Their ensuing power struggle gives new meaning to the term office politics: prank mail, spying, bets gone awry—nothing’s off limits in their battle of wills. She thinks he’s arrogant (and doesn’t deserve those gorgeous green eyes). He thinks she’s too quick to judge (and irresistibly distracting). But as their endless game of one-upmanship becomes Kate’s favorite part of the day, she starts to wonder if her feelings for Ben are closer to attraction than animosity…and maybe their sparring is flirting. When Kate realizes there’s more to Ben than meets the eye, she’s forced to confront her biggest fear: In her sworn enemy, she may have found her perfect match. (Pub Date: Feb 2, 2021)
Disclaimer? I had so many expectations for this one, I kept saving it for later as I went through my jammed TBR. That said, I think I'm partially to blame. But I was sure I was in for something funny and ended up with bland and at times frown-inducing.
2+ stars, because I can't say it was as bad as many 2-star books, but it was so bland I couldn't round this up to 3.
Both our characters work for US Senators but Kate is a democrat and Ben, a Republican. When Kate needs help for a bipartisan vote, she thinks she can count on Ben's boss, being a friend of hers, but Ben makes little of the project Kate had been working on for a long time and declines support. This starts a war between the two that borderlines flirting.
Ideals apart, this isn't a good book to begin with. The said war had a couple of funny moments but I don't remember really laughing at any. I'm not sure whether the two have chemistry but their scenes together weren't swoonworthy or even as funny as they were meant to be. I liked Ben winning over Kate's mom, for example, but I really couldn't feel anything for him.
The two characters are given background, reasons for them to be as they turned out to be. I appreciate the effort, and I can understand why Ben would be pro guns for example, but it doesn't mean I agree with it. Most of the time, instead of building his character, it felt he was being explained, to be honest.
My biggest disappointment was that the book simply stated them to be on opposite sides. To begin with, politics isn't made of two sides. Their own bosses were probably on some middle ground for one to seek the other's help or they wouldn't even have talked. Also what I feel is, Kate had reasons to believe what she did, reasons that wouldn't go away as easily, just calling her too radical, and this bothered me since the beginning. The plot just treated her as stubborn, and it didn't sit right with me. To make things worse, I didn't see Ben having to concede in any of his beliefs either, and you call this meeting in the middle?
In all, it's not a bad book, it's well written and it doesn't drag. But it's bland as far as romances go, and the mixing of politics didn't go smoothly in my opinion. It didn't help that i really thought I'd have a blast with this and it was just another romance, so take that into account.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
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