Review: Former First Lady

Title: Former First Lady by Ebony Edwards-Ellis
Pages: 269
Rating: 3 stars


I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

The Former First Lady by Ebony Edwards Ellis is a contemporary romance with a bit of politics thrown in to sweeten the deal. As the title suggests, this book is about a former first lady who in this case is Shelley Diggs. The book begins with Shelley leaving her husband, former POTUS, Barry Welles. This is however, not the beginning of the story. Her story and his as well starts many years ago.

From the beginning, like in some kind of memoir, Shelley tells us her story until the moment her life changed forever. Her husband, without telling her, decides to run for presidency after the then president, Donald Trump resigns. All over sudden, her life changes and no longer feels like her own. Living in the spotlight will do that to person. Anyway, the husband wins making him the second African American president much to his wife’s dismay. What follows in the next half of the book is what you’d expect, which is the struggle of living in the White House as the first family, while trying to remain an actual family.

I have to admit that Former First Lady was intriguing. I was immediately attracted by the description and since I was reading Becoming by Michelle Obama, I wanted to see how their experiences would match up. This was a book with a good storyline but with better characters. Shelley was obviously my favorite character and the reason why I kept reading. 

What I liked the most about this book were the characters, and their conversations. At one point in the book, Shelley and her husband are arguing as they often did, and the conversation was so well written, that I found myself getting worked up and heated. I was also getting angry!! 


There was no particular thing that I hated about this book, but then why didn’t I give it 4 or 5 stars? I guess the best answer for that is that there was no connection even after finishing the book. In the end it was just a nice book. However, don’t let me discourage you. If you enjoy contemporary romances then you are likely to enjoy this one too.