Review of ‘The Politics of Love’ by Jen Jensen

This was a good lesbian opposites-attract book. I actually think I enjoyed this more than I expected to. Politics, especially in this day and age, are so divisive that I had no idea how Jensen could make this storyline work. I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised and thought she did a good job. While this is Jensen’s second book, it is my first read by her. I think she shows a lot of promise and it makes me excited for her future books.

This is a story about Rand, a therapist and liberal activist for the LGBTQ+ community and Shelley a libertarian conservative lawyer who works for her father’s Evangelical organization. Shelley is sick of living her life in the closet and when she meets Rand she can’t help but be enamored by the kind of person she is. Maybe it is time for Shelley to live her own true-life but is it possible for her to come out of her parent’s shadow?

I was very curious how Jensen could possibly make such an opposites-attract story. Plus there are not many conservative activist characters in lesfic and how would that work? Well surprise, guess what character I absolutely adored? Shelley the libertarian! While I disagreed with certain views, she was such a likeable character and so easy to root for. Instead, the lesbian activist Rand was the unlikable one most of the time. I was watching Jensen on a panel of Bold Strokes Books authors and she mentioned that she was having an issue with liking Rand’s character too. Luckily, Rand was more redeemable towards the end but I sure did not expect to like the character of Shelley so much more.

While I really liked the plot of the book and how everything unfolded, I did have a few issues. They are pretty small in the grand scheme of things but I think I should mention them anyway. One was that the book felt a little short. The ending did not feel rushed but it was still over too quickly for my tastes. Just when I really got completely invested, it was over.

My second issue was that I had some problems with certain dialogues. Choppy is not really the right word maybe more like staccato in form. Short clipped sentences in a row and sometimes the character would ask a question to someone else but they would keep talking right through it. Since I read reasonably fast, I found it would jar me out of the story at times. Also, when this happened I was not always sure who was talking so again I would have to stop and go back to reread the same part to figure it out. This was not a constant problem but it appeared a handful of times. I think having the characters banter back and forth more like word tennis and maybe some added dialogue tags would easily fix this. Jensen writes really well so if she fixed this issue for future books she would really be all set.

If you are looking for a good opposites-attract story I would definitely recommend this one. It was well done and more enjoyable than I expected. I’m now looking forward to reading Jensen’s debut ghost hunter book soon. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy it. 3.75 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.