Presidential candidate Jane Kincaid—gorgeous, dynamic and extremely driven—is taking the country by storm, passionately outlining her blueprint for America. Voters quickly fall in love with her…and so, unwittingly, does Secret Service Agent Alexandria Warner.
Their mutual attraction begins to take on a fiery life of its own, and soon Jane fears that their intense feelings for each other are a tinder box that could destroy the landscape of her career and alter the history of the country.
Jane had always expected the road to the White House would exact a high personal toll. She just never knew how high, until she’s forced to choose between her heart and her political destiny.
This book seemed tailor made for me to love it, and it had a lot going for it. Complex characters, the background of a presidential election. Politicos, lunatics and two women falling in love. Sadly I was never able to get past lukewarm for this story. With all it had going for it, it just needed to feel real, to resonate a little. It just didn’t. It was a little too contrived. The antagonists (or those against the relationship) were too one dimensional and bigoted. The sex, while plenty graphic wasn’t particularly sexy. This is the first novel in quite some time I actually skipped a sex scene after cringing.
I really did like the characters, although what they liked about each other I’m not really certain. Even the ‘wise older woman’ trope was painful. Not only was she the head of the DNC she was a woman of color (which led to more than a few references to fighting for equality that seemed pretty contrived) oh but yeah, she’s a lesbian. As if being the black, lesbian head of the DNC wasn’t noteworthy or groundbreaking.
All in all I’d give the book a B- it wasn’t horrible, but it did leave me wanting a better version.
