Once Upon a Secret

Probably my fault. I did zero research, just picked the book up and since it was on sale, thought, JFK is interesting enough, let's see what it is about.
The fact is that the narrator - and in her defense, she never hides it - was a very foolish and naive College student when she started having an affair with Mr. President, and it shows: the whole thing is so provincial, so shallow, that you almost don't believe it. You end up under the impression that JFK is this honorable character all the way, and actually so is she, so wait a minute, something doesn't add up...
anyway. I understand that probably it is just the way things were in the 60s, if you came from a well-off family and ended up almost by accident in the White House, and JFK is a well liked and fascinating character enough to make it plausible. Just.

I'm torn between and 3- and a 4-star rating. The writing was fine but it was the ending that touched me and because I appreciate her honesty and her learning to stand up for herself and learning to live in a loving relationship I'm giving it a 4 not so much for the book but to show my appreciation and admiration for her journey.

This was an awful book. Not only did the author contradict herself often, but publishing something like this for a profit is just distasteful, crude, and disrespectful. Mimi Alford is an opportunistic, self assured, sellout with no business in the publishing industry. The book only received three stars from me because, while the time period and JFK presidency are interesting to me, her account of his personal life was somewhat numbing. It's only a matter of time before we see this story on the Lifetime Movie Network.