Book Review: Nanny Returns

I loved The Nanny Diaries. It is definitely one of my favorite books of all time. The story was intriguing and heart warming and made you want to punch Mrs. X all at the same time. You couldn't help but fall in love with Grayer and want to go find a child to love that was just like him. I thought the movie was alright, but I'm not a huge Scarlett Johansson fan. I didn't picture Nanny looking like her, but whatever. 

 

I was thrilled when I heard that the sequel, Nanny Returns (by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus), was ready for pickup at the library. The summary from Amazon made me excited to read it:

Nan revisits 721 Park, home of the moneyed but morally bankrupt Xs, and the boy she guiltily left behind in their inept care in this smart and sassy sequel to The Nanny Diaries. And though Nan has grown up a bit, married Harvard Hottie Ryan and traveled the world, the plight of the rich and stupid continues, as does Nan's new crusade to save former charge Grayer and his younger brother Stilton, renovate a crumbling East Harlem mansion and stick it out at a soulless Manhattan private school. Outcomes are deeply uncertain, though Nan is nothing if not a natural-born cheerleader: I know what I'm worth. Because I care for these kids, I do, right down to my toes, she says of her young charges in and out of school. There's still one fear, however—whether she'll ever be able to make the leap from nanny to mommy. McLaughlin and Kraus leave no dry eyes as they once again wield a razor-sharp wit that cuts down the most uppity mortals even as it lifts up their vulnerable children. You could safely bet your first born that this'll be another smash hit.

I have to be honest. The first half of the book was really, really hard for me to get through. There was a lot of extraneous detail that I didn't enjoy and I had to make myself pick up the book several times with the hopes of getting through it. That was really disappointing, considering the fact that I loved the first book so much and could hardly put it down. 

However, as soon as we left for vacation, I promised myself that I would finish the book and I surely did. It really picked up halfway through and I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I don't know if it's hard for me to read during the school year because I can't stop thinking of everything I have to do, because as soon as we were "away from it all", I had no problem finishing. 

All in all, I'd give it five out of ten stars. It definitely didn't live up to Diaries, but really, how could it? I understand that, due to the way Diaries finished, it was a perfect setup for a sequel, but the many years that came between the two books (in the books-- 12 or so years) made the connection seem forced and unrealistic. Am I bummed that I took time to read it? Absolutely not. I think it's worth a read if you've read Diaries which I highly recommend. This may not have been McLaughlin and Kraus' best work, but I'm glad that I read it and was able to form my own opinion.

Have any of you read Nanny Returns? I'd be so interested to hear your thoughts!

Stay tuned for tomorrow; I'm going to review another book that I just finished that I absolutely loved.