BLOG TOUR: FOOL ME ONCE by Ashley Winstead.

Fool Me Once by Ashley Winstead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lee Stone works as director of communications at Lise Motors, the first female-led electric vehicle company. She idolizes its founder and has big dreams for electric vehicles in her home state of Texas. She's known to her friends as "Stoner," thanks to her partying ways and her inability to commit. Thanks to her father cheating on her mother while Lee was in high school--and a string of bad relationships since--Lee's mantra is not to trust men and never get serious. The one time she felt she truly liked someone, Ben Laderman in grad school, she was convinced he was cheating and so cheated on him--he fled to California and she's never dated seriously again. But now Ben is back, working for the governor of Texas, and the one person Lee has to make nice with to get her passion project passed: a clean energy bill that would have Texas using electric vehicles throughout the Government. Soon Lee and Ben are back to their competitive ways, but it seems like sparks are flying as well.

"The past I thought I closed was coming back to haunt me. Ben Laderman, my greatest mistake--the one person in the world who'd seen me at my worst, who'd seen the real me, who I'd thought I'd really, truly loved--was coming back."

FOOL ME ONCE is a cute read, filled with lots of romantic tension and sparks. I honestly liked a lot of the politics and drama more than some of the romance, though in this day and age, it was hard to imagine Texas even touching the thought of going green. Lee, especially her "Stoner" personality, was a little hard to like and sympathize with. She took the"can't trust or believe in love" trope to extremes and at times, I just wanted to shake her. There was a little too much unwillingness to commit and a lot of back and forth on her part. At times, I just felt bad for Ben. He's incredibly easy to like and while he may take their competitiveness a bit too far, he usually got my vote in most of their arguments.

Still, as Lee and Ben cross Texas trying to drum up support for their bill, there are lots of comedic moments and plenty of romance and silliness. There are tender and touching bits too and some serious topics as they work to save the environment and make the future better. I enjoyed an appearance by a grizzled advisor to one of the senators and some of Lee's friends. There's a good cast of characters here and some surprising drama behind the scenes. (This is politics after all.)

If you like political dramas or Parks and Rec, this one is for you. It's funny with lots of political (and romantic) tension. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 here.

I received a copy of this book from Harlequin Trade Publishing / Graydon House and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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