!!

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC to review.

This book follows the side characters from the first book in this series Fan Girl Down, the grumpy hockey player best friend & the young nanny. This trope can already be a difficult one to do without giving the ick, and unfortunately this one couldn’t make it work.

The two characters had good chemistry but all in the relationship dynamics ended up making me super uncomfy and led to me just not enjoying this book at all.

Tessa Bailey does it again with a fun, quirky romance! Burgess is a surly hockey player who falls hard for his daughter's au pair, Tallulah. The dynamic between Burgess and Tallulah is very sweet and respectful. I couldn't help, but root for them! My only big complaint is that I believe this book should have content warnings/ trigger warnings for the main character's backstory. While I don't have any particular complaints with how the topics were handled, I was not a fan of how it came with no warning to the reader. I am a personal believer that if the character has trauma from a specific event, then it is very possible that the reader might as well. Authors /publishers should be transparent about what a reader is signing up for, so the reader can make fully informed decisions.

In conclusion, loved the book, just wished for a content warning page:)

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for this edition of The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey!
I have said it many time before: I am an avid Tessa Bailey fan. That being said, her latest foray into sports romance was not very enjoyable for me. Although the novel was written with her trademark humor and lightheartedness, I found the main leads to be too different and their conflict too hurtful to make up for. It’s hard to rate a book highly when, at your core, you believe the two characters should not be together.
2.5 stars

Oh my gosh. I loved this book it was so cute. I love Tessa Bailey’s books. I love sports romance books. Thank you so much for the early read!

Oh my goodness, this book was so adorable! I loved every minute of this cute, swoon-worthy, laugh-out-loud romance!

This was a great companion book to come after Fangirl Down. I am a big fan of the live-in nanny trope and The Au Pair Affair executed it very well.

Burgess is probably one of my favorite MMCs Tessa has written. Both characters were so emotionally complex but it was very fun to see Burgess take such care of how he handled himself when it came to Tallulah and his daughter. I also did love Tallulah’s emotional conflict and thought it was handled really well.

This story was great and it made me *so* anxious to get my hands on the next one in the series (if you know, you know).

A super cute follow-up to Fangirl Down! I actually preferred this to the first in this series.

Burgess is a lovable male lead and you can't help but root for Tallulah (despite her unfortunate name -- Tessa, why do we have to have leads with names like these???)