Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl (Academic Affairs #1) by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone

 

Summary (from the publisher): From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone comes a brand-new college town raunch-com about a sexy single dad professor and a feisty law school grad turned nanny in this steamy tale of Academic Affairs…

She wants to be a good girl. He’s dying to teach her.

New to town and freshly single, rookie lecturer Maddie isn’t looking for trouble … until she ends up in bed with Bram – a sexy, grumpy single dad – on her first night.

The catch? He’s her new boss at home (he needs a nanny), and her colleague at work (he's a professor, too). So to make it work, they set some ground rules.

- No more sex

- They can never be alone in the house together

But Maddie’s great at breaking these rules, and Bram’s even better at dishing out consequences…

Review: Thank you to Avon Books for the gifted ARC, which is out now. 

Maddie and Bram have a steamy one night stand her first night in town. Little do either of them know it, but she's the new adjunct at the college where Bram is a tenured professor. And there's more, she's also his new part-time nanny. 

The writing in this was well done. I thought the footnotes scattered throughout were fun and a nice addition. The physical copy had little illustrations at the top of each chapter that corresponded to the text and I thought they were adorable. I loved the body positivity in this and how comfortable Maddie is in her own skin as a larger woman. 

But full disclosure: I really struggled with this book and probably should have DNFd it. I found the plot so implausible and over the top. What do you mean she works with him at the college and is also his nanny? And she's homeless? And she's running for office? Because a homeless part-time college instructor/nanny is obviously prime political candidate. 

I also felt a little uncomfortable with the dynamics of their relationship. He holds all the cards in this relationship: he has seniority over her at work, he is her employer as a nanny, and he offers her a much-needed job. The power inequity really gave me the ick. Obviously, they are two consenting adults, and she does consent, but Maddie had just gotten out of bad relationship that left her with nothing and in many ways that dynamic could have easily continued (except for the fact that Bram is a Certified Good Guy).

The spice in this was probably out of my comfort zone. That is fine and I love to see some sex positivity, but it was also A LOT. In some ways, the spice overwhelmed the plot for me. I also had a lot of thumbs down thoughts about them getting it on while his kids were at home. This just felt a big NO for me that they were getting freaky in public spaces when his children could have walked in at any point. What if a kid had walked in and seen their dad with the nanny like that?? Bad dad points for Bram for me, I'm sorry. 

I went back and forth between the physical copy and audio. The audio was fine with dual narration EXCEPT the male narrator had to read all of the female dirty talk and even do female moans during his chapters and it was not it for me. 

Stars: 2