IMG_20180725_193741_497.jpgHappy Thursday! Today I have a review for a timely read, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, published by Simon Schuster on July 23.

My Thoughts:

Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win by Jo Piazza

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 brave stars to Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I noticed this book when a blogger friend, Rachel at In Between Book Pages (see her amazing review here: Rachel’s review), was reading it. Her thoughts on Charlotte’s story enticed me to pick it up.

Winning? Is it something we all love, at least at one time or another? What messages do we receive about having it all and winning at life? Are we told that we can’t have it all?

There is much to admire about Charlotte Walsh. She is a go-getter who wants and believes she can absolutely have it all, including a political position, a loving marriage, three young daughters, and total happiness.

Charlotte is running for office in a most important Senate race, one that will determine which party controls Congress. She is determined to win and inspired to make change happen, so she leaves her high-powered job and returns to her hometown in Pennsylvania to run for office.

Charlotte is quickly shocked by the treatment she receives from her political opponent, the press, and even her peers. Her personal life also becomes overbearing because she is so focused on work, she does not see her husband’s growing resentment.

Next comes a scandal that puts Charlotte in the crosshairs threatening to not only lose her campaign, but her marriage and family, too.

The suspense builds as Charlotte is on the trail to victory, and important issues including political ambition, specifically related to women, as well as the differentiated treatment of women and men in politics, and the sacrifices a wife and mother has to make to truly have it all.

Overall, I found Charlotte’s story to be consuming, timely, and provocative. While it is a fictionalized account, I left this book with a deeper understanding of what it potentially requires for a woman to take on the challenge of running for office.

Thank you to Simon Schuster for the complimentary copy to review. All opinions are my own. Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is available now!

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Synopsis:

Cosmopolitan: “Most Anticipated Books for 2018”
Elle: “Best Books to Read This Summer”
Goop: “15 Books We’re Reading This Summer”
People: “Best Summer Books”
PopSugar: “25 Best New Books to Put in Your Beach Bag This Summer”
Refinery29: “Brilliant Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer”
Vulture: “18 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer”

From Jo Piazza, the bestselling author of The Knock Off, How to Be Married, and Fitness Junkie, comes an exciting, insightful novel about what happens when a woman wants it all—political power, a happy marriage, and happiness—but isn’t sure just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it.

Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Still reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired by the chance to make a difference, she’s left behind her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband Max and their three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run in the Rust Belt state.

Once the campaign gets underway, Charlotte is blindsided by just how dirty her opponent is willing to fight, how harshly she is judged by the press and her peers, and how exhausting it becomes to navigate a marriage with an increasingly ambivalent and often resentful husband. When the opposition uncovers a secret that could threaten not just her campaign but everything Charlotte holds dear, she has to decide just how badly she wants to win and at what cost.

A searing, suspenseful story of political ambition, marriage, class, sexual politics, and infidelity, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is an insightful portrait of what it takes for a woman to run for national office in America today. In a dramatic political moment like no other with more women running for office than ever before, Jo Piazza’s novel is timely, engrossing, and perfect for readers on both sides of the aisle.

Have you read Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win or any other books by Jo Piazza?  Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR