Guilty pleasure novel, I only kept reading because the dad is hot but also because I was genuinely invested in the financial scandal part of this story.
I didn’t mind this protagonist, but the end of the novel will make you hate her I promise you because she is a groomer and I could not sympathise with her at all she should not be anywhere near kids or a school get her in jail for a million years. I got bullied at school for reading this during free reading period and honestly I should’ve gotten bullied more for it.

This was just okay, and has no business being 450 pages long. Could use some serious editing. The main character has no personality traits other than being judgmental, and all the women in the book relate to each other in mostly catty, competitive ways. The only character I really liked was Bryony, although I feel like the author doesn't want us to like her. Now that I think about it, this may be closer to two stars for me.

Okay read...though it moved a little slower than I wanted it to...

I really wanted to like this book but I could not get into it, and I gave it 100 pages...moving on...

Ali Sparrow needs money for her tuition for her course at the university and needs to get away from the university after having an affair with her tutor. An advert from Byrony and Nick Skinner for a nanny catches her eye. She applies and gets the job. She has no idea what she is in for.

Before she knows it, she becomes the mainstay of their lives. She is there for the five-year-old twins, for their teenage daughter and also keeping everything sorted for Byrony. As a nanny, she becomes the invisible presence around the house, like furniture, the person who is expected to be around when the family needed her, but also the person who needed to blend into the background when they needed her to. Nick and Byrony are a a golden couple, super busy, very rich couple living in the heart of London. Their lifestyle is as different as it could be from Ali's but somehow, Ali loves her job. Unlike the other nannies she comes across, she doesn't have much to complain about. She gets paid well, gets to go on holidays with the family, and Byrony is fair with her. She had signed up for a tenure of 1 year, but ends up staying longer, both because she needed the money to help her family, and because she was enjoying the job. Sometimes, as I read it, it annoyed me that she could enjoy it so much! I mean, how can someone enjoy so much of the donkey work? But I guess, that is how it is, isn't it? Each to his own.

All of a sudden, the bubble bursts. The family finds itself right in the middle of the financial scandal of 2008. Nick is in serious trouble, and it looks like he is about to take Byrony down with him. Overnight from high flyers, they become almost-fugitives. Trapped in their house, besieged by the press, all their so called friends keeping a safe distance from them, their housekeeper resigning from her post, life is suddenly a mess. The only person who stays put is Ali. Ali is now in a position to tell all, if she wants to. She realizes that you end up knowing a lot about the family, when you work in a position like that. The days that follow are a test of Ali's loyalty and honesty.

A very interesting tale. I had expected this to be something less serious and more fun, but I loved it! The credit crisis must be one of the financial scandals which most of us remember clearly. It was fascinating to read a book with characters who were so intimately involved in the scandal. And the effect it had on the families of these people. The lives that the rich lead are also very interesting, especially the way the help is treated. While Ali is not ill-treated or anything, it is a different type of environment, where you do so much for the family, but at the end of the day, are still just a help. The extravagance and the lavishness with which the Skinners and their peers lived their lives, must be such a contrast to the nannies' who live in with them. As you read the book, you kind of realize why so many nannies are out there, ready to reveal all about the rich and the famous that they worked with.

I really enjoyed this book. Possibly also because I started it with no expectations. This one, took a little time to get into momentum, but when it did, it was unputdownable. A very interesting book, realistic book, one that blended two very different topics and very successfully indeed.

I would rate it a 4/5.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. At first I thought it was going to be the British version of "The Nanny Diaries" and just a fun summer read. A few chapters in, however, I realized this was more substantial. I cared a lot about what was happening with these characters. I thought Ali, the narrator and title character, was a bit underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the characters, but overall was well-portrayed. I found myself wanting to get back to the book and find out what happened next.

The father of the family which employs the nanny works in finance, and there were a good number of conversations about finance and investments. I was able to skip over these paragraphs without detriment to the story, simply because I did not understand what they were saying. Anyone with a basic understanding of stocks and banking will probably find it interesting, but the details are not necessary to the plot.

I thought that the observations regarding the children's developments and the way the parents misinterpreted them was a great illustration of the disconnect between the parents and their children due to their rich and ambitious lifestyle, and there could have been a lot more focus on that.

Overall, it was a good book that I enjoyed reading and I would certainly look for other books from this author in the future.

This book started off a little slow and slightly dry but it got very good. I read Part 3 in one sitting because I could not put it down.

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, the story was a bit predictable and the author spent a lot of pages covering a short period of time, only to fast forward at the end. The end seemed rushed. All in all, it was a good and entertaining read.