Review: Candidate

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Katherine Galloway is two years divorced and still living out of boxes. Between her brothers (cops that work with her ex) and her mother’s constant reminders that her clock is ticking, Kate is trying to hold it all together. But the truth is, she’s eating Toaster Strudel for dinner, and living and breathing her PR career.. When it comes to public relations, there’s nothing she can’t handle . . . or at least that’s what she thinks.

Grady Malendar, the only son of United States Senator Patrick Malendar, has a reputation as a playboy who likes to have a little too much fun. The senator is running for re-election and needs Grady’s help with the youth vote. But what they want is a new and improved, headline-free Grady, so they hire a PR firm. Grady is willing to participate in the dog and pony show to help his father win, but there are some things about Grady’s life he wants to keep hidden. Especially from his snoopy new PR “babysitter,” Kate Galloway.

Somewhere between campaign stops and fundraisers, Kate and Grady discover that neither of them are what they appear to be on the surface. Tensions between them grow until there is no denying they are falling in love behind the scenes of a façade they both need to keep in place. Will scandal, old wounds, and secrets tear them apart, or will Kate and Grady realize, despite appearances, they are both candidates for love?

Genre: contemporary romance

Publishing date: June 2015

Offensive content: Nothing to report. The main characters exchange a few kisses but there are no graphic sex scenes. It is a pretty much clean book and a lovely romance.

Review: 

Like I said above, this is probably one of the loveliest romances I've read lately. Nothing is rushed, everything happens naturally and you are drawn to characters that live pretty normal lives. This is the kind of romance that you believe can happen to you, not just the stuff you see in movies but never feels 100% real.

Grady Malendar's father is up for re-election to the Senate and Grady is, for once, asked to drop his bad boy reputation and behave, at least for as long as the campaign lasts. So much that his father, the senator, enlists a PR firm to take care of him, and Kate Galloway turns out to be the appointed "babysitter". I confess that I when I started reading the book Grady came across as a misbehaved teenager instead of a nearly thirty year old man. But, truth be told, after just one glitch at the beginning, he behaves pretty well and his reputation is just that, a reputation. We don't really see him misbehaving. We do see another side of Grady that he keeps hidden from everyone else and that really endeared him to me. 

Kate, on the other hand, is the epitome of a good girl that puts work above everything else, including her life. That's why, two years after her divorce, she's still living in a nearly empty apartment populated with boxes of stuff she never bothered to unpack. Grady is the first that manages to crack the shell she has placed around her heart and her personal life, and that's beautiful to see. She's been hurt before by her unfaithful husband, but she's given a chance to heal and to grow. She finally understands that she doesn't have to carry her burdens alone, and neither does Grady. 

There is a friendship developing before Grady and Kate become romantically involved, which, in a way, is a relief. Those books where the characters meet and five minutes later are rolling around in the sheets always throw me for a loop. I do believe in love, and even lust, at first sight, but I prefer the stories to have a bit more backbone than that, and the Candidate sure does have it. 

This is a story I truly recommend and I will definitely check the other books by the same author!

Have a wonderful weekend and happy readings,