Review: Presidential Pursuit by Rachel Kall

Posted June 23, 2015 by Lola in Contemporary, Review, Romance, Suspense / 10 Comments

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Presidential PursuitPresidential Pursuit (Love and Scandal #0.5)
by Rachel Kall

Blurb:
Dynamic and determined, Helen Riley has devoted her life to public service. Now she’s on the verge of doing something no other woman has ever done: Become the President of the United States of America. But her enemies will stop at nothing to end her Presidential hopes.

Smart, loyal, and sexy Sean Mackay has never pushed to be more than Governor Riley’s best friend and strongest supporter. However, when her life is threatened Sean steps up to protect the woman he loves beyond all reason.

As the campaign heats up, sparks begin to fly between Helen and Sean. Will she make history and admit her love for Sean, or will her pursuit of the White House end in tragedy?

My Review:
I once grabbed this as a freebie from amazon, I was in the mood for a short and fun story, so i decided to give this a try. And I am glad I did, Presidential Pursuit is a prequel to Rachel kall her Love and Scandal series. The story follows Helen, we is trying to become the first female president. Her best friend Sean helps her with the campaign and they are both secretly in love with each other and don’t want to admit it. The story mostly focusses on the part of the campaign where two candidates from the same party fight to see who is to be the presidential candidate.

This book is a nice mixture of political issues, romance and a bit suspense thrown in. There isn’t enough political stuff to get bored and it was interesting to see Helen deal with the problems that came her way. Then there is some suspense, but this was fairly mild, the focus is more on the politics and romance. Towards the end we get a hint of what it is all about and it was a great set-up. I think this sets-up the suspense elements for the next book and it was nice how they incorporated that in the prequel. Also while it is a prequel and pretty short is was a nice read, the pace was done well, although there were a few scenes that felt a bit rushed. There are also some time skips and eventually an epilogue which wraps this book up.

The romance was fun as well. Helen and Sean have been friends for a long time, they love the other, but don’t dare say anything. Both have their reasons, but their close proximity during the presidential race is making it harder for both of them. At first it’s a bit frustrating, as the reader you know how much they are in love with the other and get both their point of views,but they aren’t acting on their feeling. There are a few times when I just wanted to smash them together and make them kiss and confess their feelings. And then when that finally happened it felt a bit too easy, just like they suddenly realized their reasons didn’t matter. I did like how it was obvious these two knew each other well. There is one sex scene. The epilogue is really sweet and I did like the romance.

To conclude: This is a nice short introduction to Rachel Kall her Love and Scandal series. I think it would be best to read this before book 1 as the suspense element is set up in this book and I think it makes most sense to read this first. Some scenes feel a bit rushed and it felt like this could’ve been a bit longer. There are some politics that come up, but in an interesting way and I actually like the political spin. The romance was well done, it’s a sweet friends to lover romance. They both are afraid to admit their feelings to another, but it was great to see them finally take the risk. The romance was done well and the character are good for each other. The epilogue was really sweet and well done.

3-star

You can add Presidential Pursuit to your to-read list on Goodreads

You can buy presidential Pursuit here:
Amazon

What do you think of political themes in a book? Do you enjoy politics in a book and how should they be handled for you to enjoy it?

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10 responses to “Review: Presidential Pursuit by Rachel Kall

    • Me too, it was so fun to see what an awesome friendship they had and how they are always there for the other, but they are afraid to admit their feelings. And then it developed in a romance eventually and it was great to see. I always love that moment where they finally kiss for the first time.

    • The campaign for president sure was an interesting backdrop for the romance. And the friend to lovers trope is one of my favourite romance tropes and it was well done here. The political stuff was interesting and not too much details that it bogged down the story, so there was a nice balance.
      Lola recently posted…Review: Presidential Pursuit by Rachel KallMy Profile

    • The politics were kept vague enough ehre, that while you knew her stance on seem issues, it wasn’t exactly clear to which politcal party she belogned. At least not to me, but that also might be because I don’t remember enough about the policitcs, your political system is very different than here. There also was enough romance and suspense interwoven that the politics didn’t feel too much to me. I think this was one of my first romance novels with some politics.

  1. I’m not sure I would enjoy it. I know it’s fiction, but I can’t see a young, beautiful, unmarried woman willing to be a president, she’d be torn to shreds and there wouldn’t be much time left for her love life. But I’m glad you liked it, I like the friends to lovers trope 🙂
    Red Iza recently posted…New Theme: ArgentMy Profile

    • There wasn’t much time left for her love life ;). They sort of squeezed it in between all the other stuff going on. The friend to lovers trope is a favourite of mine, so I enjoyed that part.

  2. Is this anything at all like the TV show Scandal, Lola? It sounds a little bit like it, even if the female president is definitely different 🙂 I think political intrigue can make the layers of a book even more interesting, especially if it’s well done. And it does look like that’s the case here.
    Are you going to continue with the series?
    Have a fantastic day and happy reading.
    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews recently posted…Review: A Buckhorn Summer – Lori FosterMy Profile

    • I’ve never heard of or watched that tv series so I am not sure. The political intrigue certainly made the book more interesting in this case, it was well done in my opinion. I think I will continue the series, but I am not really in a hurry to pick up the next book.

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