Isadora is the chief of staff to a potential US congressman is solely focused on becoming a congressional aide in DC. When she meets Karim her world gets turned upside down. Isadora can’t deny her attraction to Karim, the problem is he works for a political rival. Will she let go of all the potential conflicts of interest and follow her heart? Or will Karim end up tarnishing her political career? Isadora is the chief of staff to a potential US congressman is solely focused on becoming a congressional aide in DC. When she meets Karim her world gets turned upside down. Isadora can’t deny her attraction to Karim, the problem is he works for a political rival. Will she let go of all the potential conflicts of interest and follow her heart? Or will Karim end up tarnishing her political career? I really appreciate how this political love story sheds light on bipolar disorder and familial relationships as well as how both characters struggle and support each other in a healthy way!

3.75 ⭐️
2 🌶

CW: sexual abuse, blackmail, mental illness, emotionally abusive parter and parent

This book is a political romance where the main couple meets on a plane flight, hit it off and go their separate ways only to run into each other at work. They work for adversary politicians.

I did enjoy the political conversations, the support and build of the relationship.

Where I struggled with this book:

- Borderline personality disorder is often seen as one of the “bad” mental illnesses and it feels off to continue to use tropes making people that suffer from mental illness as The villains of the stories.

-it was a little cheesy at times and I personally struggle with cheesy

Not The Plan had a lot of potential and was a very sweet love story between rival political parties. I loved that the story opened up with a ‘meet cute’ there wasn’t a ton of details before the main love interests met and I liked that the interactions started immediately. With that being said, I felt the interactions between Karim and Isa were very childish and surface level. I found myself cringing at the amount of times Karim called Isa “beautiful” and then when Isa started calling him “gorgeous” i was just cringing hard core. While i enjoyed the romance and the digging deeper of their past abusive trauma i felt it at times to be stagnant to the random sex jokes and YA writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley & Penguin Random House for allowing me to read an electronic ARC copy of this book!

Isadora and Karim are well developed individual characters who come together on their own terms (political pun intended), in this smart and sexy sophomore novel from Gia de Cadenet. TW: mental and emotional abuse. If you like your romance with depth, then this one is for you! Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for my ARC!

This was my first De Cadenet novel and I’m silently hitting myself on why I waited so long! The amount of diversity? Okay first we have a cinnamon roll hero who is going through his own trauma as a man which is never see in books (so refreshing!), a black boss female making it in politics with her own trauma (which is done so tastefully) and along with a good representation of what it means to have a healthy loving relationship! We love to see it!! The author and the cover got me at first glance but the tension the love and respect and adoration between these two? That will hold me forever. Thank you for giving me this amazing ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book reminds me of the 1994 movie "Speechless" about the same topic - two political staff members working for opposing politicians. In theory, the book is great. Everyone loves a dueling-factions book similar to Romeo and Juliet. However, I got tired of the dialogue in the book. Comments like, "Hey, beautiful" were mentioned several times each chapter. Because of this, it felt very fake to me. I found myself rolling my eyes as I read. As a result, I don't know if I would recommend this book, and probably wouldn't read it again.

Having the exact same job as our female protagonist I can honestly say I’ve never related to a character more! This book started really strong & was dead on accurate about what it’s like to work as a legislative staffer — up until the conclusion.

I really enjoyed watching Karim and Isa support one another personally and professionally — my only hang up was the overly repetitive pet names (there was actually a page where Karim called her beautiful five separate times, in a row. We get it!!)

Overall, enjoyed this one a lot!

An ambitious chief of staff risks her career and her heart when she falls hard for her new colleague in this steamy workplace romance from the author of Getting His Game Back.

Isadora Maris is damn good at her job. After nearly a decade in state politics, aggressive lobbyists and stonewalling senators are no match for her diplomacy and unflappable commitment to her principles. If all goes according to her meticulous plan, she’ll soon be managing her boss’s successful campaign for U.S. representative and she'll finally land her dream role: congressional aide in Washington, D.C., where she can really make a difference.

But Isadora’s cool professionalism is knocked off-kilter when she meets Karim Sarda. Karim is gorgeous, brilliant, and seems to share many of her ideals. So why’s he working for the California senate’s most detestable scumbag? Given their bosses’ fierce political rivalry, Isadora deems Karim off limits. She can’t tarnish her reputation by flirting with the enemy and she’s been betrayed enough times to keep people at a distance—no matter how flushed she feels whenever he enters the room.

Karim knows that struggle all too well: still processing the wounds from his former marriage, he’s ready for a fresh start. But Karim can’t hide his attraction to Isadora’s commanding presence. Her strength is captivating, even as he recognizes something fragile beneath the surface.

When Karim and Isadora succumb to their undeniable chemistry, their initial desire blossoms into something more—something real. But if Karim’s boss takes control of the California Senate, everything Isadora worked for could be destroyed. Will workplace politics shatter their chance at love before it even begins?

Well written romance featuring politics and rivals to lovers.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Oh isadora and Kareem! This book! The banter! Reading this before midterm elections has been fun. I love these two. The political careers, the banter, the chemistry it’s all so good!! Definitely would recommend!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.. Let me start by saying that I LOVE political novels with a little romance. I enjoyed The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close and Meet You in the Middle by Devon Daniels, so I was immediately drawn to the plot of this book. It was my first time reading a book from the author and I thought she wrote vivid main characters who I could imagine working with in real life.

The book is a dual perspective narration between Isadora, chief of staff to Daniel Etcheverri, California State Senate Majority Leader and Karim, the newly hired legislative director to State Senator Julian Brown and nemesis of Senator Etcheverri. Isadora and Daniel meet before either of them knows their connection and sparks immediately fly. However, when they run into each other at a work meeting the next week they have to pretend like they are meeting for the first time. Well, sparks fly again and they embark on a very steamy secret romance.

I loved, LOVED the plot of this book, but without giving too much away, I felt like the “scandal” was a bit contrived and took away from the author’s obvious political knowledge.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Isadora is great at her job and is striving to land her dream role in Washington. Relationships aren’t on her radar until someone working for her political rival catches her eye. Karim doesn’t want to hide his feelings but is willing to do anything for her.

This was pretty cute. Personally wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t really connect to Isadora or Karim.

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I did like certain aspects, there are more things I didn't like than things I did. I had high hopes, because it reminded me of Meet You In Middle by Devon Daniels, which I adored, and I thought this would be similar to that book. First of all, I don't think it's very well written. It seemed very basic, almost like a fanfiction or even a young adult novel. Some of the dialogue and interactions between Isadora and Karim were very basic, and somewhat cringe, and could have been a lot better. The book opened with a 'meet cute' that I really liked, but then it fell flat and was dull. It took WAY too long for these two to follow up regarding their initial meeting. I highly disliked that Karim called Isadora beautiful every other sentence - it's cute and hot at first, but then quickly loses its meaning and validity if used so often. Both Karim and Isadora made way too many sex jokes, and it felt childish, especially because they are both supposed to be these prim and proper professionals working in politics. There was a LOT of political lingo, and yes, that drove the plot, but if it's not your thing, then here is your warning. I do appreciate that this book featured an interracial couple, and the MMC was going through a divorce during a bulk of the book. I also liked that emotiomal abuse, trauma and mental health were discussed and handled well. Borderline personality disorder is mentioned, but I don't like how the author chose to have that character with BPD be abusive - not everyone with BPD is abusive, and I think it sends a bad message, indicating that people with BPD are automatically abusive. I did like that complex PTSD was also discussed, as pointing this out helped one character grow and realize that they too had been a victim/survivor of abuse. I think the spice/smut was done really well, and I definitely enjoyed those parts. Overall, it was a cute and fun read but leaves a lot to be improved upon.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Dell for providing me an electronic copy of this ARC.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Charming and delightful, make time for a night in just to read this one.

Trigger warnings: emotional abuse, narcissism, personality disorder

I loved this book! A loosely Romeo and Juliet inspired political rom-com with a serious look into how to move forward from emotional abuse from someone who is mentally ill. It was really sweet to read the moments of vulnerability between Isa and Karim. Moderately spicy and has a political scandal at the center of it to drive the plot forward. Highly recommend giving it a try!

4.5 ⭐️

3.5 Stars Not the Plan by Gia De Cadenet is a great star-crossed lovers tale (per the multiple references to the Montagues and Capulets) about a chief of staff and a legislative aide to state senators who are enemies. This book reminded me a lot of Jasmine Guillory’s books, especially with main characters of color, set in California, and with characters working for the local/state government. Isadora and Karim were cute and both had experienced some pretty heavy emotional trauma from loved ones. The political drama with Karim’s boss was interesting to see play out. Overall, this book was a bit predictable, but a great story that I’d recommend.

I so wanted to love this book. I loved the characters, but the storyline just did not do it for me. I expected more from the Julian storyline, and it seemed to wrap up so quickly. Additionally, the ex-wife and mother storylines were good ones - but more could have been done with them. The author had so many good ideas and plot lines, that it just felt like a little too much and each one could have been fleshed out more. I'd read more of Ms. De Cadenet's books in a heartbeat - she clearly had great stories! It just didn't come together for me on this one.

"Not the Plan", by Gia De Cadenet, is centered around Isadora and Karim, who are working on opposite sides of the political aisle. After a meet cute on an airplane, they don't meet again until their bosses are both running for the same political seat. Sparks fly, and they have to learn how to navigate their relationship on the down low. There is a side story about Isadora's narcissistic mother and how she has to develop boundaries to get away from her controlling ways.

Overall, this was a cute if predictable book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I seriously binge-read this novel in a day and I loved it!
I have to get my hands on Getting His Game Back because Gia De Cadenet can write a hell of a romcom novel.
Not the Plan was one of the greatest stories I've read in awhile.
The representation was great and the characters were so lovable, believable and fully fleshed-out.
Such a powerful, satisfying read.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Random House,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Not the Plan is a political romance that begins with an adorable meet cute that doesn’t lead anywhere until our couple reunites when they find themselves working on opposite sides in a war for leadership of the California State Senate. They try their best to stay away, but the attraction is far too strong and they enter into a forbidden relationship.

This book is great for anyone who loves political intrigue and the scheming that goes on behind the scenes. It also has a very steamy romance! Isadora and Karim make one hot couple!

The book does have serious triggers. The on and off-page abuse that both main characters endure from family and past relationships could be difficult for some readers. However, these scenes could help others to recognize gaslighting and manipulation in their own lives, which could be helpful, as these kinds of abuse are often covert and more easily ignored by outside parties.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to more from this author.

Thank you to Dell/Random House and NetGalley for the use of this ARC. All opinions are my own.

As a women trying her best to 'not be into politics to stay sane', this may not have been a great pick for me. With all the policy, political slang and contraversal topics...it was a bit hard to grasp some of the work aspects of this one.
Overall this was cute and quirky. I loved how shy Karim is portrayed but when Isadora needed him. I loved the interracial coupling- go advancement in romance! Because this rarely happens and I’m all for it!!! Lastly the ending was just the cherry on top.
Will def catch more of this author.