Failure To Thrive by Elle Rivers - A Book Review
Synopsis:
Riley Emerson is probably the last person anyone would expect to be a nanny. For starters, her life has fallen apart. Her boyfriend just cheated on her. She lives with her mom, and she might have a drinking problem.
But Oliver Brian is desperate. His daughter, Zoe, has refused to go to sleep for anyone else in four years and with his career Oliver can’t always be there for her. Riley is only supposed to watch Zoe for one night, but somehow she gets Zoe to bed on her own. He’s so shocked that he offers her a job on the spot.
Riley needs the money, and Oliver needs the time for himself. It’s a match made in Heaven… until feelings get involved.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Single Dad X Nanny
- Slow Burn
- Forced Proximity
- Billionaire
- He Falls First
Failure To Thrive was a book I saw on BookTok, which was advertised by the author Elle Rivers, who teased the plot. After listening to the synopsis of the book, I was very interested to read the book and therefore added it to my TBR. Throughout May I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, so when I’d read all of my alphabet letters for the month, I prioritised my Tbr reads that were included within the subscription.
Failure to Thrive follows Riley, a bar worker who is unsure what to do with her future. When she arrives home, she discovers her long term boyfriend and best friend having an affair with one another, which leaves her with no option to move in with her negative mother.
Riley is asked by her younger sister, to look after her boss’s daughter for the night, due to him being left with no options after his daughter dislikes every nanny. Riley’s sister suggests her as a last resort, not expecting her to be the only person to settle Oliver’s daughter and therefore, being the only one she’ll tolerate.
Following this, Oliver offers Riley a permanent job of nannying his daughter, due to her being the only one his daughter likes.
The story follows Riley as she begins her new role as nannying for Oliver’s daughter, whilst battling the constant negative opinions that her mother and sister express to people in her life – deeming her as an unreliable worker.
Riley is continuously contacted by her best friend who had an affair with her boyfriend and is sabotaged by her mother, who invites her to their home, in a bid for them to rekindle their friendship. Only Riley has no interest in rekindling a friendship with someone who betrayed her and is still continuing the relationship with her ex boyfriend.
Whilst working for Oliver, she witnesses him in his journey of rebuilding his love life after the mother of his daughter died in a drunken car accident/suicide following her resentment of having children. Oliver believes he’s found a girl who will be a mother figure for his daughter, only he’s blindsided by his sole motivation for marrying for a mother figure and not love. Riley is able to witness this happening and becomes worried for the girl she’s grown close to.
Oliver introduces his new girlfriend to Riley and his daughter, which makes Riley realise that she so of interested in his luxurious lifestyle and not being a mother figure. After witnessing Oliver’s daughter’s change in behaviour, she brings up her feelings to Oliver who immediately fires her, giving into the negative opinions he’d been told by her sister.
Following her dismissal from Oliver, she regains contact with an old school friend who is a new business owner of a coffee shop. The old friend offers her a job at the coffee shop where she’ll be using her degree to help with the shop financing. Despite her mother’s plea for her to use her degree, she’s unimpressed at her new job.
After Oliver’s daughter goes missing, Riley’s sister contacts her in a plea for help. Riley immediately helps, but not before explaining why she went missing – his new girlfriend’s behaviour behind Oliver’s back to his daughter. This leads Oliver to part ways with his girlfriend after finally believing Riley.
Upon this realisation, Oliver pleads for Riley to return back to nannying for him and after much consideration, she accepts. After an argument with her mother after her drinking, she’s kicked out of her mother’s home, resulting in her moving in with Oliver.
The pair start to develop feelings for one another and are forced to spend time with one another over traditional family holidays – further encouraging their attraction to one another.
After Christmas, Riley has a discussion with her mother and sister regarding their strained relationship, who express their behaviour was due to her drunk habits and their worry she’ll end up like their father.
The story ends with Oliver and Rory getting together, whilst remaining civil with Riley’s family.
I think this has to be the most BORING book I’ve ever read! I felt as though absolutely nothing happened throughout the plot to consider it having a plot.
The writing came across very immature, with short sentences that lacked detail. I felt like I was reading a book written by a 13 year old and dare I say it, I think the writing on WattPad was better! I pretty much felt like the sentences were like this “Riley felt sad. She did not like what her sister said”. I found it so hard to follow the sentences because that’s the tone it felt like my inner thoughts were reading in.
Everything about the book irritated me and there wasn’t one thing I enjoyed about it. If I was to DNF a book, it would’ve been this one, but something in me just physically can’t not finish a book. If I could, I would’ve rated it 0, but I didn’t because of my rating system, which after this book, has got me reevaluating what I should have as my rating guidelines.
I didn’t like Oliver, the MMC due to his constant negative attitude and thoughts of Riley, the FMC always doing something bad. He was a grown 40 year old man, who couldn’t for the life of him develop his own opinion of Riley – he would literally allow his assistant (also Riley’s sister) to impact his thoughts and views of her.
I didn’t feel any connection between Oliver and Riley because they had no chemistry between them, it was almost like they got together because they had to – it was the plot of the book. The book was marketed as a slow burn romance, but there wasn’t any burning passion between them to make their romance be a slow burner. The author lacked description of how their relationship was burning with tension or their chemistry.
I hated Riley’s mother and sister and how they were constantly negative and mean towards her. They would do anything they could to push their opinions of her onto anyone who she would interact with. I felt like their relationship wasn’t resolved it was just moved past, without fully acknowledging their behaviour. It felt like they needed to be baddies for the sake of the plot.
The gaslighting in this book was unreal, I can’t comprehend it.
To conclude, Elle Rivers isn’t an author I could say I’d ever jump to read another book by. I was slightly tempted to read the sequel to the book, which follows Oliver and Riley navigating their life together, but I can’t suffer through that when there’s books I’m genuinely interested in reading. I’m thankful for the Goodreads reviews that back up my opinion of this book.
My Rating: ⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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