Romance & Politics | Love, Across the Divide by Krystal Ford [ARC Review + Giveaway]

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He turned to her, holding out a bag of corn tortillas. “We are making tacos.” He put her in charge of prepping the toppings, then disappeared into the fridge. When he emerged, his hands were full. “Tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cilantro, avocado, cheese.”

She took the ingredients one by one from his hands and set everything in its place on the counter, beside the cutting board. She stared at the food items like they were questions on a pop quiz she hadn’t studied for. What was she supposed to do with them? Only pride kept her from asking for direction. She lifted the block of cheese and found a grater. This, she could handle.

The kitchen started to fill with the enticing scent of garlic in the frying pan. “Salsa!” Andrew barked. “Mild, medium, or hot?”

Megan didn’t hesitate. “Hot, please.”

“That’s my girl. Chop some onions.”

She flushed with pleasure. Or was it the green chiles he’d just added to the pan? Jeez, pull yourself together, Megan.

“What are you doing?” Andrew yelled, stepping up behind her and cautiously stripping her paring knife from her clenched hand, as though he were talking a suicidal victim off the ledge. “This is not what you chop onions with,” he admonished, holding up the ancient paring knife. “It’s dull as a butter knife! You’ll cut yourself sawing away with it. Now this”—he unsheathed a ten-inch Japanese chef knife from its block of wood—“is what you chop onions with.”

“I know how to cut onions,” she insisted, and started to cut tentatively. Andrew’s watchful gaze made her nervous. Her knife movement was clunky and awkward, leaving her with large, uneven hunks of onion.

He smiled indulgently and stepped closer. From behind her came traces of his hippie soap—eucalyptus and mint, she believed—and a pleasant hint of body odor. “May I?” he asked, encircling her arm with his and wrapping his hand around hers, showing the proper way to hold the knife. “Now start with the tip, and then as you push the weight of the blade down, you make a little rocking motion.”

As they chopped together in culinary intimacy, an unexpected image flashed in her mind, of him fleeing her room with a teddy bear barely covering his muscular butt. And suddenly it sank in—something he’d said during their session with Emily: I’d already gotten undressed for bed.

So, she thought, Andrew sleeps in the buff.

Her cheeks flushed as he murmured gentle encouragements. When he slowly released his grip and took a step back, disappointment flooded her body.

Copyright© 2018 Love, Across the Divide – Krystal Ford

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When I read the blurb for Love, Across the Divide, I was intrigued. With the current political climate in the US the way it is, I wondered if two different people with passionate and different viewpoints (and different political parties) would find an HEA. I also want to say that I don’t really share my political views on social media because that is just asking for trouble. And to be honest, as a new US Citizen, I am still confused by a lot of things in US politics.

Fair warning, if you feel very strongly about politics, some of the things in the book may bother you, so go in with an open mind.

That said, at its core, Love, Across the Divide is an opposites-attract romance and I enjoyed it. It is written in third person, so we can read the POVs of the hero and heroine. I liked that both the hero and heroine’s views are shown here because we NEED that context to understand the whole love/hate relationship between them. It also looked like the author did a lot of research to represent both sides fairly.

That said, the romance was cute! The main characters are in their mid-30s and concerned with their careers. Megan is driven and focused on her career and success and I loved how the author dealt with it. As you know, a lot of females who are career driven are seen as bitches and there is one character here that I didn’t like. I personally can’t understand why this happens IRL, but it does happen. I love that the book shows a strong female in politics, we need more of that here.

Andrew is an unusual hero. He sort of like a beta hero, in a way where he isn’t really driven. However, he is very passionate about the causes that he supports. Hence, his issues with Megan. I do love that Andrew knows how to cook!

Overall, I enjoyed the romance and I liked that this romance is happening in our current political climate, and featuring two people supporting two different causes. The chemistry between Megan and Andrew is obvious from the first day they met and I could not help but root for the both of them. While I don’t agree with what each of them did to each other, I thought it was an awesome fight. The sexytimes isn’t too steamy, and I honestly wish that it was.

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