Nanny Returns By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Images from Chapters.Indigo.caSomeone at my work was sent a copy of Nanny Returns in advanced and I luckily got my hands on it. I hadn't seen any press for it and had no idea a sequel was being written.

I loved The Nanny Diaries and remembered how emotionally invested I felt in the relationship between Nan and Grayer. It was one of my favourite books at the time...but I don't think I ever wished for a sequel.

And that was my major problem with this book...but I'll get to that!

So Nan is now ten years older and married to "Harvard hottie" Ryan (a relationship I always found a little hollow). For the past ten years they've been travelling all over Africa with his UN job while she's been finishing her masters. The story picks up when they move back to New York, buy a dilapidated brownstone in Harlem and start having issues over whether or not to procreate.

How do Nan and the X family reunite? A 16 year old Grayer knocks on her door one night, drunk, upset and asking her why she left her job babysitting him ten years ago. This was the first moment of...hmmm that I had reading the book. What 16 year old boy would ever, EVER do something like that?

At least it kick starts the series of events that lead Nan to:
1) get a job at Grayer's school,
2) become a non-paid nanny for Grayer's younger brother Stilton and
3) have several encounters with Mrs.X, the woman of her nightmares.

All the other storylines that don't involve the X family stuff feel an awful lot like filler–Nan fighting to save a teacher from being fired and Nan getting in a fight with a recently found old friend are two to name a few.

Even though Nan seemed to constantly refer to how much older/wiser/mature she was now, nothing she did or said seemed to imply that anything had changed.

The book was a bit long and definitely hollow in places, but the magic that made Nan and Grayer's relationship so truthful could definitely still be found in some places. The problem was, it wasn't enough to fill an entire book.

Was it worth the read?

For someone who loved the first book, wanted a little extra closure and doesn't mind wading through all the other stuff, YES!

For everyone else, I would borrow it from the library...it can wait.