Title: The Boyfriend Candidate

Author: Ashley Winstead

Publisher: Graydon House 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fall TBR

Spice Rating: 5

As a shy school librarian, Alexis Stone is comfortable keeping out of the spotlight. But when she’s dumped for being too meek—in bed!—she decides she needs to change. And what better way to kick-start her new more adventurous life than with her first one-night stand?

Enter Logan, the gorgeous, foul-mouthed stranger she meets at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’s opposite—and boy, do opposites attract! Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Cameras Logan promptly—and shockingly—flees.

Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. Turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career—and jeopardize Alexis’s job—until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until election day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?

A note about the spice rating: I would consider this one a 5, but that 5-ness doesn’t come into the story until about 80% of the way through the book. There’s just a lot of romcom tension before that point.

This was a good romcom style romance story complete with meet-cute, different worlds, forced proximity, and a very sexy if confusing MMC. I grabbed this one off the library’s new releases shelf just wanting something light and fluffy for the week. It definitely fits the bill. We get a fun romp of a story with two interesting main characters. I do think the book does suffer from not having the other main character’s point of view. I’ve found that I really enjoy the back and forth narrative style. This one is strictly told from Alexis’s point of view. This is realistic fiction although I did have a hard time buying the political situation in Texas. Just not that realistic. Suspending that, I sped through this book rooting for Alexis and Logan the entire time.

Next up on the TBR pile: