The Last Minute First Lady by Tinia Montford

Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's February and love is in the air! It's also Black History Month here in the US. So I decided this month was a great month to get in some Black books that have been on my TBR for awhile. And I've wanted to read The Last Minute First for awhile now but with this being a new to me author I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the book when I have a Kindle full of romance books. Then I noticed that Hoopla had it when it came up in my recommendations and that was all the push I needed.

Cassian Anders is the perfect candidate for Governor of Illinois. He's a lawyer who runs his own firm, he also helped fund a community outreach center he's very active with, and he has great ideas on how to improve things in Chicago. His only problem is that he 's single and people prefer their politicians to be married and have families of their own. Cassian has to win the election. Not only so he can help out the community but also to have his revenge on the man who hurt his family. Jolie is journalist that works for a local news station. She's been grinding for years and after a setback needs a big story that will warrant her a promotion. While she's scouting news and doing coverage on Cassian she records a video of him lying about having a fiancée. Rather than exposing him they come to an agreement where she'll marry him to benefit both of their careers.

I enjoyed Jolie and Cassian having to team up to help his campaign and the throughout work the author put into showcasing both of their careers. I felt that there was enough drama there that the additional drama with Jolie's family was unnecessary especially with the unsatisfactory resolution to it. That part to me felt like drama for a different book that wasn't fully fleshed out. At first I thought we would get a good commentary about mothers who are jealous of their daughters but the mother was almost cartoonishly evil and I felt Jolie's best friend was pushing her to forgive her brother when he didn't earn it. All the drama took away from the couple themselves as some of the more intimate moments between them happened off page and were relayed to readers later. Part of the fun of marriage of convivence is to see those little moments where they start to realize they're falling in love with each other.