Lynn Ames

This book... It would have had a lot of potential, but it honestly disappointed me.

It's about Emma McMasters, the 46th President of the United States of America. Not only is she the first woman to hold that office, but she's also the first queer woman. And then there's Palmer Estes, the highest-ranking female general in the US Army. That also sounds quite exciting and immediately drew me in. But then it started... Countless names and titles/ranks kept popping up. Every single person who was in the President's room was mentioned. So the author listed each person by first and last name, PLUS their rank. Imagine that with eight people or more in each chapter.

The whole thing got a bit wordy, and it was all far too detailed for my taste. Besides, most of the characters had absolutely nothing to do with the plot. And then there were all those long speeches by Emma...

At the same time, the author told the "romance" between the main characters extremely quickly. Suddenly they were head over heels in love and making plans for the future. Huh? Did I miss something? Also, in my opinion, the author didn't develop the two main characters properly.

I am also very sorry because I had high expectations for this book. This story was not for me.

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Check out my blog www.wordsandfiction.com to find more reviews.… (plus d'informations)

do people really call other people "darling" in real life conversations? "what do you think of this outfit, darling?" "i love you, darling." "darling, would you care to..." is that something that ever comes out of a live person's mouth? it always feels so stilted and like fake dialogue when i read it. drives me crazy.

anyway, other than that, most of this read pretty well. the banter was good, the writing was good (not great, but definitely good), and it was frankly really welcome to read about a president serving the office and the people. for me, this started out as a feel-good read, just because of that. it was nice to read about a respectable, caring person doing the right thing and taking the job seriously, and it just felt hopeful in these times. that lasted a good little while, and the writing was good enough, so i wasn't excited by the book but thought it was ok for at least the first half. i wasn't as into it once it became more of a romance, especially as they fell into saying "i love you" as quickly as they did, before they really knew each other well. i would have been ok with "i'm falling for you" or something, but two wounded hearts like these wouldn't just say "i love you" like that, i don't think. other minor quibbles that bothered me were that i was trying to track time and she threw me off by having a state of the union speech a month after she was inaugurated, which doesn't usually happen; shouldn't "president" be capitalized? maybe not; she absolutely telegraphed that emma was going to be shot or injured or attacked and it wasn't remotely surprising when that happened; she wouldn't have spoken directly after surgery as she still would have been under anesthesia; when nichelle was telling palmer what happened to emma, there is no way she would have said "she died" like that when she was alive. it was so much emotional manipulation by the author and that always irks me.

this read easily and it was good timing for me to feel positivity about possible outcomes of the election (although obviously biden is nothing like emma mcmasters), and healing that may be possible. the writing makes me think that if she writes something other than romance, that i'd read her again.… (plus d'informations)