The Naughty, the Nice and the Nanny

Holiday Brothers, Book 1

By: Willa Nash

Narrated by: Vanessa Edwin, Aaron Shedlock

Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

One week with one little girl—an angel, according to my staffing agency. Acting as the short-term nanny for a single dad should have been an easy way to make some extra cash. Until I show up for my first day and face off with a demon disguised as a seven-year-old girl wearing a red tutu and matching glitter slippers.

Oh, and her father? My temporary boss? Maddox Holiday. The same Maddox Holiday I crushed on in high school. The same Maddox Holiday who didn’t even know I existed. And the same Maddox Holiday who hasn’t set foot in Montana for years because he’s been too busy running his billionaire empire.

Enduring seven days is going to feel like scaling the Himalayas in six-inch heels. Toss in the Holiday family’s annual soiree, and Christmas Eve nightmares really do come true. But I can do anything for a week, especially for this paycheck, even if it means wrangling the naughty, impressing the nice, and playing the nanny.

©2021 Willa Nash (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Loved it!

Is this a multi-part story? Yes
Does it end in a cliffhanger? No
Genre(s) : Romance Comedy Christmas
Instalove? Nearly
Do the MCs act like: HS, YA, NA or Adult - Adult
Was cheating involved? No
Any major triggers to be aware of? Neglectful Mom
Listening Speed? 1.25

4.5 Stars for me!
My rating range of this story... 4 - 5 Stars
If significant, why?
Biggest deduction?

Main Character Ratings...
H (Maddox) = 8/10
h (Natalie) = 9/10
TSTL Moment(s)? No

Narrator Rating(s)
M (Aaron Shedlock) = 9/10
F (Vanessa Edwin) = 10/10
If below 5/10, why?

If Comedy... Type? Mostly Cute, some cringe
Funny, Cute, Cringe Inducing, Mixed or Just No!

Angst Level? Moderate
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop

Internal Monolog/Dialog? Moderate
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop

Scenes with heat... Yes
When does it start? 50%
How much of the story? 5%
Anything beyond M/F? No
If yes, explained

Heat Rating... 5/10
Clean or Fade to Black - 1 or 2
Normal to Descriptive 3-5
Detailed Descriptive Sex - 6-7
Um, Wow, Beyond Descriptive Sex - 8 or above

Was there so much sex or unrealistic sex that you rolled your eyes and/or skipped forward? No

The back story... The blurb says it all!

Romance or Gist: Mostly attraction in the beginning but develops quickly.

The drama explosion... Ex wife tries to create problems
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? Ok
Was it OTT? A bit
Separation involved? No
Was it resolved properly or rushed? Properly

Final Notes... Cute story all the way through with a moderate amount of angst. Definitely a refreshing short story.

HEA or HFN? HEA
Book Source: Audible

A Fun and Entertaining Book That Was Damaged by a Lack of Editing

This was a fun and funny book. I enjoyed the humor and was looking for something light to take my mind off things, which it did deliver. I love holiday stories, and this was a fun one.

*SPOLIER*
The reasons I rated the story three stars are the car repair and the main character's pregnancy at the end of the book. I thought it was overkill on the whole "happily-ever-after" angle.

This book features a seven-year-old girl, Violet, who needs love and bonding with positive female role models since her mom is almost totally absent. The main character, Natalie, did everything she could for Violet and for Maddox, the love interest and Violet's dad.

Sounds great, right? But in the end, Natalie's education is taken away by a poor story choice. I'm going with this being from the editor/publisher and "sell more books" aspect rather than the writer, as often authors don't get a say in a fair amount of this. Who knows, though. I can't read the author's mind.

Natalie speaks several times throughout the book about wanting to return to school and her future career ambitions. It is evident through the writing that she has her own dreams while also being loving, caring, and interested in the dreams of others.

When Natalie decided to sell her old VW bus, quit her nannying job, and return to school, I viewed it as a cathartic moment. I saw selling the car as a small yet meaningful way for her to move forward from her own childhood issues with her mother. Returning to school was another way to make her life what she'd always wanted it to be.

She was emotional about these choices, which makes sense from the catharsis angle. And, because change is often difficult, even when you do what you know will help you grow.

Maddox then decides to get her car repaired as a surprise gift, and she's like, "Okay, awesome." Not, "That's really sweet, but that's not what I want."

Maybe I misinterpreted her intentions, but at that moment, she seemed like a different character than the plucky one I'd come to enjoy.

At the end of the book, Natalie talks about having enrolled in school and arranging her schedule to pick Violet up. Then suddenly, she says she's pregnant.

She explains it's okay because they want Violet to have a sibling even though it's earlier than planned. Natalie would delay her education. This felt "off" and disingenuous.

Had Natalie even once talked about a strong desire to have a child (meaning a biological one), I'd be like, "Yeah, okay." But what she talked about enough to make it clear it was an important story element were her career ambitions. So, I'm left thinking, "Now she's not following her own dreams."

Even in my light and entertaining books, I don't care for women giving up their plans for love.

Yeah, the pregnancy was an accident, but it seemed unnecessary, like a way to appeal more to an audience or supercharge the fairy tale aspect of the story. Or, maybe Natalie wasn't as driven about school as it seemed, in which case some rewriting to make that less confusing would've been a good thing.

But, since this is a book, it didn't have to be that way. This book was damaged by a lack of editing.

Lightweight fluff with a formula

This review is for all 3 books in the series

It’s a really light formulaic fluff where we follow three brothers and their search for happily ever after.
There is little cussing, except for the occasional F-word but mostly during sex scenes. Yes there is sex in all of the books, but rather Igor compared to many other books in the same genre.

There is however a formula - light spoiler alert:

Absent mother or two (every book) - what’s with that?
Fathers are stable and know best (???)
Montana is best (…ok?)
Holiday brother is irresistible
Light soul searching
A baby before, during or in the end.
Women can have careers (yes!)
And the Christmas party.

I felt the formula and the “oh, this again” during books 2 and 3,

I can’t really say the books are bad, as I listened to all 3 of them, but as they were included in my membership I didn’t have to pay extra. I’d have only listened to the one and perhaps returned if it I’d spent a credit.

It was however a perfect fluff to listen to whilst having the flu.

for very straight people

the story is cute. the plot and stuff or whatever. it's a cheesy concept. nanny for hire who needs money to fix her car, rich guy, devil child. I'm sure you can guess what happens.
This is for straight white people for sure. Typical tall blue eyed blonde with flat stomach (yes they point that out in the book lmao) and slender legs (yes they point that out also) duck boot wearing girl. With a chiseled tall generic looking rich white guy. There's just no variety for sure.

at least they have decent narrators.

i couldn't finish this book. it was just so cringe to me.

Filthy language

I was enjoying the story until it started getting so trashy. Why bother to finish something like that?

nauseating

so cloying and predictable i gagged. couldn't finish. insulting garbage. this review requires 15 words so I now need a walk in the fresh air to recover.

Great narrator, story pedestrian and dull

Delightful narration was the only redeeming factor for this dull, overly sweet story. There was zero tension and excitement in the storytelling and the outcomes and ending were so predictable as to make it difficult to concentrate on. All characters two dimensional save the protagonist who might make it a tiny bit further if only because it’s obvious the reader is meant to relate to her. I’m all for wish fulfilment writing, but this fell flat. If you’re into a sweet story with little to challenge you, you’ll find this fun, the narrator is quite lovely and I liked listening to her.

if you’re into holiday insta-love… check elsewhere first, but this is …fine

With any obstacles this main character encounters, they overcome it “off-screen” nearly instantaneously. Case in point being the Love Interest’s demon child being tamed with candy, which is so unrealistic. What child who is consistently spoiled rotten and (arguably) emotionally neglected going to be won over by ONE bribe of a bag of candy? (Like ONE BAG. The child deliberately smashed a vase of roses at the new nanny and then the next day was calmed by a single bag of candy.) Also, what child’s long established behavioral issues are going to be calmed by a sugar rush?

One day the love interest can’t even recognize the nanny and the next day they’re throwing themselves into weird stand offish confrontations saying that the main character is “mine”. instantaneously. And the only build up for this was looking at high school yearbook pictures and remembering the main character in their high school bathing suit uniform. OK. Sure.

Personally I did not find it nearly as cute as the premise promised, even the childcare scenes (which were a fun draw for me) were short, weirdly stunted, and felt absolutely contrived.

If you want a very-quick fix of holiday “cuteness”, insta love, “alpha billionaire”, and you don’t care about plot, inconsistencies, or character development, then this is for you.

Maddox & Natalie

A sweet and charming journey to go on with Maddox, Natalie and Violet. I absolutely adored this story.
Vanessa Edwin and Aaron Shedlock did a wonderful job of bringing these great characters to life.

Such a cute short holiday story

This story was so cute and sweet. I really enjoyed the lightheartedness of it. Definitely a good listen

Absolutely loved it!

Perfect short story with a lovely mix of character development and romance. Highly recommend it.

Loved it

Just brilliant. A good story, well read, and very entertaining. I really enjoyed this and will definitely buy more from the same author

Loved this!

Loved this, wish it had been longer. Not to listen to the next one in the series 🥰

Lovely story

A lovely story from beginning to end you can just loose yourself in and feel gy

Nothing really happened…

I wish it was longer. When it said epilogue I thought that something had gone wrong. There weren’t enough character relationship developments for my liking!

🎧 Natalie and Maddox 🎧

I read this one on KU last year, and had to listen too when I spotted the audio.
Steamy, snow laden, hot-for-nanny, single father, holiday romance, featuring a demon-turned-angel child and the ex from hell... what's not to love?

nice until the unnecessary explicit scenes

I did like the story of this book but I wasn't expecting the explicit sex scenes, I thought they were unnecessary and actually detracted from the story, I had got the other two books in this series but I don't think I'll be listening to them based on this one

loved it

it was a sweet story. the wish of many girls or woman. to mary your high school crush. and everything feeling so perfect.

Nice!

Sweet little book. Nice and no drama. Will prob not remember it but i was good enough to pass time. Aaron Sherlock is amazing as usual.

Cute!

I loved this little Novella and adored Violet. I loved all the characters so much.