The Reluctant First Lady

Can you imagine the wife of a President-elect saying "No" to being a First Lady? Neither can I. You would imagine that before even deciding to run for the office, the would be candidate would sit down with his family and these things would be ironed out. In the case of our book, the wife has always contended she hated politics, would not be involved other than to help in the campaign and under no circumstances would be giving up her current job as manager of a museum in New York. Since this is a work of fiction we have something called suspension of disbelief working here. That is where you automatically accept things as true even though in real life you would never expect something like this would happen. Nevertheless, what would happen if one of our First Ladies had said NO to acting as our official hostess to the White House, etc.? This is a well written book. It is clear, concise, straight forward. The characters are well defined and mostly likable. If you notice, I hesitate. I liked this book, yet I am conflicted writing this review. I found it entertaining, but I could not get over my apprehensions toward The Reluctant First Lady ( Mrs. Ashley Taylor). I hate to brand her as selfish, or immature, or so delusional that she would let her husband down and not take her place at his side. She does present a problem as to what exactly is the role of the spouse to the President of the USA. If the President was a woman would we have the same expectations of her male spouse? He would be what the First Dude? Would he then have to worry about curtains, napkins, the menu and play all around super host? See my conflict? I never thought I would not be liberal in my thinking... are our preconceived thoughts of what the First Lady should be so ingrained in us that we fail to realize that place in our government was designed over 200 years ago and needs to change just to keep up with our society? Some aspects of the plot were left unresolved which makes me wonder if our author is planning a sequel. Comments?

After many years of Women's Liberation, women are still faced with prejudice judgment when they make career decisions.  Venita Ellick shines the light on women's  struggles to overcome the judgment of society when making personal decisions.  Her well told story captures the dilemma women face everyday.  This is an empowering book.  A must read for all women of all ages.