Narrated by Andi Arndt & Christian Fox
Bombshell is the story of nanny Cara DuMont who takes a temporary job with Hollywood up-and-comer and all around hot guy, Brad Sinclair, after Brad’s five-year-old daughter lands on his doorstep. Six years earlier, just before he started his meteoric rise to fame, Brad had a one-night stand with a co-worker, Brenda Garcia, and voila! Nicole was the result.
Brenda was killed in a car accident a few weeks before the story begins and, as Brad was named on the birth certificate, Child Services reached out to him to take responsibility for Nicole’s care. Of course, the celebrity gossip sites got hold of the story and the publicity surrounding the whole thing is out of control.
Cara is just about to take up a job with a new family, after having been let go by her previous employer. Not through any fault of her own – unless being too attractive is a fault. The single dad got a girlfriend and they got engaged. The wife-to-be didn’t want temptation in the form of Cara around, so Cara had to go.
Cara’s friend, Blakely, is lined up for a meet-and-greet with Nicole and Cara helps Blakely out with a bathroom emergency, the result of which is that Cara draws the attention of Brad Sinclair and the affection of the little girl she starts to fall in love with on sight.
Because of Brad’s desire for Cara’s services for his daughter, Cara’s new job miraculously disappears.
Blakely and Cara both take a 30-day job looking after Nicole; it is Cara’s intent to move on afterwards leaving Blakely and a new nanny to take over. Blakely is a bit of a risk and Cara is helping out a friend. The last job Blakely had was with a family where she and the dad had an affair which was spread all over the tabloids. She is notorious and not in a good way. Many families won’t touch her. Cara’s deal includes Blakely and Brad wants Cara for his daughter any way he can get her.
As it happens, pretty quickly Brad also wants Cara for himself.
I enjoyed the narration. Cara’s sections were performed by Andi Arndt and Brad’s by Christian Fox. Mr. Fox made Brad far more charming than he actually was on page. I found myself liking him during the listen but when I actually thought about the substance of his words and actions rather than how they sounded in my ears, I realised that for a very long time Brad is an immature jerk with an overlarge sense of entitlement and a chip on his shoulder. Some of Brad’s behaviours are very bad indeed – including walking in to Cara’s bathroom when she is in the shower and staying to watch and, later in the book, lying to her about information in a tabloid. There is also another secret he doesn’t realise he’s been keeping and it’s a doozy. In the end, I wasn’t entirely sure that Brad had done enough to redeem himself or for me to trust that he wasn’t more than a charming smile and a dazzling excuse who was good in bed.
Cara was much easier to like. She had never been romantically involved with a client, always steering clear of being fodder for the tabloids. Brad Sinclair is so hot and gorgeous and so out of his depth with his new daughter, she can’t help but be affected. Her biggest fear is having her life paraded out in large bold font on a gossip mag and she knows that getting involved with Brad could doom any future employment prospects.
The part where Cara was considering whether to commence an affair with Brad didn’t concern me regarding consent or the relative power differential. Yes, Brad was her employer but up until they started banging and said banging became public (if it did), she was a bankable, in-demand nanny. Her agency would have no trouble placing her in a different job if she wanted to leave. Indeed, Cara had previously left jobs where the dad had hit on her and she had felt uncomfortable as a result.
However, after the banging started, the power went all Brad’s way. I didn’t blame Brad for it – the relationship wasn’t coercive, but the potential consequences for Cara were very serious and I don’t think enough time was spent in the story addressing them.
Nicole was a very sweet little girl but she felt more like a three-year-old to me most of the time. The detailed assistance five-year-old Nicole needed in the bathroom seemed more applicable to a younger child and so did many of her behaviours. I did like her though and both narrators did very well in performing her dialogue, making her seem even cuter than she would have been in print alone.
Brad needs to turn his whole life around and, in the end, I wasn’t entirely convinced that it had happened sufficiently. It was only the epilogue which took place a year later which showed that these changes were sticking. I appreciated it but would have preferred more evidence in the main story.
I usually enjoy Andi Arndt narrations and Bombshell was no exception. She is technically skilled and very good at delivering character.
Christian Fox was better in Bombshell than in the previous books I’ve listened to that’s he’s narrated (I believe there have been two). Even though I had enjoyed his performances in those books, here he was so self-deprecating and charming, he really had me fooled a lot of the time that Brad was nicer than he was and that he deserved a second, third and tenth chance. (There’s no cheating, listeners – at least the chances he blew weren’t about his fidelity.)
I was impressed with Mr. Fox’s female character voice. It was softened and quite feminine-sounding and did not go near falsetto.
I enjoyed the listen very much but most of that was down to the narration. When I really thought about the story I had some misgivings about Brad and I felt a bit like I ought not to have liked it quite so much as a result. Brad is a charming rogue but he needed to do a bit more grovelling than I heard in my earbuds.
Kaetrin
Buy Bombshell by CD Reiss on Amazon
