Bombshell

Reiss’s delightful, diverting contemporary pits independent Hollywood nanny Cara DuMont against completely incompetent new dad Brad Sinclair. He’s movieland’s latest shooting star, complete with all the women, booze, and instability that goes with it. He has no idea he’s a father until his one-time fling dies in a car crash and five-year-old Nicole is dropped in his lap. Meanwhile, Cara finally has her dream job: nanny for the child of two gay men. Not a chance of dodging grabby hands while tending their tot. But when Nicole suffers a bout of severe gastric distress at the nanny agency office, Cara goes into supernanny mode, and Brad and Nicole both refuse to settle for anyone else. When Cara, against her better judgment, agrees to help save Brad’s paternal hide, he can’t help falling for her. It’s challenging to open a romance with “a wall of poop stink” and make it work, but Reiss guides her narrative as firmly and kindly as Cara guides Nicole and Brad, taking all three of her central characters down an enchanting path to a happy ending. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)