Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Enjoy Red Girl, Blue Boy and the other standalone titles in Bloomsbury's contemporary If Only romance line centered around an impossible problem: you always want what you can't have! Sixteen-year-old Katie and Drew really shouldn't get along. After all, her father is the Republican nominee for President of the United States while his mother is at the top of the Democratic ticket. But when Katie and Drew are thrown together in a joint interview on a morning talk show, they can't ignore the chemistry between them. With an entire nation tuned into and taking sides in your parents' fight, and the knowledge that--ultimately--someone has to lose, how can you fall in love with the one person you're supposed to hate? This title in the If Only line is a frank and funny romance that shows how sparks fly when opposites attract.

An If Only novel

Red Girl, Blue Boy

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

When I first started this book, I was ridiculously excited to see Connecticut mentioned. Yippee! Let's just say there aren't many books that take place in CT. And to have the author from Connecticut as well?! I love reading books that may talk about things so close to home. So yeah, this book got major points for location. I don't usually enjoy books about politics, but this was one that I really wanted to check out, so I decided to give it a go. Buuuut the Connecticut reference was really all it had going for it, at least in my opinion. I don't want to be too harsh, so I'll try to discuss this book as nicely AND honestly as I possibly can.

Katie is not your typical teenager. She's been helping her father in his campaign for President, basically spending her entire life in politics. Though she is in school, she doesn't live a normal teenage life. She thinks and acts like a business woman, and even dresses like one. She's most often in a suit... a pink one, to be exact. The only "fun" thing she does is runs a blog, which ends almost as quickly as it started. Drew is also a teenager living the life of politics. His mother is also running for president. He tries not to be as involved as she would like him to be. He wants to be a normal teenager and not be taken over by her Presidential campaigning. Katie and Drew meet when they're both asked to appear on a morning talk show. From there, they find they actually have a few things in common and they start to build a friendship.

Sounds pretty cute, right? I really thought it would be. But I had a number of issues with it. First, Katie was tough to life at first. She did end up growing on me, but the way she thought and acted so much like an adult was difficult for me. Since this was her character and was expected, I started to appreciate her personality a little more as the story progressed. Drew, on the other hand, bothered me quite a bit. Drew was supposed to be a typical teenager, yet he talked and acted like a thirty-something year old. It was hard for me to accept that he was a teenager. It came across way too strongly that an adult was writing this book. These teenage characters had almost zero teenage characteristics, and this made it extremely difficult for me to buy this story. 
 

  

 
Another thing that really bothered me was the coincidence that BOTH of these Presidential candidates lived in Connecticut. I know, not really a huge deal... but a little too convenient? I think so.

Though I didn't really care for either character, I found myself enjoying Katie much more than Drew. This surprised me, as I really thought I would like Drew better. But as the story progressed, his character became more and more unrealistic. And let's also mention his BFF, Sandy. I felt like this story was supposed to stress how wonderful of a friend Sandy was to Drew... but I just didn't see it. Where was this awesome friendship that was being referred to?

At some points, this was a very cute story. I didn't hate it, and it was enjoyable here and there. It just wasn't the book for me. I had more issues with it than I thought I would. I'm so bummed about this since I have been enjoying this If Only... Series so much. This one just didn't work for me. Can't love 'em all, right?
 

  


(Thanks to Bloomsbury USA Childrens for the review copy!)

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Red Girl, Blue Boy An If Only novel

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