By Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
This book is freaking awesome. I'll admit that the original situation is a wee bit contrived, but the story is really awesome, along with the characters.
Cornelia Litchfield Case was bred to politics. First she was a senator's daughter...then a vice president's daughter. She grew up in front of cameras and learned early never to screw up about anything. She got fixed up with another politician and ended up First Lady. But after 3 years her husband is assassinated...and Nealy thinks she can get out of the First Lady job. Not so fast there-- the VP is single and nobody else is around to take over the job... Nealy hits her freaking limit and engineers an escape plan out of the White House. She doesn't expect it to last very long, but what the hell, she'll have herself a fun vacation, in her very good disguise. (Which I found hilarious.)
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Mat Jorik is a man destined to forever raise small hordes of females. He was the only boy in a family of seven girls and raised them all... and now he is BURNT OUT TO HELL of families. When he was 21, he married his pregnant girlfriend Sandy...who turned out to be lying about the baby being his, so they divorced. However, it turns out that Sandy always had fond feelings for Mat. Enough to give the kid his name and put his name down on the birth certificate. She even did this with her SECOND child, her new baby, even though Mat hadn't seen Sandy in 15 years and Sandy was still with the shitfless baby daddy. Except Sandy and her boyfriend just died, and Mat got the phone call to take care of his kids. Which aren't his. Mat goes down there to (a) get blood tests pointing he had nothing to do with their conception and (b) drive the kids to his ex-mother-in-law's house. However, 14-year-old Lucy isn't so down with this plan and is worried about what will happen to her and her baby sister in foster care enough to be thinking of other options.
These folks all meet at a roadside diner after Nealy's car is stolen, and Mat takes pity on her and takes her into their motorhome. And thus we begin an impromptu road trip where everyone starts to slowly like each other, even if they all start out cranky at first. Nealy's imaginary backstory is somewhat fishy-- and Mat's usual employment is in journalism, so he's suspicious-- but they all roll along anyway and start to have a great time in between arguing. But Nealy's clock is ticking and the Secret Service is coming...
I won't spoil the end, but it's awesome. Four stars.
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