[Review] The Boyfriend Candidate - Ashley Winstead

Summary: As a shy school librarian, Alexis Stone is comfortable keeping out of the spotlight. But when she’s dumped for being too meek—in bed!—she decides she needs to change. And what better way to kick-start her new more adventurous life than with her first one-night stand?

Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’s opposite—and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly—and shockingly—flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career—and jeopardize Alexis’s job—until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong? (Pub Date: May 09 2023)

 

It's just another romance about pretending to be dating and normal girl meets famous person and politicians and shy girl meets rude boy who turns out to be really sweet and loving unlike her previous boyfriends. But it was so entertaining, I'm giving it 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Alexis is caught in a scandal with Logan, candidate for governor, and his campaign manager suggests they pretend they've been actually in a serious relationship for six months already. In exchange, she can add to their campaign her plight against the budget cut the school she works for is about to suffer, which would possibly annihilate her job.

I don't know this author, and I control a lot which romances I'll read, even if I love romances, they do tend to fool you, so unknown author, romance cue more than full, release date approaching (by this time, already passed), I wasn't supposed to be reading this book. And I'm very glad I opened an exception because the cover was so fun to look at. 

I loved both characters. I wanted to hug Alexis the whole book (though I'm not sure what she really did that was so great for his campaign, all her ideas were actually coming from someone else but well, she did have a great network), and I wanted Logan to hug me even more. He's so good! And yet, believable. It's not a bunch of good features put together so we'll have a good romantic interest. You could feel his interest for Alexis grow. And their moments were so swoonworthy.

Even if it's another romance for these tropes, I barely felt time pass while reading. Highly recommended.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.