Jennifer W. (GeniusJen) reviewed Friends with Benefits (The Nannies, Bk 2) on + 5322 more book reviews
Reviewed by Mechele R. Dillard for TeensReadToo.com
As THE NANNIES series rolls along, seventeen-year-old Kiley finds herself struggling to survive the craziness of being the nanny employed by rock superstar Platinum. She must hang in there, however, lest her dream "to graduate from high school in California so that she can attend Scripps Institution of Oceanography as an in-state resident" be shattered.
Kiley's friends, Lydia and Esme, are nannies for other prominent families in L.A., and each girl faces her own difficulties. Lydia was born into money, but her parents decided to move the family from their home in Texas to the Amazon basin to do missionary work when she was only eight years old. Until she moved back to the United States to live with her aunt and her girlfriend, Lydia's only knowledge of the rich, famous, and shallow came from the magazines she was able to confiscate from visitors to the bush. Now, she isn't about to let her life in the States go, no matter what she has to do to keep it.
Esme, on the other hand, has a completely different problem: She is sleeping with her boss's son. Not only does the situation put her job in jeopardy, it is also a point of constant guilt for Esme, who has a boyfriend back home. Besides, she is only the hired help: sleeping with the boss's son is a degrading road to nowhere.
Mayer occasionally tries to make the point that money isn't everything: "She was willing to work. Marym was willing to get paid for the looks that she'd done nothing to earn. There was something very unfair about it" (p. 49). Overall, however, the story is shallow, name-dropping, and requires no real thought to read. But is that a bad thing?
THE NANNIES series is not meant to be ground-breaking literature. It is written to entertain, to be fun, and to be a series of lighthearted "dirt" novels for pre-Jackie Collins fans...and I happen to love Jackie Collins. Mayer accomplishes just what she intends, and she does it well; if I were a fifteen-year-old girl, I would read this, breathless, in one sitting.
As THE NANNIES series rolls along, seventeen-year-old Kiley finds herself struggling to survive the craziness of being the nanny employed by rock superstar Platinum. She must hang in there, however, lest her dream "to graduate from high school in California so that she can attend Scripps Institution of Oceanography as an in-state resident" be shattered.
Kiley's friends, Lydia and Esme, are nannies for other prominent families in L.A., and each girl faces her own difficulties. Lydia was born into money, but her parents decided to move the family from their home in Texas to the Amazon basin to do missionary work when she was only eight years old. Until she moved back to the United States to live with her aunt and her girlfriend, Lydia's only knowledge of the rich, famous, and shallow came from the magazines she was able to confiscate from visitors to the bush. Now, she isn't about to let her life in the States go, no matter what she has to do to keep it.
Esme, on the other hand, has a completely different problem: She is sleeping with her boss's son. Not only does the situation put her job in jeopardy, it is also a point of constant guilt for Esme, who has a boyfriend back home. Besides, she is only the hired help: sleeping with the boss's son is a degrading road to nowhere.
Mayer occasionally tries to make the point that money isn't everything: "She was willing to work. Marym was willing to get paid for the looks that she'd done nothing to earn. There was something very unfair about it" (p. 49). Overall, however, the story is shallow, name-dropping, and requires no real thought to read. But is that a bad thing?
THE NANNIES series is not meant to be ground-breaking literature. It is written to entertain, to be fun, and to be a series of lighthearted "dirt" novels for pre-Jackie Collins fans...and I happen to love Jackie Collins. Mayer accomplishes just what she intends, and she does it well; if I were a fifteen-year-old girl, I would read this, breathless, in one sitting.
