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Solo per Natale
Ritorno a Fitton Magna.
Mai e poi mai Phoebe avrebbe dovuto tornare in quella villa maledetta, teatro dell'episodio più drammatico e odioso della sua vita. Un episodio che, a suo tempo, aveva coinvolto anche il padrone di casa, Dominic Ashton. Certo, in questo caso, la giovane donna ha dovuto far fronte a un'emergenza del tutto riportare a casa la piccola Tara, figlia di Dominic, abbandonata da una babysitter sconsiderata Ora, però, Phoebe Grant si ritrova in una spirale da cui è difficile uscire. Casualmente, il padrone di casa, che non l'ha riconosciuta, le offre il lavoro di cui lei ha dannatamente bisogno. Titubante, Phoebe prova a porre una una prova nel periodo natalizio. E se si trattasse del primo passo verso una resa senza condizioni?
147 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
6 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Sara Craven
493 books266 followersAnne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 11, 2018
Don't be fooled by the title or the sweet picture. This is Sara Craven and the wtfry is STRONG in this one. Let's review:
Traumatic backstory for heroine:
At 16 she was given a spiked drink, stripped of her clothes and dumped in the hero's bed by his stepbrother who was fooling around with the hero's actress wife. Hero thought she was a prostitute and after she recovered consciousness made her do the walk of shame to find her way home. Heroine still has nightmares six years later.
Complicated family life for the hero:
Hero is some kind of finance guy who divorced his wife around the same time his evil stepbrother was throwing parties in his house. He got full custody of his daughter (now 9) and his evil wife is in California. They have just moved back to their country house. Hero has an OW who convinced him to put the daughter in a snobby school. There is an incompetent nanny who lets the daughter sit in a cafe alone after her piano lessons. Heroine is a waitress in the cafe and that's how she meets the daughter.
Evil rando characters:
Heroine's landlord snoops in her apartment when she's not there. Hasn't fixed the wiring so it burns down.
Headteacher blackballs hero's daughter from the Christmas play because of who her mother is.
Heroine's aunt turns on her after father dies, leaving her alone in the world.
Evil stepbrother of the hero who turns up *again* and tries to blackmail the heroine with what *he *did to her when she was underage.
Local perfume shop is a front for selling cocaine.
Continuing destruction of the ex-wife:
She comes "home" for Christmas and brings a puppy, another Christmas tree and a bad drug habit.
She slaps the heroine.
She has TV crews come in to introduce her daughter as the next child actor.
She tries to seduce the hero.
I know I'm not spelling out the plot, but believe me SC weaves all of these strands together and creates a nightmare for the heroine. The fact that the stepbrother and the ex wife never get their comeuppance are huge dangling threads at the end. Same with the hero never apologizing or recognizing the enormity of sending a 16 year-old girl home in the dark after such a traumatic experience. I was waiting for that remorse and didn't get it.
Heroine is not going to have an easy life with diva ex-wife always lurking, a step daughter who is susceptible to her mother's influence, a hostile village and the step brother who doesn't know when to quit. But she does have some weapons-grade snark and I'm sure she hone skill as needed.
Not the sweet Christmas story I was expecting - but then I don't like sweet Christmas stories, so three stars. :)
Traumatic backstory for heroine:
At 16 she was given a spiked drink, stripped of her clothes and dumped in the hero's bed by his stepbrother who was fooling around with the hero's actress wife. Hero thought she was a prostitute and after she recovered consciousness made her do the walk of shame to find her way home. Heroine still has nightmares six years later.
Complicated family life for the hero:
Hero is some kind of finance guy who divorced his wife around the same time his evil stepbrother was throwing parties in his house. He got full custody of his daughter (now 9) and his evil wife is in California. They have just moved back to their country house. Hero has an OW who convinced him to put the daughter in a snobby school. There is an incompetent nanny who lets the daughter sit in a cafe alone after her piano lessons. Heroine is a waitress in the cafe and that's how she meets the daughter.
Evil rando characters:
Heroine's landlord snoops in her apartment when she's not there. Hasn't fixed the wiring so it burns down.
Headteacher blackballs hero's daughter from the Christmas play because of who her mother is.
Heroine's aunt turns on her after father dies, leaving her alone in the world.
Evil stepbrother of the hero who turns up *again* and tries to blackmail the heroine with what *he *did to her when she was underage.
Local perfume shop is a front for selling cocaine.
Continuing destruction of the ex-wife:
She comes "home" for Christmas and brings a puppy, another Christmas tree and a bad drug habit.
She slaps the heroine.
She has TV crews come in to introduce her daughter as the next child actor.
She tries to seduce the hero.
I know I'm not spelling out the plot, but believe me SC weaves all of these strands together and creates a nightmare for the heroine. The fact that the stepbrother and the ex wife never get their comeuppance are huge dangling threads at the end. Same with the hero never apologizing or recognizing the enormity of sending a 16 year-old girl home in the dark after such a traumatic experience. I was waiting for that remorse and didn't get it.
Heroine is not going to have an easy life with diva ex-wife always lurking, a step daughter who is susceptible to her mother's influence, a hostile village and the step brother who doesn't know when to quit. But she does have some weapons-grade snark and I'm sure she hone skill as needed.
Not the sweet Christmas story I was expecting - but then I don't like sweet Christmas stories, so three stars. :)
March 31, 2019
Re A Nanny For Christmas - Sara Craven gives us her version of a heartwarming holiday romance and the final entry in the Nanny Wanted series.
Naturally, as this IS Sara Craven and she never does heartwarming romance when she can do quality snark, gropey forced roofie kisses and a massive amount of tart shaming, this isn't your average HP holiday of joy.
The h in this one is a newly minted 22 yr old librarian looking for a post and working in a tea room when the story starts.
Her beloved father lost the family fortune and then died, leaving the h alone except for a nasty, whingeing aunt who claimed that the h's father's failure reflected badly on the family - completely forgetting all the many, many times the h's father helped the aunt's husband out when they were having their own financial woes.
However, as with all SC heroines, adversity has made this h strong and she has some quality snark under her hair. When she was 16 and vulnerable, she was wooed by a dubious young lothario looking to get revenge on his stepbrother after the slimy lothario was caught sleeping with his stepbrother's wife- in the stepbrother's bed.
To facilitate this revenge scheme, one of the girls at the h's exclusive school frenemied her and between the lothario and the skeevy girl, they got the h drunk to the point of black out, stripped her naked and put her in that same adulterous bed.
The lothario's stepbrother found the 16 yr old h in the bed later, when he had brought some more respectable guests back for a small celebration. He was pretty mean and nasty about kicking the h out. He called her a tart and let the poor girl find her own way home in the dark and from a remote area.
The frenemy girl wasn't very kind when the h confronted her the next day and the skeevy slime swiller's frenemy mother pronounced the h a bad influence and booted her out of the family manse, cutting short the h's visit.
The h was horribly shocked, embarrassed and still has PTSD from the attack. But fortunately the skeevy slime frenemy never returned to the h's school the next term. Hopefully she got abducted by Russian Mob Genre Slavers when she moved to Spain later that year with her equally nasty parents.
The entire incident and it's aftermath did help the h develop a harder shell and did take care of any naiveté over the ways of the bad, wicked world. So when the h finds herself orphaned and out of work six years later, she is able to manage her care of herself.
Since her aunt begrudgingly took a year's lease on a rundown shack with bad wiring and a creepy landlord who is always dropping by, the h does have a place to stay until she can make her big break for a new life.
The h also has a temp job in a local tea room and it is here that she shows her still-caring heart. One of the h's customers is a little girl who is left to free range part of every afternoon by her man-chasing nanny.
When the nanny fails to appear one day to collect the little girl, the h decides to escort the child home and give her neglectful father an earful. When the h and the girl get to the child's home, it turns out to be the house of nightmares from six years earlier.
Unfortunately, the little girl's father is the same angry older stepbrother that kicked the h out so ignominiously six years earlier. He doesn't seem to recognize the h when she barges in and the h, to her credit, doesn't let her sudden nausea stop her from reading the man the riot act.
Eventually the girl's father realizes a few things: One-that he is a terrible father; Two - that his nanny has been wrecked on her boyfriend's motorbike and won't be available for childcare and Three - that this young miss from the tea room is smoking hot with a very nice shape and his daughter likes her and he can kill two birds with one stone, by schmoozing her up and getting her to work for him.
Except the h wants nothing to do with him and the verbal battle is fierce as the H tries to force the h to cooperate with him. Intense emotional blackmail over his daughter's well being almost gives him the win in the temporary nanny stakes, but it isn't until the h's temporary shack burns down that cements it for him.
The h is forced to take the temporary nanny appointment and SC decides to unleash the dogs of wanna be OW upon our hapless h. The first wanna be OW is a local lady who wants the H, his money and to see his despised daughter off to a prison of boarding school.
She is grandly patronizing of both the h and the little girl, but this h is no shrinking violet. For every patronizing comment and remark the wanna be OW makes, the h fires the verbal equivalent of an Uzi back at her smug, spiteful face.
The H is vastly amused by this and growing more attracted by the day. He still provokes the h by encouraging the wanna be OW to visit, when he can manage to keep from roofie kissing and groping the h.
Eventually tho, even a calculating wanna be OW will overplay her hand. The snot snarfing miss soon gets sped upon her way when she keeps the H's daughter from getting a part in the school's Nativity Play.
The h realizes the little girl is having a hard time at the wanna be OW's choice of school. The H's ex wife is a famous actress who was very indiscriminate in both her party guests and in keeping her hands off the local wives' husbands. So there is a concerted effort to isolate and hurt the little girl as a scapegoat for the anger the local ladies feel over the H's actress ex wife.
In a very nicely done scene, the h delivers her trademark snarky put down to the wanna be OW and the H delivers the coup de grace. He berates the bovine snot queen for sabotaging his daughter, tells her she is now wanna be OW history and speeds her on her way to the mists of HPlandia.
The H also decides to send his daughter to a nicer school in the New Year. The h is happy that her little charge is finally getting a fair chance in life and things are cruising along - tho the H has to take an unexpected business trip.
Then the skeezy, slime gulper lothario shows up and tries it on again with the h. This time tho the h is willing and able to fight back and after a few days, the slime gulper lothario wanders off again. The H finds out and he is livid that the h let him stay, we then learn that the H has figured out who the h was from six years earlier.
The h never gets the chance to explain her side of the story, tho the H looks a bit abashed when he realizes that she was only 16 then and he was heavily lusting after her. Before anything truly explosive on the lurve force mojo front can occur, the H's ex wife calls up to announce she is coming for Christmas.
The actress ex-wife shows up with a puppy and there is some serious hints that her career is finished, apparently the woman had a sniffing problem of the white powder sort and her antics got her blackballed in Hollywood.
The h is subject to more patronizing remarks and it appears that the H may be thinking of a reconciliation with his ex wife, after he gets the adorably badly behaving puppy training in hand.
But when it becomes apparent that the woman is only there to try and exploit her daughter as the next big child star in a Show Biz Mother Return to Hollywood Attempt, the h realizes that she is madly in love and it may be time for her to leave.
Things blow up in a big way before the h can get herself together enough to go. There is a huge scene with the ex wife and the h is slapped after she finally loses her temper enough to tell the bovine snot sniffer just how horrible a person she really is.
The H wanders in during all of this and kicks the h out of his house. The h goes to her friend's house to have a mopey moment and contemplate her sad Christmas Day all alone. Then the H shows up, he got a key from the h's friend and finally he is ready to explain.
The ex-wife is going to drug rehab, if she gets clean she can see her daughter again. (She had been making daily purchases of cocaine at the local perfumery shop.) The H says he is in love with the h and the h is now convinced he doesn't want to try and work things out with his ex again.
(The H claims he had to be low key about the big scene with the ex cause he was trying to do the right thing and keep his daughter from realizing just how badly her mother was acting.
Which is kinda kudos to SC for thinking of the little girl and wanting to minimize the drama, but really the H should have hauled the bovine snot sniffer off and tossed her out the front door.
I know that an appearance of amicability in front of the children is an HP Higher Path Rule, but this IS HPlandia, and I wanted some ex-wife hiney kicking drama.)
Sadly, the h buys into the H's pathetic excuses for his wanna be OW tolerance and she declares she will marry the H when he humbly asks -- tho she does tell him that it is only for his daughter's sake that she tolerates him.
So with a snarky little comeback and a dashing off to the H's waiting sleigh, we leave these two snark masters to an undetermined future and a very SC HP Sorta Christmas HEA.
This one is well done on the multiple plots lines and the wanna be evil OW are simply divine. The h had a backbone, except for her treacherous body syndrome for the H, and the little girl was cute in a plot moppet kind of way.
I felt the h deserved a better H tho and a whole lot more romance. As it was, we only get a hint of future romance in promissory notes owed to the h from the H at the end and that doesn't exactly leave an HP Voyager with the happy feeling of truly Rosy Glow HEA.
Naturally, as this IS Sara Craven and she never does heartwarming romance when she can do quality snark, gropey forced roofie kisses and a massive amount of tart shaming, this isn't your average HP holiday of joy.
The h in this one is a newly minted 22 yr old librarian looking for a post and working in a tea room when the story starts.
Her beloved father lost the family fortune and then died, leaving the h alone except for a nasty, whingeing aunt who claimed that the h's father's failure reflected badly on the family - completely forgetting all the many, many times the h's father helped the aunt's husband out when they were having their own financial woes.
However, as with all SC heroines, adversity has made this h strong and she has some quality snark under her hair. When she was 16 and vulnerable, she was wooed by a dubious young lothario looking to get revenge on his stepbrother after the slimy lothario was caught sleeping with his stepbrother's wife- in the stepbrother's bed.
To facilitate this revenge scheme, one of the girls at the h's exclusive school frenemied her and between the lothario and the skeevy girl, they got the h drunk to the point of black out, stripped her naked and put her in that same adulterous bed.
The lothario's stepbrother found the 16 yr old h in the bed later, when he had brought some more respectable guests back for a small celebration. He was pretty mean and nasty about kicking the h out. He called her a tart and let the poor girl find her own way home in the dark and from a remote area.
The frenemy girl wasn't very kind when the h confronted her the next day and the skeevy slime swiller's frenemy mother pronounced the h a bad influence and booted her out of the family manse, cutting short the h's visit.
The h was horribly shocked, embarrassed and still has PTSD from the attack. But fortunately the skeevy slime frenemy never returned to the h's school the next term. Hopefully she got abducted by Russian Mob Genre Slavers when she moved to Spain later that year with her equally nasty parents.
The entire incident and it's aftermath did help the h develop a harder shell and did take care of any naiveté over the ways of the bad, wicked world. So when the h finds herself orphaned and out of work six years later, she is able to manage her care of herself.
Since her aunt begrudgingly took a year's lease on a rundown shack with bad wiring and a creepy landlord who is always dropping by, the h does have a place to stay until she can make her big break for a new life.
The h also has a temp job in a local tea room and it is here that she shows her still-caring heart. One of the h's customers is a little girl who is left to free range part of every afternoon by her man-chasing nanny.
When the nanny fails to appear one day to collect the little girl, the h decides to escort the child home and give her neglectful father an earful. When the h and the girl get to the child's home, it turns out to be the house of nightmares from six years earlier.
Unfortunately, the little girl's father is the same angry older stepbrother that kicked the h out so ignominiously six years earlier. He doesn't seem to recognize the h when she barges in and the h, to her credit, doesn't let her sudden nausea stop her from reading the man the riot act.
Eventually the girl's father realizes a few things: One-that he is a terrible father; Two - that his nanny has been wrecked on her boyfriend's motorbike and won't be available for childcare and Three - that this young miss from the tea room is smoking hot with a very nice shape and his daughter likes her and he can kill two birds with one stone, by schmoozing her up and getting her to work for him.
Except the h wants nothing to do with him and the verbal battle is fierce as the H tries to force the h to cooperate with him. Intense emotional blackmail over his daughter's well being almost gives him the win in the temporary nanny stakes, but it isn't until the h's temporary shack burns down that cements it for him.
The h is forced to take the temporary nanny appointment and SC decides to unleash the dogs of wanna be OW upon our hapless h. The first wanna be OW is a local lady who wants the H, his money and to see his despised daughter off to a prison of boarding school.
She is grandly patronizing of both the h and the little girl, but this h is no shrinking violet. For every patronizing comment and remark the wanna be OW makes, the h fires the verbal equivalent of an Uzi back at her smug, spiteful face.
The H is vastly amused by this and growing more attracted by the day. He still provokes the h by encouraging the wanna be OW to visit, when he can manage to keep from roofie kissing and groping the h.
Eventually tho, even a calculating wanna be OW will overplay her hand. The snot snarfing miss soon gets sped upon her way when she keeps the H's daughter from getting a part in the school's Nativity Play.
The h realizes the little girl is having a hard time at the wanna be OW's choice of school. The H's ex wife is a famous actress who was very indiscriminate in both her party guests and in keeping her hands off the local wives' husbands. So there is a concerted effort to isolate and hurt the little girl as a scapegoat for the anger the local ladies feel over the H's actress ex wife.
In a very nicely done scene, the h delivers her trademark snarky put down to the wanna be OW and the H delivers the coup de grace. He berates the bovine snot queen for sabotaging his daughter, tells her she is now wanna be OW history and speeds her on her way to the mists of HPlandia.
The H also decides to send his daughter to a nicer school in the New Year. The h is happy that her little charge is finally getting a fair chance in life and things are cruising along - tho the H has to take an unexpected business trip.
Then the skeezy, slime gulper lothario shows up and tries it on again with the h. This time tho the h is willing and able to fight back and after a few days, the slime gulper lothario wanders off again. The H finds out and he is livid that the h let him stay, we then learn that the H has figured out who the h was from six years earlier.
The h never gets the chance to explain her side of the story, tho the H looks a bit abashed when he realizes that she was only 16 then and he was heavily lusting after her. Before anything truly explosive on the lurve force mojo front can occur, the H's ex wife calls up to announce she is coming for Christmas.
The actress ex-wife shows up with a puppy and there is some serious hints that her career is finished, apparently the woman had a sniffing problem of the white powder sort and her antics got her blackballed in Hollywood.
The h is subject to more patronizing remarks and it appears that the H may be thinking of a reconciliation with his ex wife, after he gets the adorably badly behaving puppy training in hand.
But when it becomes apparent that the woman is only there to try and exploit her daughter as the next big child star in a Show Biz Mother Return to Hollywood Attempt, the h realizes that she is madly in love and it may be time for her to leave.
Things blow up in a big way before the h can get herself together enough to go. There is a huge scene with the ex wife and the h is slapped after she finally loses her temper enough to tell the bovine snot sniffer just how horrible a person she really is.
The H wanders in during all of this and kicks the h out of his house. The h goes to her friend's house to have a mopey moment and contemplate her sad Christmas Day all alone. Then the H shows up, he got a key from the h's friend and finally he is ready to explain.
The ex-wife is going to drug rehab, if she gets clean she can see her daughter again. (She had been making daily purchases of cocaine at the local perfumery shop.) The H says he is in love with the h and the h is now convinced he doesn't want to try and work things out with his ex again.
(The H claims he had to be low key about the big scene with the ex cause he was trying to do the right thing and keep his daughter from realizing just how badly her mother was acting.
Which is kinda kudos to SC for thinking of the little girl and wanting to minimize the drama, but really the H should have hauled the bovine snot sniffer off and tossed her out the front door.
I know that an appearance of amicability in front of the children is an HP Higher Path Rule, but this IS HPlandia, and I wanted some ex-wife hiney kicking drama.)
Sadly, the h buys into the H's pathetic excuses for his wanna be OW tolerance and she declares she will marry the H when he humbly asks -- tho she does tell him that it is only for his daughter's sake that she tolerates him.
So with a snarky little comeback and a dashing off to the H's waiting sleigh, we leave these two snark masters to an undetermined future and a very SC HP Sorta Christmas HEA.
This one is well done on the multiple plots lines and the wanna be evil OW are simply divine. The h had a backbone, except for her treacherous body syndrome for the H, and the little girl was cute in a plot moppet kind of way.
I felt the h deserved a better H tho and a whole lot more romance. As it was, we only get a hint of future romance in promissory notes owed to the h from the H at the end and that doesn't exactly leave an HP Voyager with the happy feeling of truly Rosy Glow HEA.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2017
With the title containing nannies and Christmases, I wasn’t expecting Sara Craven to be the author!
And shockingly, the H turned out to be a nice, almost mild guy, so I was getting more disoriented.
Alternately, the h was snarky, prickly with multiple chips on shoulders, but still relatable and likable. The H showed an awful amount of patience to her rudeness.
“I'm not hungry,' she snapped.
'Truly?' His smile widened. 'You look to me as if you're ready to take a bite out of something.”
And…
“I , suppose this is where I dissolve into grateful tears.'
'If you dissolved into anything, you little shrew, I'd expect it to be sulphuric acid,' he said amiably. ”
I also enjoyed her taking on the ow no.1 and coming out tops.
“Miss Sinclair,' he said icily, 'is a very old friend.'
'But so well preserved,' said Phoebe brightly.”
There was a silence. 'Are you always so rude about comparative strangers?' he asked with dangerous calm.
'Invariably,' said Phoebe, not giving a hoot.”
“A nanny? You?' The other woman's voice was derisive. 'That's the last thing I'd have imagined.'
'Well, I didn't have you down as a flower arranger, so we can both be wrong,' Phoebe said, smiling sunnily.
'Are you trying to be insolent?' There were bright spots of colour burning in Miss Sinclair's cheeks”
Although, ow no. 2, the ex-wife was a different ballgame altogether.
But then for all this, it’s not a sunny Christmassy story, not really. It’s so much more. The back-story was highly angsty and disturbing. I felt terrible for the naïve 16 years old h who went through a terrible sexually humiliating ordeal. The H redeemed himself quite well, apart for a few minor jerk moments.
But the ending was tame and lacking in any originality.
January 3, 2015
This was a cute Christmas book. It seemed a little lighter than usual for Sara Craven, until the evil ex shows up and it gets real. And that woman was wretched! I can't imagine how much Dominic regrets marrying her, except for his daughter. When it's just Phoebe, Dominic and Tara, this almost has a sweet feel, a family oriented holiday romance. It's nicely steamy in parts, but appropriate to the subject matter. Phoebe is perfectly likable, an orphan with a bit of a Cinderellaesque feel. Dominic is a hot dad who is on the intense side. And Tara seems troubled, missing the love of a mother. It works perfectly well for a reader looking for a holiday themed contemporary romance including children. Enough said.
April 11, 2015
Sixteen year old Phoebe was a shy good girl when she made a terrible friend and her life was ruined. She’s conned, and ends up drunk and naked in some man’s bed. It’s all pretty nasty really, with the guy she thought liked her undressing her and feeling her up while she’s out of it, and her non-friend being all ‘stop touching that loser, you get to have me’ while various other personages stand around and laugh and probably comment on her boobs and bits.
When Phoebe wakes up, there’s a man. His name is Dominic, and he’s all ‘get out of my bed you hussy, I ain’t buying what you’re selling … or maybe I am? Nope, sneer, sneer, that twenty quid I have just now flung on the floor is for you to get a taxi out of my life forever!’ Incidentally, flinging notes on the floor is really unsatisfying. Or at least it is with Australian money, I’ve tried it. We’ve got plastic colour money and it just sort of flutters around prettily and lands wherever it likes. It’s impossible to properly degrade someone by flinging Australian money at them – you would both just end up giggling over how cute it is. It’s been some time since I’ve held pound notes, but I recall them as pastel and papery, and likely to just drift softly and politely to the carpet.
The proper way to degrade someone with paper money is to shove it into cleavage or pockets, or to wave it in front of them, and then whip it away when they try to take it.
Anyway, Phoebe has six years to dwell on how humiliating that morning was before she meets Dominic again. She’s got her qualification as a librarian, but for the usual romance heroine reasons she’s working a temp job at a local café. There’s a little girl, Tara, who comes in each afternoon to order a cute little girl drink and a treat, before she’s picked up by a blonde Australian. One afternoon, the blonde Australian is a no show, and Phoebe decides she’ll take Tara home and give some neglectful father a piece of her mind.
As the taxi pulls up at that terrible house, the scene of Phoebe’s humiliation, Phoebe comforts herself that it can’t be Dominic she’ll encounter. And yet of course it is.
Once Dominic’s had a chance to be all thunderous about some nosy girl telling him he’s a bad parent, he decides that he wants Phoebe to come and live with him, so that he has someone pretty to seduce during dinner, and Tara has a responsible adult to take her to school and put her to bed. Getting Phoebe to agree to replace the blonde Australian as Tara’s nanny, when the blonde Australian turns out to have broken a collarbone when she and her boyfriend crashed his motorcycle, is a tough sell. Phoebe’s very determined to not have anything to do with Dominic, and the plot has to cruelly burn her house down to make sure she has no other options.
Phoebe is a nosy, snarky character and clearly has grown a tougher shell since she was sixteen. She was great at telling everyone they weren’t doing their jobs properly with respect to Tara, and she was particularly fetching when she was being sarcastic to Hazel.
This story has two scheming hussies – Hazel, and Dominic’s movie star ex wife. I was particularly fond of Hazel, she turned up in a cape and an Alice band. This is perfect villain wear, and she was really enthusiastic about being awful. She was a combination of the Baroness from ‘the Sound of Music’ and Mr Brocklehurst from ‘Jane Eyre.’ She was always turning up to treat Phoebe like a minion and making attempts to get Tara locked up in boarding school.
In a way, Hazel’s right about this. Phoebe keeps dropping hints that Dominic ought to marry so Tara has a mother, because Dominic is clearly too busy and too male to effectively parent a child. However, establishing a stable home environment for Tara denies her any future as a romance heroine. How is she going to fall prey to an alpha male with attachment issues if she’s been raised in a stable, loving environment with a caring father and stepmother?
Dominic is a bit of an oddity. He starts hinting early on that he’s going to get Tara a mother, and the reader knows, given his indifference towards both Hazel and the ex, that he’s got Phoebe in his sights. It’s hard to know what’s going through his noggin. It’s probably just ‘Phoebe’s hot, I’d hit that. And Tara likes her, so job done.’ He has a dry to non-existent sense of humour, and Phoebe has to get him good and riled before he attempts a seduction.
There’s some yearning, and plenty of conflict and battles with the scheming hussies, the return of that creepy guy who got Phoebe drunk and felt her up that one time, and sympathy for poor little Tara. However there’s not a great deal of heat in this book. Perhaps there’s supposed to be some reliance on that scene six years ago as a catalyst to their romance, but Dominic was an adult, getting a divorce, and Tara would have been a year old. He had more than enough mess going on in his life and I don’t buy him being forever struck by the beauty of a naked vomiting sixteen year old. I preferred to regard it as background to Phoebe’s reluctance to get involved with Dominic, because it was all completely unsexy.
At least the scheming hussies were so awful and fun. Especially Hazel, turning up in that cape – such a great villain moment.
When Phoebe wakes up, there’s a man. His name is Dominic, and he’s all ‘get out of my bed you hussy, I ain’t buying what you’re selling … or maybe I am? Nope, sneer, sneer, that twenty quid I have just now flung on the floor is for you to get a taxi out of my life forever!’ Incidentally, flinging notes on the floor is really unsatisfying. Or at least it is with Australian money, I’ve tried it. We’ve got plastic colour money and it just sort of flutters around prettily and lands wherever it likes. It’s impossible to properly degrade someone by flinging Australian money at them – you would both just end up giggling over how cute it is. It’s been some time since I’ve held pound notes, but I recall them as pastel and papery, and likely to just drift softly and politely to the carpet.
The proper way to degrade someone with paper money is to shove it into cleavage or pockets, or to wave it in front of them, and then whip it away when they try to take it.
Anyway, Phoebe has six years to dwell on how humiliating that morning was before she meets Dominic again. She’s got her qualification as a librarian, but for the usual romance heroine reasons she’s working a temp job at a local café. There’s a little girl, Tara, who comes in each afternoon to order a cute little girl drink and a treat, before she’s picked up by a blonde Australian. One afternoon, the blonde Australian is a no show, and Phoebe decides she’ll take Tara home and give some neglectful father a piece of her mind.
As the taxi pulls up at that terrible house, the scene of Phoebe’s humiliation, Phoebe comforts herself that it can’t be Dominic she’ll encounter. And yet of course it is.
Once Dominic’s had a chance to be all thunderous about some nosy girl telling him he’s a bad parent, he decides that he wants Phoebe to come and live with him, so that he has someone pretty to seduce during dinner, and Tara has a responsible adult to take her to school and put her to bed. Getting Phoebe to agree to replace the blonde Australian as Tara’s nanny, when the blonde Australian turns out to have broken a collarbone when she and her boyfriend crashed his motorcycle, is a tough sell. Phoebe’s very determined to not have anything to do with Dominic, and the plot has to cruelly burn her house down to make sure she has no other options.
Phoebe is a nosy, snarky character and clearly has grown a tougher shell since she was sixteen. She was great at telling everyone they weren’t doing their jobs properly with respect to Tara, and she was particularly fetching when she was being sarcastic to Hazel.
This story has two scheming hussies – Hazel, and Dominic’s movie star ex wife. I was particularly fond of Hazel, she turned up in a cape and an Alice band. This is perfect villain wear, and she was really enthusiastic about being awful. She was a combination of the Baroness from ‘the Sound of Music’ and Mr Brocklehurst from ‘Jane Eyre.’ She was always turning up to treat Phoebe like a minion and making attempts to get Tara locked up in boarding school.
In a way, Hazel’s right about this. Phoebe keeps dropping hints that Dominic ought to marry so Tara has a mother, because Dominic is clearly too busy and too male to effectively parent a child. However, establishing a stable home environment for Tara denies her any future as a romance heroine. How is she going to fall prey to an alpha male with attachment issues if she’s been raised in a stable, loving environment with a caring father and stepmother?
Dominic is a bit of an oddity. He starts hinting early on that he’s going to get Tara a mother, and the reader knows, given his indifference towards both Hazel and the ex, that he’s got Phoebe in his sights. It’s hard to know what’s going through his noggin. It’s probably just ‘Phoebe’s hot, I’d hit that. And Tara likes her, so job done.’ He has a dry to non-existent sense of humour, and Phoebe has to get him good and riled before he attempts a seduction.
There’s some yearning, and plenty of conflict and battles with the scheming hussies, the return of that creepy guy who got Phoebe drunk and felt her up that one time, and sympathy for poor little Tara. However there’s not a great deal of heat in this book. Perhaps there’s supposed to be some reliance on that scene six years ago as a catalyst to their romance, but Dominic was an adult, getting a divorce, and Tara would have been a year old. He had more than enough mess going on in his life and I don’t buy him being forever struck by the beauty of a naked vomiting sixteen year old. I preferred to regard it as background to Phoebe’s reluctance to get involved with Dominic, because it was all completely unsexy.
At least the scheming hussies were so awful and fun. Especially Hazel, turning up in that cape – such a great villain moment.
March 1, 2018
A really sweet Christmas read.
The H was a good guy. The h was a sweetheart. The daughter was adorable.
Then there was the wanna-be OW. Too bad, so sad honey!
And the movie star ex-wife. Cocaine’s one helluva drug!
I will read this one again. Around Christmas, next time.
The H was a good guy. The h was a sweetheart. The daughter was adorable.
Then there was the wanna-be OW. Too bad, so sad honey!
And the movie star ex-wife. Cocaine’s one helluva drug!
I will read this one again. Around Christmas, next time.
August 15, 2021
3 Stars
I read this book many years ago but I forgot a lot of it, except of course how Dominic was a complete moron for what he did to Phoebe six years prior. Though I felt sorry for Phoebe, I still felt that she gave up to her desires too easily. And I also didn't feel that Dominic did anything that was worth falling for. For me, he was still an a**hole by the end of the book and he didn't deserve Phoebe.
I read this book many years ago but I forgot a lot of it, except of course how Dominic was a complete moron for what he did to Phoebe six years prior. Though I felt sorry for Phoebe, I still felt that she gave up to her desires too easily. And I also didn't feel that Dominic did anything that was worth falling for. For me, he was still an a**hole by the end of the book and he didn't deserve Phoebe.
February 19, 2017
A feel good Christmas book , I must say .
Phoebe is a strong , independent young FL trying hard to live her life while her bitter past haunts her with sleepless nights . She lost her father , who happen to be her only family .
A 7 yr Tara develops deep attachment towards phoebe and wants her to be her Nanny . Tara's father , who also happen to be the dark demon in those haunted dreams of Phoebe seems to not recognise phoebe at all.
When Phoebe's house catches fire she is left with no other option than to rely on him for support , though she wanted to run away , she stays there for Tara . Soon she finds herself in love with him when things slowly clear. And of course Dominic ( Tara's father ) is smitten by Phoebe from day one .
While people like Hazel ( Dominic's old friend and would be ) , Serena ( Dominic's ex-wife) , and Tony (The one who cheated Phoebe when she was 16, who also happens to be Dominic's stepbrother) create troubles , these two will fall in love DEEPLY than ever before .
I loved Carrie very much :) she is a sweetheart .
Phoebe is a strong , independent young FL trying hard to live her life while her bitter past haunts her with sleepless nights . She lost her father , who happen to be her only family .
A 7 yr Tara develops deep attachment towards phoebe and wants her to be her Nanny . Tara's father , who also happen to be the dark demon in those haunted dreams of Phoebe seems to not recognise phoebe at all.
When Phoebe's house catches fire she is left with no other option than to rely on him for support , though she wanted to run away , she stays there for Tara . Soon she finds herself in love with him when things slowly clear. And of course Dominic ( Tara's father ) is smitten by Phoebe from day one .
While people like Hazel ( Dominic's old friend and would be ) , Serena ( Dominic's ex-wife) , and Tony (The one who cheated Phoebe when she was 16, who also happens to be Dominic's stepbrother) create troubles , these two will fall in love DEEPLY than ever before .
I loved Carrie very much :) she is a sweetheart .
August 24, 2021
If you are looking for the lightness of Miracle on 34th Street then you will be disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, there is an adorable plot moppet.
She already has the house, a wealthy, loving but sometimes absent dad, and a mom who has abandoned her. Even her current nanny sees the child as a paycheck. So, she has wishes. She wishes the h Phoebe would be her new nanny, and she wishes her mom would come and see her.
Her first wish comes true and Phoebe the h becomes her new nanny, but this brings up a host of traumatic memories for Phoebe so she only agrees to be a nanny until the New Year(6-7 weeks away). She does it for Tara, because Tara is delightful and needs someone in her corner for a change. It makes sense that our h would want to do this for the child as her own past experience shows that not many people have been in her corner in the past. Unfortunately, the child’s father, the H Dominic is one of those people from her past that has added to her trauma. He doesn’t seem to recognize her. Her trauma really spoke to me, and I never felt that the people involved got their just desserts. No worries not as Graphic or disturbing as Carrie but what she endured has given her nightmares for the last 6 years. So here is the scoop:
So because of the trauma where the H played an unwilling participant, she does not hide her distaste for the H. She is contrary to anything he says, and even when he leaves her a generous tip at her waitressing job, she gives it to a coworker. However, trauma for our h isn’t over and when she loses her temporary job and her apartment to fire, she decides she can suck it up and go live with the H to nanny his daughter. While there the H keeps after her as they definitely have a strong attraction for each other. It isn’t long and the two have some pretty intense make out sessions(never sex). However, the H pushes the h away and they try to stay out of each other’s paths. In the meantime the h has to deal with an evil wannabe ow. Our h’s thoughts on the ow are humorous and she doesn’t let the ow get away without tossing out her own jabs. Then there is the reappearance of the step brother who caused the bulk of the h’s trauma in her past. Finally, the plot moppet gets her 2nd wish and her mom comes back from Hollywood to reunite with her ex husband and child. She wants to make a go of things and successfully convinces that all systems are a go to the h(especially when she enters the H’s room in a sexy black neglige). The ex wife is all about appearances and invites tv crews etc to interview her new direction in life and commitment to family.
She also has plans for her daughter to be the next big child star.
However, our ex wife kind of loses it and when she starts berating her daughter, the h just can’t sit back and she lets the ex have it. The ex slaps her, and the H overhearing everything tells the h she needs to pack a bag and go. This appeases the the ex wife. So the h goes to a friend’s house for Christmas and is sad, but is pretty much used to having things go wrong in her life and figures she will just start over again.
Her friends go to leave to deliver presents to family and the h is alone at their house. Then she hears the key in the door believing her friends to have forgotten something only to see that the H is standing there.
The avowals of love are there for the HEA, but the ending is rather abrupt(we don’t even see Tara again). I was reading it online and was thinking the last page was cut off. Nope, according to other reviewers the story ends with a comment from the h saying she is marrying the H for Tara’s sake. It’s said in jest but left me deflated. I really needed more, or at least an epilogue a few christmases down the road. Maybe an epilogue would be hard to pull off, as the ex is still in the picture, and Tony the errant step brother isn’t too far away. We can only hope that the ex’s career takes off again and she is absent often and that Tony ends up dead after sleeping with a mafia guy’s wife! Oh well, one can dream!
Stmargarets has a pretty good summation of the story here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
She already has the house, a wealthy, loving but sometimes absent dad, and a mom who has abandoned her. Even her current nanny sees the child as a paycheck. So, she has wishes. She wishes the h Phoebe would be her new nanny, and she wishes her mom would come and see her.
Her first wish comes true and Phoebe the h becomes her new nanny, but this brings up a host of traumatic memories for Phoebe so she only agrees to be a nanny until the New Year(6-7 weeks away). She does it for Tara, because Tara is delightful and needs someone in her corner for a change. It makes sense that our h would want to do this for the child as her own past experience shows that not many people have been in her corner in the past. Unfortunately, the child’s father, the H Dominic is one of those people from her past that has added to her trauma. He doesn’t seem to recognize her. Her trauma really spoke to me, and I never felt that the people involved got their just desserts. No worries not as Graphic or disturbing as Carrie but what she endured has given her nightmares for the last 6 years. So here is the scoop:
So because of the trauma where the H played an unwilling participant, she does not hide her distaste for the H. She is contrary to anything he says, and even when he leaves her a generous tip at her waitressing job, she gives it to a coworker. However, trauma for our h isn’t over and when she loses her temporary job and her apartment to fire, she decides she can suck it up and go live with the H to nanny his daughter. While there the H keeps after her as they definitely have a strong attraction for each other. It isn’t long and the two have some pretty intense make out sessions(never sex). However, the H pushes the h away and they try to stay out of each other’s paths. In the meantime the h has to deal with an evil wannabe ow. Our h’s thoughts on the ow are humorous and she doesn’t let the ow get away without tossing out her own jabs. Then there is the reappearance of the step brother who caused the bulk of the h’s trauma in her past. Finally, the plot moppet gets her 2nd wish and her mom comes back from Hollywood to reunite with her ex husband and child. She wants to make a go of things and successfully convinces that all systems are a go to the h(especially when she enters the H’s room in a sexy black neglige). The ex wife is all about appearances and invites tv crews etc to interview her new direction in life and commitment to family.
She also has plans for her daughter to be the next big child star.
However, our ex wife kind of loses it and when she starts berating her daughter, the h just can’t sit back and she lets the ex have it. The ex slaps her, and the H overhearing everything tells the h she needs to pack a bag and go. This appeases the the ex wife. So the h goes to a friend’s house for Christmas and is sad, but is pretty much used to having things go wrong in her life and figures she will just start over again.
Her friends go to leave to deliver presents to family and the h is alone at their house. Then she hears the key in the door believing her friends to have forgotten something only to see that the H is standing there.
The avowals of love are there for the HEA, but the ending is rather abrupt(we don’t even see Tara again). I was reading it online and was thinking the last page was cut off. Nope, according to other reviewers the story ends with a comment from the h saying she is marrying the H for Tara’s sake. It’s said in jest but left me deflated. I really needed more, or at least an epilogue a few christmases down the road. Maybe an epilogue would be hard to pull off, as the ex is still in the picture, and Tony the errant step brother isn’t too far away. We can only hope that the ex’s career takes off again and she is absent often and that Tony ends up dead after sleeping with a mafia guy’s wife! Oh well, one can dream!
Stmargarets has a pretty good summation of the story here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
January 14, 2015
3 1/2 Stars ~ When Phoebe was a very vulnerable 16, she'd had a crush on a young man who was only playing her along. He and his friends set her up as a prank on his elder step-brother, leading to her humiliation and scarring her with nightmares of the step-brother's demeaning treatment of her. Now 6 years later, having finished her university and looking for a job as a librarian, she takes a temporary job as a waitress in a tea room. A young girl comes in each afternoon and Phoebe becomes her friend. When Tara's nanny fails to meet her one day, Phoebe takes her home. Much to her shock Tara's home turns out to be the house in her nightmares and Dominic is the man who stars in them. She's relieved when Dominic doesn't seem to remember her, and promptly lets him know what his nanny has been up to by leaving the girl at the tea room on her own. When Dominic can't find a nanny as it's nearing the Christmas holidays, he asks Phoebe if she'll step in. Thinking of the child's needs, she agrees, but only until the New Year. And just as life is settling down nicely, her teenage crush shows up and threatens to reveal who she is.
I would have enjoyed this story more had we been privy to Dominic's thoughts, though Ms. Craven gave some very subtle clues to how he felt. Phoebe is a strong young woman even though her self-esteem is still bruised from the events of 6 years before. I loved her internal dialogues and thought how hilarious it would be if she'd only voice them out loud. She doesn't take any guff from the OW, nor from the evil ex-wife, and though she's afraid of her own emotions when it comes to Dominic, she stands up to him too especially when it comes to Tara's welfare. The HEA seemed rather rushed, which left me feeling disappointed. All in all this was a pleasant few hours of reading.
I would have enjoyed this story more had we been privy to Dominic's thoughts, though Ms. Craven gave some very subtle clues to how he felt. Phoebe is a strong young woman even though her self-esteem is still bruised from the events of 6 years before. I loved her internal dialogues and thought how hilarious it would be if she'd only voice them out loud. She doesn't take any guff from the OW, nor from the evil ex-wife, and though she's afraid of her own emotions when it comes to Dominic, she stands up to him too especially when it comes to Tara's welfare. The HEA seemed rather rushed, which left me feeling disappointed. All in all this was a pleasant few hours of reading.
July 16, 2019
A Nanny for Christmas by Sara Craven
مطلوبة... مدى الحياة لسارة كريفن
مطلوبة... مدى الحياة لسارة كريفن
August 28, 2021
Whoa Nelly! That was a rollercoaster. Drop how they first met. It was pointless and didn't need to be overcome in the story. But I agree with the heroine's reaction, they might have not only scared me away from drinking, but friends and parties and WIGS! Drop the second tier other woman, she was annoying and didn't add anything substantial. The top tier other woman was so different from others in this genre! Really great take on it. Liked the daughter too, she was a character not just a plot device. Hero was a bit bland overall but hey, it's Christmas I suppose. The ending tripped up at the end but got there. I say read it for the holidays.
April 7, 2022
The H treats his ex-wife who cheated on him multiple times with multiple partners in their marital bed, his ex-girl friend who can’t be civil to his daughter better than he treats h who is a doormat and an idiot.
July 28, 2014
boring . total waste of time
July 18, 2020
Expected more there were loose ends to be tied but anyways cute read
September 16, 2022
Tagging this a 4 for my own purpose. I know I read it and some parts have really stuck so I'd like to read it again.
March 21, 2023
What the hell did I just read?
November 27, 2024
The plot twists were hilariously insane and far fetched 😂
June 3, 2020
More drama than romance, this explores the complicated relationship between two people at odds over an unfortunate incident that happened years previously. While they hate each other, of course soon fate intervenes and they are forced together against their will. Naturally, they come a new appreciation of each other and realise how badly they misjudged each other.
I really liked Phoebe's strength and determination in the face of almost total ruin, and Dominic's ambiguity throughout kept me guessing.
I really liked Phoebe's strength and determination in the face of almost total ruin, and Dominic's ambiguity throughout kept me guessing.
Read
May 20, 2016مطلوبة.. مدى الحياة (روايات أحلام #196)
تأليف سارة كريفن (تأليف)
عزيزي بابا نويل،
لن أختار هدية هذه السنة... سأطلب منك مربية جديدة... أرجوك أن ترسل لي واحدة...
أريدها أن تجيد قراءة القصص، واللعب، وأن تكون لطيفة مع دبّي الصغير... ومع أبي أيضاً...
كنت أريد أن طلب ماما، لكن بابا يقول إنها لن تعود... وهو يبذل جهداً ليأتيني بواحدة جديدة... لكنني لا أستطيع الانتظار... عليّ أن أحصل على مربية ترعاني إلى أن يجد لي أماً.
مع حبي تارا
تأليف سارة كريفن (تأليف)
عزيزي بابا نويل،
لن أختار هدية هذه السنة... سأطلب منك مربية جديدة... أرجوك أن ترسل لي واحدة...
أريدها أن تجيد قراءة القصص، واللعب، وأن تكون لطيفة مع دبّي الصغير... ومع أبي أيضاً...
كنت أريد أن طلب ماما، لكن بابا يقول إنها لن تعود... وهو يبذل جهداً ليأتيني بواحدة جديدة... لكنني لا أستطيع الانتظار... عليّ أن أحصل على مربية ترعاني إلى أن يجد لي أماً.
مع حبي تارا
June 30, 2023
Great h with backbone and dialogue but romance is weak. H recognizes h right away but still thinks she was willing 6 years ago. So how does he fall in love with her? Who knows. SC makes it clear h fears getting emotionally involved with h but again, why? He treated her horribly before, yet h realizes that he had to be incredibly hurt himself from slimy stepbrother and sleep around wife.
Reread, confirmed original thoughts.
Reread, confirmed original thoughts.
January 2, 2025
I really like an HP if I don't have an elaborate rewrite in my head to absolutely destroy the H and for this one I don't. He's not a bad guy and the HEA is really nice. Plus good writing and an h who sticks to her guns.
April 8, 2015
Actually 3,5 star. Nice story, loved H/h interaction and the dry humour. But the ending was too rushed. The ex wife conflict and the solution was cramped in the last two chapters. Phoebe didn't even get the chance to tell Dom the truth about that night.
January 31, 2012
This is a reissue from 1998. It was good, but felt a little dated. I didn't mind the phone booth thing, but the heroine's age and the overall issue bugged me some.
August 10, 2018
روايات أحلام 196
مطلوبة... مدى الحياة
مطلوبة... مدى الحياة
April 16, 2016
1.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews