Review: Campaigning for Christopher by Katy Regnery (Winslow Brothers #4)

November 18, 2015

Note: This ARC was provided by RockStar Lit PR in exchange for an honest review.

No matter who Julianne Crow had been on the first night Christopher met her, she was someone else to him now...because he knew her. He knew her heart and her spirit, the different tones of her voice and flashes of her eyes. They'd been thrown together under the worst possible circumstances, but somewhere along the way he'd forgiven her...and fallen for her. Hard.

With his three older brothers and his only sister either happily married or engaged, Christopher Winslow is the only one unmarried member of his family left, but with no time to even ask a woman on a date, he's put anything related to his personal life on the back burner as he concentrates on his Congressional campaign. He and his staff have worked countless hours on getting his message across and he's doing quite well in the polls, even though he's an independent candidate. He truly wants what's best for his district of Philadelphia and he strives to live up to the name his family has kept untarnished for many generations.

But all it takes is one woman slipping Chris a drug in his drink and a lurid photos that besmirches his integrity to threaten everything he's worked for. Accusations of racism and alcohol addiction could spell the end of his campaign, but when the woman in question comes forward after learning that she was played for a fool by someone out to smear Chris's name, his first instinct is to lash out. But Julianne Crow wants to make amends for her mistake. She goes above and beyond to help on the campaign trail, enduring his anger. Chris is having difficulty trusting Jules but he can't seem to stop wanting her either.

Campaigning for Christopher is the fourth and final book in the Winslow Brothers series from bestselling author Katy Regnery, a series that I've enjoyed from the beginning and I'm quite sad to see end (though fans of the Blueberry Lane series will have a new set of siblings in the Rousseaus to get to know and enjoy next year). Christopher Winslow is the youngest Winslow brother and the remaining unmarried sibling. He's focused on making it into Congress but that could be derailed when Julianne Crow is used as an instrument in a smear campaign by drugging him and going on to take compromising photos with Chris.

Those closest to me know that I've always played favorites in almost every aspect of my life (but don't tell my former students that!), and the same goes for books in a series. And yes, I admit it--this series ender is my favorite in Katy Regnery's Winslow Brothers series! The series in itself is a special one because the first book, Bidding on Brooks, was my first ever Katy Regnery read and one that got me hooked on her gift for telling beautifully-crafted love stories. I told myself that I would make my way through the first Blueberry Lane set of books, the English Brothers, next month so fingers crossed my schedule allows it!

I loved Chris and Jules's love story because it was different and had an air of honesty to it. The beginning of their relationship was less than stellar, but then that's what happens when a woman is tricked into drugging a man in order to wreck his political ambitions. There's no insta-love or even insta-lust between these two, though they both notice each other initially--for very different reasons, of course. Trust is something that's non-existent for these two, and trying to earn it is ten times more difficult for Jules than Chris, but then he also has to go through his own pains to earn hers after the way he's treated her before.

Readers are able to see the relationship grow between Chris and Jules as they try to maneuver their way through the mess the scandal created and the sudden fan following they receive when they step out on the campaign trail together. There's also growth within the characters as they find their footing with each other and with the lives that they've chosen to lead. I found myself so into this book that I read it in one sitting and ended up eating lunch later than usual because I couldn't get enough of Chris and Jules. I'm sad that the series has ended but I love that it's with a five-plus-star read like Campaigning for Christopher. ♥

Read my reviews for the Winslow Brothers series: