Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks).

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

Okay so like. I have thoughts. As per usual (I am writing reviews, after all :P), but I am actually very opinionated about this book… So, HERE WE GO.

To start, I really like the concept. It reminded me of Ally Condie’s All Fall Down. I was interested in the political aspect, and the character development that comes with it. I was very interested in the characters when we were first introduced to them; especially since there was the whole aspect of “keeping scandal away from the family,” which affected the MC and all of her friends.

However, we had several sub plots that just… Did NOT work for me. After the first half of the book, it was really unclear what the plot was. The book was just going through minor events in the character’s lives, which was cute, but didn’t really lead to anything actually… happening. We had the characters dealing with relationship issues, but not the ones that the entire first half of the book led up to. It was like there were struggles for the MC and her love interest for the first 150-200 pages, and after that, nothing. It was all sunshine until the last two chapters. There were minor subplots that really came out of no where, and did nothing but make the MC look really shallow.

On the other hand, I was really captivated by the writing. Clark may be one of my all time favorite YA love interests–he had a really unique dynamic and character arc that I really enjoyed. TBH–Andie did NOT seem worthy to me. Clark could do so much better, and thus his ending was a bit… irritating to me. But, I won’t give spoilers. I just saw some serious flaws in their decision making–but they’re just dumb kids so, whatever. *dramatic sigh* Anyways. Although I did appreciate most of the characters, and the plot overall, it was a bit too cringe and… purposeless for me to fully enjoy.

And, fair warning, there is some fairly PG-13 material. Nothing explicit, but there are some talks dealing with the MC discussing the physical relationship between her and another character. I would definitely recommend this book for older teens, as far as that content is concerned.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Maddie