Review: 3 Hearts:the author did an amazing job of showing us how Davis changed and began to care about people and life.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 15, 2012
Ellen Holiday - Inside the Beltway  {Reviewed by Penumbra @ Hearts On Fire Reviews}Inside the Beltway is told in third person through the eyes of Davis Hudson, Davis' ex-wife Helen and for a brief moment Linda Wythe of the Washington Post. I would have preferred to read the story all from Davis' pov, but I can understand why the author also showed us what was happening through Helen's pov. I'm not really sure that it was necessary to show us what was happening through Linda's eyes since her pov was pretty brief. I found the inner monologues rather boring, they could go on for quite some time describing the world of politics, the media, or Davis' past relationship with Helen and her past with Davis. I'd find my mind wandering and then having to bring my attention back to the story. I don't know if it's the author's writing style that made the monologues boring, or if she was trying to show how dull and colorless politics and Davis' relationships had been before  Kurt's involvement in Davis' life and how brighter it was with Kurt. I'm guessing it was the author's writing style here because even after meeting Kurt, Davis' thoughts were still bland and did not brighten except when they involved Kurt. In any case what made the story interesting were the interactions of the characters and not the background information or descriptions.The best part of the story for me, was the developing relationship between Davis and Kurt, this is where the author's talent shone through. The care and eventual love that Davis felt for Kurt as time passed was palpable. I could feel Davis' belief that he had found his `home' and that as long as he had Kurt, nothing else mattered.  At first, it appears that Davis is not so much in the closet as he's not even aware that he's interested in men until Kurt comes along. His past relationships with women, including Helen, were not all that remarkable but he doesn't really contemplate why they weren't very fulfilling. For instance, he married Helen because he needed someone by his side as he pursued his ambitions and they were a good match at the time. Because of Davis' desire to continue his career in politics and his fear of sex with a man, he is hesitant in getting involved with Kurt, but is too drawn to Kurt to resist for long. No matter how much Davis loved Kurt, it took him quite sometime before he was ready to fully commit the final steps of giving all of his heart and body to Kurt. This in a way, symbolized Davis' indecision on what he was going to do about his political run for the presidency, was he going to run or wasn't he? And if he was going to run, was he going to run for office like he did when he ran for Senator, or was Davis going to give his run a new approach? Only when things are pushed to a major turning point by Davis' ex-wife Helen, and Davis receives a visit from Senator Randolph, does everything crystalize for Davis and he realizes what is most important to him and what he is going to do.There are some sexual moments in this story, but they take a background to the politics, the ferreting out of secrets, and Davis and Kurt's growing relationship. So if you're looking for a book with lots of p***, this isn't one of those. This also isn't a book with lots of angst at least on my angst scale. I would say most of the angst comes from Davis' indecision on what he wants from his relationship with Kurt and how Davis can keep it out of the public eye.The story's ending is open, letting the readers decide what the results of the exploratory committee are and whether or not Davis will run for presidency. So if you don't like inconclusive endings, then this book might not be for you.I read this story in pdf format on my NOOK and the formatting was terrible. Just about everything that could go wrong with the formatting went wrong. Only after I'd finished the book did I think to reformat through Calibre. This made the story much easier to read, but there are still numerous issues that needed fixing.I'm conflicted on how to rate Inside the Beltway. On one hand, the long, boring inner monologues from Davis, Helen and Linda made my mind wander and cut down on my pleasure in reading the book, as did the formatting issues. But on the other hand, the author did an amazing job of showing us how Davis changed and began to care about people and life. She also showed us how Davis' love for Kurt blossomed and how deep their connection grew, be it with or without sex.  Because of how well Davis' and Kurt's love came through I'll up this story to 3 stars else the rest of the book would have pulled it down to two.