If you can remember the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky scandal that was big news 15 years ago, you will find this book reminicsent of those events. The book is staged in an election year, so there are plenty of politics involved, and not just by the way of the characters workplace.

Jamie has come from a strained family life. Her father's battles with alcohol and her sister Erica's temperament leaves her mother pulled thin between them, and Jamie craving attention from anyone.

Authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus plunge readers deep into the mind of Jamie, a 22 yr old recent college graduate who has had troubled finding a paying job. However on the recommendation from a friend's mother, she has been given an intern position at the White House. During a government shut-down, she finds herself in the arms of the world's most powerful man, Gregory Rutland, the President.

Then her world is turned upside down when someone close to her exposes the relationship between Jamie and Greg. When everyone she is close to is pulled into the investigation, their lives literally ruined, Jamie is still holding on to that sheer hope that Greg will come and save her. Her naivety is huge and she doesn't really realize that her actions, however small and limited they may have been, has destroyed everything not only in her life, but in those close to her as well.

THE FIRST AFFAIR is a quick read. The beginning is a bit hard to get into, but once you are a quarter of the way into the book, things begin to pick up. The ending is the best part. I say that because in the last chapter, you see just how much she and her family have grown and matured through her entire ordeal.