Series: Standalone
Release Date: November 6th, 2012
When clever Anne Norwood interns in his office, he dismisses her as another pretty face—until her independent streak catches his attention. She soon finds him far more interesting than his Senator McEvoy persona.
They’re both too smart to fall for one another, yet they do. Their relationship becomes a political gamble in a tight election, and all the while, his opposition lies in wait for him to make a mistake.
As Stephen’s past catches up with him, he and Anne must fight for their future. Their lives mean more than politics, and campaigns—like love—are either won or lost.
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• Death of father
• Grief
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have OW drama
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 4/5 stars
A Political Affair was written in the third person, so you got to see both sides of the forbidden affair between the characters. However, I feel that there was a more persuasive narrative from Stephen’s point of view since he is the guy running for Senate. This allowed me to sympathize with him since he quickly finds out that the people he trusts (mainly the girls) actually cannot be trusted, which I found a bit odd since he is a politician, so I was kinda surprised by his naivety.
Anne was a good character, as well. A Political Affair really was a romance from start to finish. There was drama, but it all had to do about their relationship. Most of the drama in the beginning centred around how much they were willing to risk, and in the end, it focused on how to manage (“spin”) the scandal. Since A Political Affair is set in Washington, D.C. and has a political backdrop, the other plot in this story was Stephen running for Senate, and I feel that Whitney did a fantastic job making the politics in the story both exciting and simple enough to follow.
That being said, since the book is told in the third person, you also get the perspective of the man Stephen’s running against, that man’s right-hand man and two other “enemies” that threaten Stephen and Anne’s relationship. This increases the anxiety factor by a trillion because you know the other shoe is going to drop, you just don’t know when.
This leads into the main plotline, Stephen and Anne’s forbidden relationship, because she’s the intern at his office and he’s running for Senate and is also her boss. What I found so interesting about A Political Affair is how Stephen and his political family planned Stephen and Anne’s whole relationship around the idea that they were going to get caught. It was refreshing! And incredibly realistic!
In past books with forbidden romances, you know as a reader they’re going to get caught, and it leaves you on the edge of your seat for the rest of the book, and you can’t help but think that secrets never stay secret for long. But in this book, both the main characters and the supporting characters were prepared for Stephen and Anne’s relationship to be leaked. It was a change in the clichéd plot for me, and also, I wasn’t as tense reading the story.
Overall A Political Affair was fast-paced, developed really well, and there was a tone of backstories that kept me interested and on my toes. It was a real Political Affair because it revolved around more than just the main characters; Stephen’s family had a lot to lose too if he were to lose the election.
I would highly recommend A Political Affair simply because other than the excellent and exciting politics, it was a very swoon-worthy romantic story.
