⭐⭐⭐⭐💫(4.5 stars)
Evie Sterling has done it again with another fun and quirky clean romance. Ella is having a bad day - her social work job just lost its funding, and her roommate eloped and is moving out. Out of desperation and courtesy, she agrees to take over her ex-roomie's job as a nanny for a billionaire's six year old daughter, Zoe. Zoe's great, and the pay and benefits are excellent. There's only one problem - her boss may be opinionated and overprotective, but he's also undeniably attractive.
This premise could be extraordinarily scandalous, especially because Jacob is much older than Ella, but in true Evie Sterling fashion it's all very wholesome. Ella is well into her twenties. Both adults put the child first in all things, and there are no abuse of power/consent issues. There is a lot more yearning than actually acting on feelings.
One of my favorite aspects were all the scenes with Zoe. She's an adorable, quirky kid, and she gets along with Ella so well. They have some great running jokes. I also love how she brings out Jacob's softer side and how much effort he puts into prioritizing his daughter even though he's a busy billionaire CEO.
The romance aspect was good - especially their sticky note exchanges - but I wanted more. The length is the only reason I docked this half a star. It was a very quick read, and I would have loved more scenes between Ella and Jacob. I actually think Ella and Zoe had more scenes together than Ella and Jacob. There's a lot of buildup before romance is possibly breached, then the conflict is introduced and then resolved quite quickly. I would have liked more depth in the second half of the book. More tension, more "is this a good or bad idea," more "wow this sucks" before the HEA. Everything on the page was thoroughly enjoyable. There just weren't enough pages!
If you enjoy quick reads, clean romance, cute kids, capable heroines, age gap, and getting snowed in together like a Hallmark movie, I recommend you give Single Dad Billionaire Boss a try.