Two adult children of prominent politicians. A love/hate relationship that spawned from a childhood friendship gone wrong. A work relationship where one person is super organized and the other is a flake. What could possibly go wrong? This was a cute, quirky story that reminded me a lot of The West Wing with lots of political content. If you were a fan of that show, and liked the drama side of things, you would probably enjoy this. I particularly liked Emma, the type A overachieving heroine, who has had it up to here with Cooper’s antics… although still keeps covering for him and doing his work when he skips out on deadlines to go out on dates. The romance storyline was secondary for most of the book, and this was more a story of the political race, but still quite enjoyable as things finally coalesced!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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Small Town Politics. Small Town Romance. This book does an excellent job of showing both small town romance and small town politics - and take it from someone who has actually ran a couple of small town City Council races himself. ;) Lots of angst, yet still reads like a Hallmark movie and is told from the singular perspective of the female - a rarity in my experience these days. Truly great work, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where Bocci goes in the sequel. Very much recommended. ( )

I had a hard time with this one. Cooper's attitude throughout the first part of the story annoyed me and I'm tired of women working harder than men. Emmanuelle had drive and ambition for days but no backbone. Together, the two of them were just kind of a mess and the story 100% fell flat for me which is why I must have forgotten to even mark it as read until now. I'll keep reading the series because it wasn't bad writing, I just didn't like the characters and found them lacking in chemistry.

Thanks to NetGalley and the book's publisher for an advance copy of this book. ( )

2.5 rounded up. This could’ve been trimmed down a little. And Emma, Jesus. I need a strong female lead who can stand up and speak up, not just kick ass at her job. ( )

This is the first book in the Hopeless Romantics series and it takes place in the small town of Hope Lake, Pa. Emma and Cooper had been friends their entire lives -- they even work together as city employees trying to bring more business to their town. Emma had a major crush on Cooper when they were younger but something happened in college to turn that love into hate -- maybe not hate but extreme dislike! They both have a strong love of their home town and are able to put their feelings for each other aside when they are working together. Emma's dad is mayor of Hope Lake but is retiring and he asks Emma to help for Cooper's campaign for mayor. She knows that she's the right person for the job but her feelings toward Cooper are making it difficult especially when another woman starts spending a lot of time with him. Is Emma jealous and are her feelings for Cooper love instead of hate?

I enjoyed this romantic story and I liked the relationship between Emma and Cooper as it developed throughout the book. I thought the book was too long - over and over Cooper did something stupid and over and over, Emma had to help him get his campaign back on track with snarky comments. It seems that if Cooper really wanted to be mayor, he could have cleaned up his playboy lifestyle without lectures from Emma. Overall, it was a fun read and a great start to the Hopeless Romantics series.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own. ( )