Sloan is a single mother with twin six-year-old daughters. After leaving her emotionally abusive husband in Seattle, she is now living in L.A. Sloan hopes that a fresh start far from her ex and his manipulative behavior will allow her and her girls to thrive.
Sloan is a surgeon and works long hours. When her live-in nanny quits without any notice, Sloan scrambles to find a suitable replacement as soon as possible. A colleague recommends a nanny whose family recently relocated to Australia. Sloan has never had a male nanny, but Rafe comes highly recommended with impeccable references and he is available on short notice. It doesn’t hurt that he’s six five and sexy as hell.
Rafe is in a good position after deciding not to move to Australia with his former employers and their kids. Although he loves his job, he thinks that this is his chance to see if he can start a new career. He loves nannying and he’s good at it. However, he’s been a full-time nanny since he turned eighteen when he started taking care of his two younger step-siblings while his parents worked. He was able to turn this into a lucrative and satisfying job, but he can’t help but wonder what else is out there. Additionally, being a live-in nanny hasn’t given him much time to maintain any serious relationships as his work and his life are one and the same five days a week.
This book is great in that it handles the attraction and the romance between the two main characters with tact and compassion. No one acts like a child. In fact, Rafe and Sloan are so mature about everything, including dealing with Sloan’s cartoon-villain of an ex-husband, that the drama is pretty much non-existent.
The spice is very hot. Two thumbs up.
On the other hand, the ex-nanny and the ex-husband are so over-the-top heartless that it almost seems pointless to include them at all. Sure, Sloan is worried that if she is not the perfect parent, her ex could sue for custody. But even from the beginning of the story, her ex has been so abusive and verbal about his intention to punish Sloan, it doesn’t seem possible that he could truly ever get custody of the kids.
This is a sweet story but it is just not my jam. Rafe is great. Sloan is great. Together they are pretty boring. I loved the side characters and I may read some of the other books focusing on Xeni and Sloan’s friends as they embark on their own romances.