My first job ever was perfect. Four hours a day, three days a week, I walked from my house to the public library and got paid to shelve books and make sure everything already on the shelves was in alphabetical order.
During that job, I often got to read books I'd never heard of. My first boss wouldn't let me work there until I read Howl's Moving Castle, for example. One of the books I discovered was the topic of today's review.
A woman is running for president and her three children are doing the best they can to cope with the pressures of the campaign and the idea of being part of the First Family. Once they (obviously) get to the White House, there's the staff (which they call the Cast of Thousands), a new school (where everyone wants to be the guy who dated the President's daughter) and security concerns that they don't take seriously enough because, well, the oldest kid is in high school.
This was written long before First Daughter and Chasing Liberty came out. It deals very realistically with the stresses of being in a powerful family and garnering unwanted attention. The remaining books in the series deal with much more severe complications in the life of the Powers family, but the first book is a very good introduction to a coming-of-age in the spotlight. None of the characters are unlikable or flawless, but have unique personalities that drive the story forward.
Best of all, it's non-partisan. It's written with enough context that the politics are realistic, but it's not blaming whatever's happening on the terror threat of the day or trying to promote a movement.
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