14 January 2015

Party Lines by Emma Barry

Hello everyone,


How are you on this beautiful day? I myself am feeling pretty fantastic as I'm currently in the city of Toronto in Canada! On a completely coincidental but slightly strange note the book I chose to review this week was actually produced/edited in Toronto, Canada by Carina press. This is something I only learned once I reached the end of Party Lines by Emma Barry so you can imagine how strange it was to discover! Anyway enough of my rambles about my life lets get on with the book review.


The book:




It’s not personal—it’s politics.
Michael Picetti: a cynical Democrat who has seen too many failed campaigns. It’s not his first primary, and it’s been a while since he’s truly believed policy and public good trump all.

Lydia Reales: young, hard-working, optimistic…Republican. Getting her candidate in office means everything to her, and leaves zero time for a love life.

Both are determined that opposites don’t attract—at least when it comes to crossing party lines. As aides for opposing presidential candidates, Michael and Lydia are competing in an industry that requires total loyalty to their side. It doesn’t matter that with each teasing encounter they’re more and more attracted to each other. It doesn’t matter that casual flirting escalates to a powerful physical connection. It doesn’t matter that they might not be able to step away from each other without consequences.

As the campaign rages on and a reckless affair becomes a relationship, the inevitable reality sets in. In the end, loyalty to the campaign has to win. It doesn’t matter at what cost.

My thoughts:

I found this book absolutely fascinating to read. Being born and raised in the UK I know next to nothing about American politics apart from the fact that they have two main parties (the democratcs and the republicans) and that they vote for an individual, rather than a party like in the UK. Therefore for me part of the reason I loved this book was because of all the informations I learnt about American politics. I found it fascinating to read about primaries, caucuses and just generally how people would align themselves to a person as well as a party.

The background and the world created by Emma Barry felt so real too me, and from having read the author note at the end the book although it is completely fictious she was apparently influenced by the 2008 presidental campaign. Also to any Americans reading this if I use any of the wrong terminology during this review I completely apologise! Our hero and heroines (Lydia and Michael) are from different politicial parties and this is the main source of conflict in the book. How can two people from completely different ideological backgrounds form a lasting relationship?

For a start it helps when you have a hero as committed, wonderful and sassy? I want to say sassy but that isn't quite right. I just loved his sense of humour and how he would constantly tease and provoke Lydia into sparring with him. Rather than brushing these two differences under the carpet I felt like Emma Barry embraced their differences and proved that it didn't matter if they loved each other. By the end of the book I fully believed that Lydia and Michael were perfect for eachother, because even though they had different political beliefs they understood eachother way of life. They didn't want to stop the other one believing what they did but instead could relate to the daily struggles they faced in their respective careers.

If this quote does't convince you of Michael's qualities as a hero than I don't know what will:

 He wanted to read all of A People's History of the United States to her. Slowly. Preferably while naked .

Pure nerdy hotness right there. I just don't see what more you could want?!

Another reason I absolutely loved Party Lines was due to Lydia, she was a heroine I could respect and relate to with her feisty personality, wariness of commitment, career ambitions and general take no rubbish from nobody attitude without being a complete b*tch. I just loved this book so much and would reccomend it to anyone and everyone. So much so that I have already brought the second one in the series.

My rating:
Happy reading everyone and see you next time!

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