Review – Bedmates by Nichole Chase – Bookalicious Babes Blog

“You know how it is. Politics makes for interesting bedmates.”

In D.C., politics is served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Politics is everywhere! Growing up in the D.C. suburbs of Virginia, I could not help but live and breathe politics—whether I wanted to or not. Oh did I loathe the dishonest and dirty D.C. politics.

“Living in D.C. required the ability to see the strings attached to everything behind the scenes, the lies, and the manipulations.”

If showcased in a romance book, I can love and play politics night and day. Oh did I want to play with Bedmates, a politically-lit love story by Nichole Chase that made me want to parade into the White House wearing red, white, and blue. Intense and intoxicating, Bedmates is a politically-powered friends-to-lovers romance that harnesses the heart and sparks the soul.

From the very first page, I sank into this story, immersing myself where I quickly became intoxicated. I dove into Bedmates with a deep hunger and did not want to come up for air. I expected to detonate with desire. What I did not prepare for was for Bedmates to administer an assault on my heart where it was pounded into pieces. As a military wife, those pieces shattered even more, bleeding for broken heroes. Bedmates was what I expected yet it wasn’t; it was so much more.

Beautiful Maddie McGuire is the President’s daughter completing her last year in college with a strong passion for many issues including saving animals and the environment. It’s too bad that that passion seems to land her in trouble.

Maddie is now stuck doing community service for veterans, serving alongside the Vice President’s son, Jake Simmon.

“Jake hated me and I wasn’t exactly his biggest fan.”

Jake, the boy who is now all man, has swayed from friend to enemy territory during most of Maddie’s teenage years. The scorching alpha is also a former Marine who has just returned from the war in Afghanistan after being injured in combat, a war that haunts him every day. Jake has been Maddie’s crush since she was a teen, and for him, the feeling is mutual.

“Maddie was infuriating, sexy, and so far off limits she might as well live on Pluto.”

Maddie is funny, flirty, and fearless, and not what you’d expect from a President’s daughter. Blunt and brazen, it’s refreshing to have someone in politics be completely free where she speaks her mind, carrying so much charisma that those can’t help but love her. I so wanted to hang out with Maddie…LOVED HER!

Working with her forever crush is one challenge that’s proving difficult for Maddie to ignore. Jake’s cockiness and playboy lifestyle gets under her skin, but Maddie sees the man beneath the mask.

“There was a darkness behind his eyes that made my heart ache, despite his pompous attitude.”

Jake won’t own his feelings towards the First Daughter, feelings he’s tried to bury for years. Even war in Afghanistan didn’t destroy that ache that surfaces for Maddie when she’s around. Oh does Jake want to scratch that Maddie ache.

“I wanted nothing more than to pull her into a dark corner, grip that perfect ass with both hands, and kiss her until she couldn’t think to tease me anymore.”

The all-alpha Jake is having a tough time reigning Maddie to his fantasies when he wants to ravish her in real life. Staying in the friend zone proves to be one race that Maddie and Jake may not beat.

“As his mouth danced over mine, fire ran through my veins. Everywhere he touched me came alive…I’d waited for this moment most of my life.”

Maddie doesn’t want to like the panty-melting hot playboy, but his dirty words bring out her inner wanton woman and his concern for her and others bring out more, whether she wants to admit that chemistry crashing through them or not.

“I want to touch you, taste you. I want to be inside of you. I want to watch you as you come. Can I have that? Can I have you?”

Holy HOT. Jake’s wanton-inducing words delivered involuntary thigh clenches that melted me everywhere. A fire blazed by body, burning me from head to toe where I melted like molten lava. This beautiful and broken alpha was my addition. Jake, so sexy and perfectly imperfect…I LOVED HIM!

“I let myself drink her in, drown in her. She was like a spring day after a painful winter.”

My scorching has morphed into swooning. I SWOONED HARD at this tough guy with a heart of gold though shielded by one wall of steel. Jake is broken but Maddie is the glue helping repair his shattered soul. Maddie sees not the injured Marine, but the real Jake. Jake doesn’t think he deserves a beautiful soul like Maddie, but he does. His soul, while broken, is just as beautiful.

“Maddie was the kind of woman you kept forever. And I wasn’t looking for that kind of relationship.”

As Maddie and Jake get closer, the past strikes hard like lightning, threatening their renewed friendship and budding love.

“Now that I’d opened Pandora’s Box and I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be able to close it.”

Politics tends to be fake but everything about this political romance felt REAL. My emotions entangled in this romance were REAL. I could not help but feel every word I read in Bedmates, words that reached inside and hitched themselves to my heart, tugging it the whole way where my heart stayed stuck in this story that stole my soul too. My LOVE for Bedmates was so much more than its title…it was…is…REAL.

First Bedmates bewildered me, this story instantly becoming the unexpected. Then Bedmates blazed heat through me as the passion from the characters melted the pages…melting me. Finally, Bedmates broke me where my tears bled onto the pages. Heartbreaking tears. Hopeful tears. Happy tears. This military wife bled for these broken heroes too, one of whom is still hijacking my heart along with the bewildering and brilliant Bedmates.

★★★★★ 5 politically-powered and perfect stars

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From the bestselling author of Suddenly Royal comes the first in a sparkling new series about America’s favorite royal—the First Daughter.

Everyone makes mistakes, especially in college. But when you’re the daughter of the President of the United States, any little slip up is a huge embarrassment. Maddie McGuire’s latest error in judgment lands her in police custody, giving the press a field day. Agreeing to do community service as penance and to restore her tattered reputation, Maddie never dreams incredibly good looking but extremely annoying vice president’s son, Jake Simmon, will be along for the ride.

Recently returning from Afghanistan with a life-altering injury, Jake is wrestling with his own demons. He doesn’t have the time or patience to deal with the likes of Maddie. They’re like oil and water and every time they’re together, it’s combustible. But there’s a thin line between love and hate, and it’s not long before their fiery arguments give way to infinitely sexier encounters.

When Jake receives devastating news about the last remaining member of his unit, the darkness he’s resisted for so long begins to overwhelm him. Scared to let anyone close, he pushes Maddie away. But she isn’t about to give up on Jake that easily. Maddie’s fallen for him, and she’ll do anything to keep him from the edge as they both discover that love is a battlefield and there are some fights you just can’t lose.