Never Hollowed By The Stare

Strange Bedfellows – Cardeno C.

Can the billionaire son of a Democratic president build a family with the congressman son of a Republican senator? Forget politics, love makes strange bedfellows.

As the sole offspring of the Democratic United States president and his political operative wife, Trevor Moga was raised in an environment driven by the election cycle. During childhood, he fantasized about living in a made-for-television family, and as an adult, he rejected all things politics and built a highly successful career as far from his parents as possible.

Newly elected congressman Ford Hollingsworth is Republican royalty. The grandson of a revered governor and son of a respected senator, he was bred to value faith, family, and the goal of seeing a Hollingsworth in the White House.

When Trevor and Ford meet, sparks fly and a strong friendship is formed. But can the billionaire son of a Democratic president build a family with the congressman son of a Republican senator? Forget politics, love makes strange bedfellows.

In the last election, history was made when a trans woman won as representative of her district. She has lived as a woman for 20 years. I could imagine all the homophobic slurs her opponents might have said about her but she won by 62%, according to some articles I read. It was one bright moment in this giant mess of a country.

When I saw the blurb of Strange Bedfellows, I knew I had to read it. The book features Trevor and Ford who are both scions of rival political families (the former is the presidential son, the latter is a conservative Republican congressman) who met at a bar for a one night stand, had instant chemistry and now wants to keep seeing each other. Trevor is out but Ford keeps his sexuality under wraps because he has his political career to worry about so he can’t be seen with an openly gay guy.

70% of the book is spent agonizing over coming out. I skimmed most of it because it’s something I have read a million times before. When they finally (finally!) told Ford’s parents and started planning the election campaign, I felt a little more invested in the story because it was what I was looking forward to.

Cardeno’s style was sexposition sprinkled with some sugar. She has Trevor obsessing about Ford’s dick while they exchange info about each other’s family which didn’t really sound very sexy. People who like it steamy and sweet might go for her kind of stories. I don’t really go for steamy and the only reason I stayed is that I wanted to see how Trevor would win the election (not really a spoiler because it was pretty obvious he is going to win). This part was glossed over sadly. A gritty, realistic look at the life of a gay politician this is not but if you are looking for a cuddly love story about a gay politician and a tech billionaire, this is for you.

Rating:
2 Stars – it’s a struggle to finish the damn book

Soundtrack: Fear and Delight
Artist: The Correspondents
Album: Puppet Loosely Strung

(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25734007-strange-bedfellows)