Campaign Widows

Starred review from April 1, 2018
Agresti's first novel for adults hits the right balance of Washington insiderness and women's fiction. It's the 2016 presidential election, and the lives of five campaign widows (women and men whose significant others are temporarily lost to the campaign trail) intersect in D.C. Cady took a lower-paying TV producer job to be closer to fianc� Jackson, but her newfound success doesn't seem to impress him. Reagan is juggling her toddler twins with writing a parenting column, but she's occasionally drawn back into her old, speechwriting world. Jay is a culture editor at Queue, but he manages to get his best writer and boyfriend a gig following the campaign of Rocky Haze, the female rapper who is suddenly the frontrunner. Birdie Brandwyine, wife of campaign-strategy superstar Buck, won't let a little marital discord interfere with her legendary fundraisers, while potential future first lady Madison Goodfellow is more than willing to work with the opposition. There are no direct, real-life matches for Agresti's well-developed characters, which makes for a breezy read. Combining domestic and romantic foibles with an enticing cast (they may be widowed, but they are not staying home waiting for their men), Agresti's smart beach read will ease readers into the 2018 election season.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)