I adored the narrator of this audiobook, and the story was just wonderful. The characters were very believable, and a woman in power? Absolutely fantastic! I cannot wait to read more by Lola Keeley!

President Connie Calvin became widowed. She has a son and the presidential seat of the U.S. she is also bisexual. She meets Ellen, a trauma surgeon. Read to find how this relationship works out.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Tantor Audio for an audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The narrator of this audiobook was superb. It was nice to able to listen to this after reading the ebook first.

It really helped firm up some details of story.

I must say I had trouble with the audiobook version. it took me a long time to finish it. Nevertheless the story was good, not amazing but solid.
Always great to read wlw books with people in a power position.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this novel. The characters were mostly believable and the storyline was compelling enough to hold my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn't know what to expect from this; I picked it up on a whim and was very pleasantly surprised.
One of my favourite parts, maybe weirdly, was the world-building. The author does a good job of exploring and detailing all the divergent elements of the world of this book from our own, without sitting us down to dump exposition on us. It's both very similar, and totally different, but with reasonably believable explanations (although it probably helps that I agreed with the book's politics).

I'm also always a fan of a book that swaps perspective between characters with each chapter, although this one had a habit of doing it more frequently than that, which was a touch jarring at times.

The romance was decent. I can pretty safely say I'm not exactly the target demographic, but I still enjoyed it most of the time. There was only one scene that felt like it was more graphic, or went on longer, than I was comfortable with.

I listened to the audio book, and really, this is where my main criticism comes in. While the main 2-4 characters have pretty distinct voices, which are delivered consistently, the narration is all over the place. Sometimes it leans heavily on the voice of the current POV character, sometimes they try to contrast by using a different voice (usually fairly unsuccessfully). It's a mess, and it gets really confusing at times. There were sections I had to rewind and refocus to be able to tell who is saying what, and when we've swapped from dialogue back to narration.

Putting that aside, I still enjoyed it.

So I liked this book. It's an age-gap romance, but it's not creepy at all, thank God,
the number of books under this subgenre that are 19-year-old girls with 50-something-year-old men is disturbing.
, but no, we have two adult women, one in her late 30s and the other in her early 50s. We both have established careers, so Doctor Lawrence is this young and coming pediatric heart surgeon who is just blowing everyone out of the water and has officially gotten her first head of the department in her late 30s

She also shockingly holds an MD and Ph.D. is crazy impressive she's just moved to DC, she's taking a position underneath her sister-in-law, and on one of her first cases and her first week back, the first son comes in for a doctor's appointment.

He's like 11 or 12, and she suddenly says something about his mom, the president, and he's just for her. After that point, he adores her; it is a realistic portrayal of kids this age. I was a do


Then we have president calver, who is the first female president. She's trying to balance all of this stuff and ran for the Oval after the death of her husband due to cancer


Doctor Lawrence also has a tragic back story with her parents being murdered because of them being a liberal judge


This is a trope I'm getting tired of, but it also works. It doesn't feel overplayed here


But one of the things I love about their dynamic is that they fall and have conversations. They worry that president culver is worrying that she's putting too much pressure on her. Will she say no if she doesn't want to


And it's two adults deciding whether to stay friends or try this dating thing and see how it works. It's done well that they act like adult or mass women

One of my pet peeves in romance novels is adults acting like teenagers none of that happened here. These women are in their 30s and 50s, respectively, and you believe it that is such an action

Instead of having a third-act breakup, they have a regular fight ahead of time. The president needs to pass a bill and a gun bill; she must give up on a healthcare bill. The doctor warrants care about both of these things, and he gets into a fight for them.


But it's not like breaking up instantaneously. It's over. It's like crud; we fight, I need a little space like you know they're adults in a relationship
President kelpers grief is handled, as far as I can tell, appropriately never lost a spouse, but there's a lot of talk about how it doesn't feel like she's cheating on her late husband, and it feels like it's an acceptable relationship, and then her son likes doctor Laurence and that seals the deal for


The bulk of this book probably takes place over about yeah six months or so, and then our epilogue is a year later, after the next election



And then there are hints that they will be engaged, but they aren't already. I like this pacing better. It doesn't feel forced as many romance novels think like, oh my god, I've known you for two weeks. We must get married now.


And, of course, there's a big legitimate climax in this book which is nice. There's last nation tempt on the president. The Republican opponent is killed in this assassination attempt.


And, like, there's actual time with people getting hurt, and you don't know whether this president will make it or not.


So, All in all, I think this is pretty well crafted. I think the other knows what they're doing, and I can't wait to pick up another one of her books, so yeah.

I read this book a while back but when I saw the opportunity to have it as an audio as well… there was no way I was passing that up!! Not to mention Abby Craden is one of my FAVORITE narrators!

I fell in love with these characters right out the gate! Connie is the type of president I would vote for and the relationship she develops with Emily is so strong and beautiful!

Honestly would love to see/listen to a book 2!!

A great audio….got hooked on the story,..I had read the book before listening to the audio, and I am glad I listened to the story again. It really is a wonderful love story and definitely a re- listen.
Can only highly recommend it.

Dating can’t be harder than running for president, right? Well…maybe if you’re trying to date WHILE president!

I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this book, especially since it was narrated by Abby Craden! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this book given one of the MCs is the President of the United States, which is a job that does not make dating very easy! So I was curious to see how the romance was done.

Constance “Connie” Calvin is the first openly bisexual President, a widow, and a single parent of a 12 year old boy with heart issues. Dr. Emily Lawrence is one of the highest rated pediatric surgeons in the country and just recently relocated to Washington DC. One of her first “top secret” patients is, you guessed it, the President’s son!

Connie has been in politics for a long time and Emily comes from a political family but doesn’t get too involved in politics except to advocate for better health care laws and access - something Connie had built her presidential platform on and has yet to follow through on. Their first encounters are more of a “butting heads” type thing because of this. Of course they eventually go on a date, which is no easy feat when one of you is one of the most powerful people in the world. And things seemed to move REALLY quick from there, which I guess makes sense in a lot of ways given their circumstances, but was not at all what I was expecting.

Overall I liked the story. It wasn’t insta love, but pretty dang close which is why I think this one kind of fell a little short for me. I’m typically not a big fan of insta love stories because there is no build up, no tension, and usually not a lot of chemistry. The connection feels more surface level in these stories and that was true of Connie and Emily. I just didn’t feel that spark or get all mushy feeling inside reading their story.

Abby Craden’s narration was amazing as always though!

This is a nice solid book. I always love reading queer romance books with older main characters and this one we have one in their '50s and one and their 40s I believe. One of them is the president and one of them is a renowned heart surgeon. I think this is a fun step away from the current reality of the US and I would love to imagine a world where we had an openly bisexual woman president. Sounds like a freaking dream.

I do think the pacing is a little bit off sometimes and I wish we had more of their conversations on page but as a whole it was good and solid.

Bi MC, lesbian MC

I enjoyed reading this book and then listened to the audio,fantastic, so I highly recommend you get a copy.

Abbey Craden works her magic again and her Presidential voice, what can I say, so good.

I’ve added this book is on my listen again list, I enjoyed it that much.

I purchased this book and I also received an ARC copy of the audio from the Publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Presidential
by Lola Keeley
Narrated by Abby Craden

I received an ARC (advanced reader copy) of this audiobook through Netgalley.

This is an LGBTQ+ book about a romance developing between the first female president, Connie, and the new head of the cardiology department at a prestigious hospital, Emily.

This book just didn’t capture my attention and I really had to slog through it.

The characters themselves were great. The plotline was pretty great too. The narration could have been better, but it was still good.

It was the chemistry between the two main characters, it just didn’t work for me. There was just too much focus on how they shouldn’t work, and not enough about them actually working out.

Also, there relationship development was choppy. The timeline was highly unclear. How long were they dating? How long before seeing each other again? Did they talk every night?

Those are key elements for me, and not having them, well, … quite frankly it made would what have been a 4 star book drop down to a 2 star book.

I think the audiobook definitely won me over a little more than the e-book if I'm honest. Abby Craden does an exceptional job at narrating this story and I definitely enjoyed the re-read. If you've yet to read Presidential and enjoy listening to audiobooks, I'd whole-heartedly recommend reading this book via audio.

Many thanks to Tantor Audio for a copy of this audiobook. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

It's my first book reading about a President love story. It was really interesting to discover the backstage of someone with basically one of the highest job on the planet. Unexpectedly a President's attempt to love leaves no place for spontaneity or total intimacy due to security matter and it was really interesting to read.
The book brought up cleaving matters like gun control or healthcare in the USA, but the political side of the book remind really superficial.
I always judge a book based on how it makes me feel. Unfortunately I didn't feel the connection or the chemistry between Connie and Emily. Everything was where it should be trope wise, the characters say the words I expected to hear, but I wish I could feel more passion and life to the story. Even Abby Craden's amazing job could not help me. It just didn't work with me personally, but I don't doubt a lot of readers will like the story.

This was a sweet and spicy age gap romance that hit the spot! I loved that the power dynamic wasn't an issue between these two powerful women, that it was done with care and consent all the way through. As well as handling grief, medical trauma, political hot topics and so much more so well. This was the power couple romance I was looking for this summer!

The audio production was very well done and I enjoyed every second of it!

cw
grief
gun violence
death
sexual content

This story is about a female doctor who becomes friends with the president and after treating the president's son what starts as a friendship evolves into a romantic relationship. The president is a bisexual widow with a twelve-year-old son, but despite his sexuality being public knowledge, society is not ready for a leader in such a relationship. so Connie and Emily secretly date.

this story has no unnecessary drama. Connie makes relatively sensible decisions whenever her professional and private lives overlap and the people around her support her.

All in all, this is a story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity.

#presidential, # LolaKeeley, #netgalley, #LGBTnovel

. I really enjoyed this audiobook, the story was entertaining, it had fabulous narration that had me listening to the whole book non stop.

I am not normally a fan of American political stories but when there is female president like Connie what’s not to like. Her younger love interest is feisty surgeon Emily who is new to Washington and finds herself drawn to the older powerful charismatic woman. Thanks to NetGalley for such a wonderful story.

This was sweet and I really enjoyed getting a Sapphic story featuring accomplished adult women. I understand that this is inspired by the movie The American President but I have not watched the movie so I can't comment on the similarities. Overall this was perfectly enjoyable and Abby Craden is a good narrator. If I had to comment on one area, it would be that I felt like I was told a lot of information rather than being immersed in the narrative and letting scenes unfold.

Presidential was my introduction to Lola Keeley’s writing and I was pleasantly surprised, style-wise.

This was an enjoyable read but I felt like there was something missing. I can’t pinpoint what, but I often sensed that the characters were strangely emotionally distant while having quite emotional conversations, almost as if chunks of text and/or dialogue had been removed while in the editing process.

I was put off by the author’s checklist of inclusivity when it came to Connie’s staff. While not offensive, it was odd having characters described in such a way while having no other development devoted to them.

I did really enjoy Abby Craden’s narration and that made the overall experience much better!