The Nanny by Lana Ferguson is all over #booktok right now, and for good reason. It’s a contemporary romance novel with a cast of endearing characters that the reader can’t help but love.
Cassie is a college student who is working on her Occupational Therapy degree and license. She’s been on her own since she left home at 18. Her childhood weighs heavily on her adult psyche. As a child she often felt like a burden and was left unsupervised and unwanted. She’s got a scar on her back that came from an accident with some boiling water when she was home alone as a child.
She supports herself and is paying for college as she goes, and for a short stint she opens an OnlyFans account. It turns out that she’s got “tits so good they’re worth paying to see” and OnlyFans is lucrative for her. She does private shows and has one super fan who she starts to grow close with. The reader knows from the beginning that the super fan is Aiden, the MMC (male main character).
When the guy that she’s met on OnlyFans disappears suddenly, she gets upset and ends up deleting the entire account. She is looking for work and about to lose her apartment when she sees an ad in the newspaper for a nanny. She applies and is immediately contacted by Aiden, who is thrilled with her work history and references. Of course, she leaves OnlyFans off of the resume.
They are already falling for each other pretty hard when she discovers that he is A, the guy she was growing close to when she was performing on OnlyFans. She struggles with when the right time to tell him is, and the stakes are high because she really does love his daughter, Sophie, and doesn’t want to jeopardize her job or the stability that she’s brought to their home.
I gave this book 4 stars, and it would have been 5 except that I don’t love 3rd act breakups that happen because of a simple miscommunication or one character leaving “out of love.” It’s a common trope in romance novels and I really hope that more readers will speak up about how frustrating and non-realistic these types of breakups are. True misunderstandings or even breakups for good causes that eventually get worked through make for better stories, in my opinion.
Publisher’s Summary
A woman discovers the father of the child she is nannying may be her biggest (Only)Fan in this steamy contemporary romance by Lana Ferguson.
Suddenly unemployed and on the brink of eviction, Cassie Evans is left with two choices: get a new job (and fast) or fire up her long-untouched OnlyFans account. But the job market is terrible, and as for OnlyFans. . . . Well, there are reasons she can’t go back. Just when all hope seems lost, an ad for a live-in nanny position seems like the solution to all her problems. It’s almost too perfect—until she meets her would-be employer.
Aiden Reid, executive chef and DILF extraordinaire, is far from the stuffy single dad Cassie was imagining. He shocks her when he tells her she’s the most qualified applicant he’s met in weeks, practically begging her to take the job. With hands that make her hindbrain howl and eyes that scream sex, the idea of living under the same roof as Aiden feels dangerous, but with no other option, she decides to stay with him and his adorably tenacious daughter, Sophie.
Cassie soon discovers that Aiden is not a stranger at all, but instead someone who is very familiar with her—or at least, her body. Given that he doesn’t remember her, Cassie is faced with what feels like an impossible situation. As their relationship heats to temperatures hotter than any kitchen Aiden has ever worked in, Cassie struggles with telling Aiden the truth, and the more terrifying possibility—losing the best chance at happiness she’s ever had.
