I was pretty disappointed with this book. I think it started out pretty well, I liked the characters, the chemistry was heating up a bit, the central couple were working toward coming together in a fairly believable way, and I was thinking this would be a good, light romance. Exactly what I was hoping for.

But about halfway through, everything fell apart for me. The "avoid the romance with this woman at all costs" thing was forgotten in literally a second and from then on out it was a trail of deception that, to me made absolutely no sense and seemed to go against character for both of the leads. That went on until nearly the very end when, without really explaining how things were resolved, everyone lives happily ever after.

I think this will be my last attempt at a new Vali book. ( )

While I generally don't love politics in the real world, in fiction, more often than not I definitely like them, and I definitely liked this one.

It's about Chili, a big time campaign manager who wins more races than she loses. And Sam, the daughter of the owner of the firm Chili works for, who is a new graduate from college.

Sam has been waiting for quite awhile (at least high school) to work for her Dad, and more importantly work alongside Chili. It definitely doesn't start out smooth sailing for either character though. But, slowly, their relationships changes and it was fun to read just how that happened.

One of my problems with the novel was in the first half or so of it. A lot of the Sam/Chili stuff seemed very uneven at the beginning. and then throughout the book almost any scene that had Huey in it also seemed very, very uneven. I also found myself slow to warm up to both the characters of Sam and Chili.

On the other hand I thought that the secondary characters in the book were really, really well written. I especially liked Dale, Chili's brother, and Maria, Sam's BFF. I do wish that we'd been able to actually meet Maria's girlfriend in person, and I sorta wanted to see more of Paula, mostly because that was such an intriguing subplot to me, and I thought that it was left just a bit hanging.

Still. Overall I liked the novel. It was a fun and short read.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. ( )