Introduction

"The fact that I had managed to become a health-care analyst for a U.S. Senator at the age of twenty-six still surprised me, and I lived in fear that someone would realize how ridiculous it was to have given me this authority and fire me on the spot."

Idealistic, dedicated to her job, and a bit of a hypochondriac, Samantha Joyce has a very busy life. Working a seventy-hour week and mastering the details of the latest health-care reform bill, while making time to celebrate obscure but significant holidays such as the twenty-ninth anniversary of The Partridge Family series finale, leaves little time for romance. But then she meets Aaron Driver, the handsome speechwriter for a rival senator. Sammy falls for him hard, despite the fact that his ambitious boss is the emblem of everything she hates about congressional hardball. When you work on Capitol Hill, even dating becomes a political act.

Try as she might, Sammy isn't the sort of person who can keep from speaking her mind, no matter how much trouble it causes. Whether she's trying to thwart a filibuster, detox a constituent, or recover from mistakenly emailing a racy message to over two hundred of Capitol Hill's political elite, Sammy stays true to herself, foibles and all. And before she knows it, she finds herself at the heart of a romantic tangle, a major showdown over health care reform, and the highest-stakes contest of alla presidential election campaign.

Kristin Gore is a keen observer of politics with a sharp ear for comedy, and her first novel is a triumpha captivating, hilarious page-turner with a loveable heroine who will charm readers on both sides of the aisle.

Editorial Review

In her debut novel Sammy's Hill, Kristin Gore treats readers to an insider's view of life and love on Capitol Hill. In fact, the view couldn't get much more inside the Beltway, especially coming from former Vice President Al Gore's daughter. Still, Sammy's Hill is witty and engaging enough to prove that it's not always who you know, but sometimes how well you tell their stories.

Samantha Joyce, Gore's heroine, is a 26-year-old self-deprecating health-care policy advisor to Robert Gary, a well-respected senator from her home state of Ohio. Between endless work days, a grueling campaign schedule, and frequent trips to the pet store where she seeks advice on caring for her listless Japanese fighting fish, Sammy finds time to obsess over her new boyfriend, sexy speechwriter Aaron Driver. As things heat up with Aaron, Sammy's work schedule takes on a new intensity when Gary becomes the Democratic candidate for vice president. Along the way, scandal clouds both her personal and professional life, and our heroine discovers the often salacious underbelly of life on the hill.

Gore is best-known for her work as a writer on television shows such as Saturday Night Live and Futurama, and her comedic talents certainly shine through in this first effort. While at times the banter is overly constructed, and Sammy's neuroses can become grating at best ("...a sore throat was never just a sore throat--it was much more lively the beginning stages of Ebola, rickets, or wasting disease."), Gore does a good job of creating a protagonist who becomes ever more likeable as the book progresses. Thrown into the mix is a delicious sprinkling of hilarious Blackberry exchanges that round out this clever contemporary political adventure. --Gisele Toueg

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