Never fall in love at work…

Synopsis

From award-winning author Kathryn Barrett: 

Some days it was hell being leader of the free world. 

The Washington press calls him the “accidental president.” As a Medal of Honor recipient and national hero, Adam Dybikagreed to run for president during the country’s deepest crisis. 

Now that things have stabilized, he’s got problems at home: his 14-year-old daughter Katie keeps ditching her Secret Service protection and reminding him he’s the world’s worst father. And on top of that, he’s begun hearing the voices of dead presidents. Either he’s going mad, or the White House is haunted. 

As the new head of Katie’s Secret Service detail, Ellie Brody is trying to live up to the high expectations of her father, former agent Frank Brody. But her new job puts her in direct danger of succumbing to the president’s charm. 

Can these two find love in the White House, under the most intense media scrutiny—and the watchful eye of Lyndon Johnson?

My review

Adam Dybik never thought that him running for president would end up him actually becoming the new POTUS. The press doesn’t go easy on him, calling him ‘the accidental president’, running the country proves to be a mission impossible and his 14 – year – old daughter Katie is causing him even more headaches. Katie wants nothing more to return home, and keeps ditching too easily her Secret Service protection.
Being a single dad is never easy, but being a single dad while being also the President, is putting a strain on his relationship with Katie.
So Ellie Brody is hired as head of Katie’s Secret Service detail. Ellie, who has to live with the fact that her own father actually took a bullet as a former agent.
Ellie also is seeing behind Katie’s façade and tries to show Adam the struggles Katie is facing without breaking Katie’s trust while trying to resists the president’s charm… 

Falling in love at work has always been a trope of mine. But what if the characters have one of the most important jobs in the whole world and one character is somehow the boss of the boss?
Obviously I cannot imagine such a story taking place at the White House with the current president, but I was glad with the imaginary president this author made up. 

Adam is not only a president, but also a war hero and a single dad. Each and every one of these aspects would have been a great start for a main character, but having them all combined in one person made it even better.
Add also the fact that he is having real and recognizable struggles, made it even easier to just like him with all his (in vain?) efforts. 

Despite him being the president, he is just a normal man. He wants to help those in need, he wants to be a great father to Katie, raising her on his own and he is feeling lonely, making him even hear the voices of former presidents.
As he is being seen as a hero, he is struggling with that heroism and he doesn’t see that what he did made him earn his medals. 

This book also shows us somehow how difficult it can be to be a president. You can have all the visions and ideas and plans that you want, but if you don’t have the people to support you, it is all useless. And seeing how Adam struggling with this fact, he wants to do so many good things, but he just can’t, even pushing him to his limits, made me feel sorry for him. 

And then Ellie enters the scene…
Maybe it’s because we are so used in seeing male Secret Service Agents all the time, but I truly liked Ellie being that tough, strong, no – nonsense woman. She may seem a bit fragile but her actions show that you cannot just mess with her.
And reading how she also majored in psychology and how she seems to understand Katie, made her only rise in my esteem for her. Ellie sees how difficult Katie finds everything and tries her best to  

But she also is facing her own demons. Not only because she is feeling more and more attracted to Adam, but also because she has to fill her father’s shoes. Everyone still speaks highly of her father and she hopes she is up to her job. But she is also worried about her brother and how her father is acting out. 

I loved each interaction between Ellie and Adam. Very quickly they start to feel a spark, yet their jobs won’t allow to take it any further. And I liked it how they restrained from crossing a line, even if at moments it was infuriating as sparks truly were flying around!
Yet the flirting between the both of them was so obvious and funny, I don’t think I can have a normal conversation about cake again! 

This story shows us a wonderful love story, but also shows us many issues of the world. Single – parenthood, struggling teenagers, too high expectations, too low expectations, passion (also for your job), the desire of wanting to do the right thing but not being able to, discrimination, fear, even low self – esteem and some form of PTSD. 

But I totally fell in love with this story, I loved each character, as even the most improbable one shows us that redemption is possible.
All the characters felt so real and the kind of person I wanted to have myself surrounded with, as their personalities were just every inch of right (even though it’s rather improbable to have e great president as a friend or even as an acquaintance!). 

This book is slow – paced but while reading it, it doesn’t feel like it. I devoured page after page and only realized how much I was invested in this story when I reached the ending too quickly!