The Nanny and the Nerd

Nanny Love Match, Book 1

By: Krista Sandor

Narrated by: Monica King

Penny Fennimore is not winning at life. An aspiring writer with a monster-sized case of writer’s block, she’s got bills to pay and barely a dime to her name.

Enter the exclusive Nanny Match Agency and an opportunity to make bank.

The job: a live-in nanny position caring for video-gaming billionaire Rowen Gale’s six-year-old niece.

The problem? Her hot nerd of a boss!

They’re opposites in every way. He’s the king of high-tech, and she uses a flip phone from the digital dark ages. She’s not even sure he’s 100 percent human until their eyes meet and the attraction meter blows through the roof.

She’s got to put the kibosh on her libido.

But the universe doesn’t always play nice.

When Mr. Robot-Bedroom-Eyes goes MIA, she marches up to his fancy-pants video-gaming company to give him a piece of her mind and ends up rewriting his video game's storyline.

Did anyone ask for her opinion? That’s a no!

The positive? She’s writing!

The negative? Her boss needs her to keep it up.

Turns out, this video game requires a complete overhaul, and she’s the only one who can give him what he wants.

Now, she’s not only caring for his niece—she’s with him morning, noon, and night!

And that’s where it gets complicated.

When he looks at her, she gets a glimpse of what’s behind his muted veneer.

Her heart is on the line.

Could this nanny match be the match that changes everything, or will it be game over for the nanny and the nerd?

The Nanny Love Match series:

• The Nanny and the Nerd
• The Nanny and the Hothead
• The Nanny and the Beefcake

©2021 Candy Castle Books (P)2022 Candy Castle Books

The Nanny and the Nerd

Heat Level: 1.5/5
Dark Level: 0/5

Story: Well thought out characters that have personality. You have the ups and downs that  good books tend to have. Nothing too crazy but kind of predictable.

Narration: Very nicely done.  Each character was unique and brought to life.

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!!

I love it when the couple truly becomes a team

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.

Great start to a series

I loved this book. It had such a unique storyline. I loved kids in books and Phoebe was amazing. Penny and Rowen were perfection and I loved how different they were. They both learned so much from each other and it was wonderful. I loved Penny’s friends and the group of guys as well. The narrator was so good too - she was super engaging for both Penny and Rowen’s chapters. I can’t wait for the rest of the series!

If Elon fell for the nanny

The whole time I was listening to this book, I just kept thinking the main hero was probably based on Elon Musk, lol and what if he was a single uncle and fell for the newly hired nanny he hired for his newly acquired niece?

Love the gaming theme!

I really ended up loving this one! These two characters are opposites but yet compliment each other perfectly. I enjoyed the whole gaming aspect and the cute little wordings that went along with it. I laughed, chucked and was brought to tears (near the ending…whaaa!) while listening to this! It has a large array of characters and the author does an excellent job of endearing them to the reader but doesn't give too much information to leave me wondering. I eagerly look forward to the next in this series! I can only imagine what this author has in-store for the next one. Monica King did a wonderful job with the narration

Laugh out loud funny!

This book was laugh out loud funny. the dialog between the h and H was fantastic and then you throw in a precocious 6 year old, the H's neice, and the hilarity doubles. Halfway through the book, I started looking at the rest of the books in the series.

Couldn’t Stop Grinning

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️.5
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Narrator Performance: 🎧🎧🎧🎧.5

I’m not a big Contemporary Romance reader but I simply adored this book. It was chock full of humor. The main characters, though a tad weird, were both rather likable. He’s shut down emotionally and rich. She’s got a run away imagination and can’t manage to get her life under control. Plus there was an adorably precious kid that I couldn’t help but love.

There was really only one thing that bugged me about the book. I’m sure it’s a me thing but I think that Rowan feeling unwanted and unloved is a bit mind boggling. Dude was adopted. That right there says you are wanted. I mean, it’s not like he spent a ton of time in the foster system bouncing from one home to another. Sure it’s normal for some of those feelings to be there, however the way he internalized the feelings to the degree he did seemed extreme to me.

The narrator was fabulous! King’s performance was stellar. I love how she captured each characters’ personas. She both acted and used different voices to bring the story to life. My one complaint is that I would have liked a little more change voice wise from her to differentiate the males.

*Review copy provided for voluntary review.

Narrator is the Cherry on Top

First, Monica King an excellent job with this book. I had previously done an eyeball read, so I was already familiar with the story. Monica’s performance was exactly how I imagined these characters would sound in my head. What do you get when you combine a hot nerd who is introverted, a chaotic hot mess, yet organized starving artist turned nanny; and a very sassy, mischievous elementary aged school girl? Well you get this book, The Nanny and the Nerd, the first book of a new series, which is sure to be filled with over the top shenanigans. While this isn't my favorite book written by this author, this is a well written story with crazy, funny antics and a lot of heart and feels. It wasn't until Rowan's character growth came into play did I start to really enjoy this book. Once I hit that part, I had a hard time putting it down. And the plot twists that occur, holy crap, I didn't see those coming. I'm not a fan of kids in my romance novels, and Phoebe (the child) was just too much for me; however, if you like kids in romance, you will love this.

Love this Series

I loved the book. Very much enjoyed the audio! The narrator did a great job.