This book was obviously written to mirror our current reality as a satire. The First Lady is ready to “get out of Dodge”, so to speak, i.e. her current situation married to the big loutish man who is the current president. FLOTUS enlists the help of her gay hairdresser, Angel, to leave, putting a FLOTUS impersonator in her place. The story revolves around the moves FLOTUS takes to keep up the pretense, and how the president and everyone else react. All hell breaks loose when the move FLOTUS has taken comes out, as can be expected.

This story was humorous and rather realistic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The characters were well developed and acted/reacted as one would expect. Can such a thing ever occur? I guess it can, but it is perhaps not all that probable (remember, pre-nupts and other various legal and unofficial agreements do exist). The book was a pretty good read for me, and a pretty humorous one at that. I think anyone who enjoys good satire and who feels like many of the current population does will enjoy it. However, it may not be a book with a long enduring life/relevance, as this too shall pass (whether you want to believe that or not is up to you). The book gave me a lot of laughs and provided a good escape from everyday life and the reality of things today. I received this form NetGalley to read and review.

Recommended for those still recovering from the 2016 Presidential Election

I know many people who have been plagued by depression since the 2016 Presidential Election. Author Verity Speaks hopes to lighten the mood of the nation with her fictional tale of President Rex Funk and his former model/immigrant wife Natalia. The First Lady Escapes finds us well into the first term of Funk’s presidency. Natalia, who is horrified by her husband’s attitudes and physique, longs to escape the confines of the White House and reunite with her first love from her home country. With the help of those President Funk despises, a homosexual Mexican immigrant and a transgender nurse/performer, Natalia hatches a plan to leave her restrictive life and disgusting spouse behind.

Verity Speeks novel is bold in its portrayal of a president who gets turned on watching his State of the Union Address and covets the praise of his lap dog like daughter Gretchen, but the prose sometimes crosses from humorous to vulgar. The story over all is fun and takes some unexpected turns but it could have been written with more finesse. In a time when many of us struggle with the current administration, Speeks novel is a whimsical distraction from the daily news cycle.

This really appealed to me, what with everything going on in the world. I also thought that it was a novel idea for a plot. However for me I'm afraid it didn't quite hit the mark; it just didn't make me quite laugh as I thought it would. Sorry!

Even the First Lady has a breaking point.

Rex Funck, the womanising, bullying and disgusting President of the United States, has a beautiful Slovakian wife named Natalia. He wants her to get pregnant so that the voters will re-elect him because of his virility. Natalia cannot go through with it as she loathes and despises him.

Natalia flees with her gay friend and leaves a transwoman at the White House to impersonate her, the First Lady.

Chaos erupts at the White House, but Natalia is on a personal journey to save the people from her despicable husband.

This is a truly awful book, a supposed parody of the Trump Administration. It is not so much funny and amusing as cringeworthy and embarrassing.

The idea of a First Lady becoming a national hero against her husband has good potential, but the author has destroyed any promising storyline.

I am going to leave my review there. I usually suggest you read the book yourself and make your own judgement, but if you if do decide to read this book don’t forget you will never get the hours you have wasted back.

Chester.

Breakaway Reviewer received a copy of this book to review.

If you're American and a Democrat, you'll probably enjoy this. I'm neither, so I felt like I needed a little more to really enjoy this. I would have loved more humour, more originality, more satire rather than revulsion, just... more.

As it was, I didn't laugh once and didn't really find myself connecting with any of the characters. The final third seemed very contrived and while I wouldn't expect a book like this to be particularly realistic, it was simply too over the top to make it relatable.

I stuck with it to find out what happened, but I didn't feel like it was particularly worth my while.

Just OK.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

A fast paced and far fetched satirical read. If you like the writing styles of Tom Sharpe or Carl Hiaasen then this is sure to please.

This book was a frustrating experience for me. I enjoyed the satirical aspects and humorous tone but at the same time I find the obvious analogies to our present political situation in the WH depressing. I’ve reached the point where I have to protect my state of mind and sanity by deliberately not reading much political news coverage. This however is not the fault of this author so, if able to laugh at the current political reality, this is a fine read.

This book sounded intriguing, however I could only make it so far and ended up having to shelve it. There were too many similar references to our current President and I just can’t read a whole book on that.

This is an interesting book. I've tried reading this with an open-mind. Yet, all I could do was envision the current political climate in the United States and cringe!

Well-written and quite evocative.

Not recommended for staunch supporters of the current POTUS.

A great satire on Trump and the White House. President Funck and his wife Natalie, his close daughter, Natalie’s hairdresser and the security guys provide a humorous story of how Natalie escapes. Funck is determined to have another baby to “prove himself”, but Natalie can’t stand him and is determined it is not going to happen. She pines for her first boyfriend, remembering the passion she no longer feels, but longs for. Her hairdresser searches for him and miraculously finds him! He then finds a Natalie impersonates and brings her into the White House. The transformation begins and so does the fun. But ends no quite as expected! A well written story, fun to read. Could it happen, my guess is as good as yours.

The narrative content of this book very much builds upon the way Trump has created his presidential persona, perhaps things are take a step further to create the humour but imo it is fairly true to life on his side anyway. It has a madcap element to it created by the characterisation of the main characters, Flotus, Angel and Moon. It is kind of weighted very heavily to the LGBT side, I do understand where that comes form but to me this part seems overdone, nearly every character has some element of LGBT particularly transgender identities.

I like how the characters work together to get Flotus out and how the power of friendship is defined through them.

However i thought the ending was a bit nonsensical - it didn't fit the flow of the narrative or Trump's characterisation

"Natalia could hear her husband's first State of the Union address blasting from the TV inside his bedroom. President Rex Funck had delivered the speech nearly three years ago, but he could never get enough of it."


Verity Speeks' novel, The First Lady Escapes: FLOTUS Flees The Whitehouse, is a highly relevant, and thinly veiled, satire set a few years into the future of America's current political season. The story follows Natalia Funck, the current FLOTUS, as she plots to escape from her narcissistic, piggish husband, Rex Funck, so that she can find her childhood sweetheart. She relies on assistance to escape from her gay Mexican hairdresser, Angel, and his friend, a trans woman named Moon, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Natalia.


While it is difficult to read this without thinking about the certain figures that Rex and Natalia are based upon, Speeks manages to create a hidden history for the fictional FLOTUS, and makes her into someone that the reader can root for. She is presented as a fed up, imprisoned woman with dreams of a much simpler life. Rex, on the other hand, is presented as a childish, misogynistic brat, who is always on the verge of a temper tantrum. Speeks presents a scathing fictionalization of the president, which provides the novel with much of its hilarity.


When the two main marginalized characters, Moon and Angel, were initially introduced, I had my concerns that they were introduced for the mere purpose of irking the current administration by having a gay Mexican man and a trans woman as Natalia's friends. However, as the novel progresses, Speeks allows them to come into their own, and it's apparent that they aren't used as props. They prove to be amongst the most lovable characters, and act as the true heroes of the story. They are the ones determined to get Natalia out of the White House, and provide her with newfound hope. Perhaps the best part of this novel is that the people that are marginalized by the current administration are the ones to become heroes and provide a badly needed sense of hope.

As noted previously, this novel is a thinly veiled reflection on today's society. While this acts well in a humorous effect, there are times where this novel reflected the bleaker aspects of today's society a little too candidly. There is one scene in particular where Moon knows and accepts that if her true identity as a trans woman is revealed to members of the White House, it could result in her death. Given that this is a reality trans women in America, this leads to deep discomfort, and a stark contrast from the majority of the novel, that attempts to appear hopeful. It's understood that Speeks attempts to parody today's society, but moments such as these rang a little too true to be considered satire.


However, for the most part, The First Lady Escapes proves to be an enjoyable adventure with an uplifting message. The mean-spirited, egotistical president is constantly humiliated, while Natalia gains autonomy with the help of her marginalized friends. The adventure aspects of this story are well written, and keeps the reader constantly second-guessing about what could possibly happen next. It is an addictive read, with some sharp observations on today's society that are perfectly parodied. For those looking for a literary outlet to briefly escape the bleakness of the current political scene, The First Lady Escapes is the novel you need right now.


Final Rating: 3.5/5

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing.

This book holds many surprises for me, if I'm being honest. The first is that it was publushed ar all - not because it wasn't good but because it portrays very real and conttemporary personalities in an extremely unflattering, satirical way. The second is that I actually finished it - again, not that it wasn«t good, but it did contain many narratives, and it had its good and bad moments.

The First Lady Escapes paints an uncanny parallel to the reality of the current United States First Family, politics and society. It is primarily told from the perspective of the First Lady, who is obviously unhappy with her life, and decides, as the title indicates, to flee the White House.

It is of course impossible to know how close this narrative matches the real First Lady's life and feelings, but the characters' descrptions make it all too obvious who everyone is, even if they weren't referred to by their titles.

The narrative is quite funny, in a very sharp, satirical way. It somehow also creates a sense of empathy for some of the narrating characters. The twists and tirns in the plot are genious and I believe quite unpredictable, which is truly a feat in this day and age.

The ending wasn't quite satisfying for me, personally, but I'd love to see something like tjhat happen in the real future.

Kuddos to the author for having the balls to write and publish a brilliant book that is both entertaining and exposes some of the most relevant problems of today's society.

The first lady of the United States is unhappy with her 'captivity' and wants to escape. Her only real friend, the aptly names Angel, concocts a plan to allow her to flee and be replaced by a Flotus-impersonator. This is the story of how she escapes, and what happens after.

Ridiculous, farcical, biting, ribald, satirical comedy that is exactly as the title suggests. This is a light read, and is very much in the style of Carl Hiaasen's crazy stories about Florida.

A satire obviously based on the American president and his wife. The description sounded good but sadly I didn't find the book lived up to that

“The First Lady escapes” is a hilarious and biting satire against one of the most controversial figures of our time, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. Rex Funck (Trump) is described as a Narcissus, a god-like figure sitting on his royal throne, a reincarnation of Louis XIV, France’s Sun King. He’s portrayed as a dictator willing to build a dynasty and to crumble American values such as democracy and freedom. Moreover, Verity Speeks gives us a picture of Rex Funck as a man lying on his bed, with a Diet Coke in his hand, while watching Fox News all the time, because he adores seeing his own image in a mega-TV screen. Instead Natalia, the First Lady, is a speechless figure, a piece of furniture among Rex’s family or as a second-hand sofa that someone had dumped in an alley. She cannot express her own political opinion, she has to sit still, nod politely with guests and say nothing. She’s quite different from First Ladies such as Michelle Obama or Laura Bush who played a key role during their husband’s presidency. Natalia is a Slovakian model that has realized her dream to marry a billionaire who just happened to become the most powerful man in the world, but she has no skills to be a First Lady, only elegance and grace. She’s just a supermodel for millions of people.
As the story goes on, we soon realize that Rex Funck and Natalia are completely different. Rex hates Muslims, calls immigrants “animals” and takes their babies away, disrespects the LGBTQ community, avoids words such as “climate change” and “global warming”. He wants to become the most powerful leader of an isolated and self-sufficient country. He’s a man who trades with oligarchs and thugs. He’s also under the attention of the American press that is always scrutinizing his mental health. Paradoxically, the White House is inhabited by Afro-American servants working there, and is attended by Ángel, a gay Mexican hairdresser that entered the US illegally, and is surrounded by paparazzi equipped to take compromising photos about the presidential family. Although she lacks education and sold her body to make a life, Natalia is more open-minded and has no problem to speak with Afro-American people or Mexicans because she is herself an immigrant, but she had the luck to marry a man who bought her a visa. She’s a devoted catholic, interested in people who are suffering and children living in poverty. This is what gradually converts her into the ideal POTUS in the eyes of the American people.
The central theme of the novel is FLOTUS’s desire to escape her beast-like husband (boss, master and savior), a vulgar man using coarse words with her and treating women just like objects. She wants to join her former Slovakian boyfriend, Vaclav. She wants to disappear from the White House and from Rex’s life because Rex wants to get her pregnant, so the American people will think he’s a macho stud, and the Republican Convention will elect him to a second term. Throughout the novel, we see Natalia leaving the White House with Angel and crossing the US border and entering Mexico, disguised as a Mexican girl. Meanwhile, Moon, a trans woman, takes her place as FLOTUS. One of the first to suspect that something is happening inside the White House is Phil Smith, a paparazzi based in LA, comparing old photos of FLOTUS with the newly taken White House Christmas photo. When Rex discovers the truth, he can only keep the story top-secret and avoid any leak to the press.
To sum up, this book can be seen as a desperate cry from those Americans who are afraid that the US is no longer a democratic and tolerant country. And satire is a great way to encourage people to develop their critical thinking and become aware of what is really happening. The novel ends leaving hope to all those Americans who still dream to elect a woman as President of the United States of America.

A wonderfully frivolous imagining of what might have happened when Melania went missing (because, let’s be honest, it’s very thinly disguised, which adds to its appeal) from the public eye. There are some more serious themes beneath all the bubbles, with a lovely supporting cast, all contributing to a fabulously light hearted read.

President Rex Funck is a loutish, lying old bully whose affairs have deeply hurt his stunning wife Natalia, a former model from Slovakia. Now he wants her to get pregnant so voters will see him as a macho stud and re-elect him in a landslide.

Natalia, the First Lady, despises her husband. He wants her to get pregnant in AIDS to boost her popularity in the up coming elections. But Natalia has other plans. She wants to escape. Angel, her gay Mexican hairdresser and best friend, they come up with a plan to achieve this. They leave Moon, a trans woman, who impersonates Natalia, in her place. Natalia escapes and her journey begins as she tries to track down her first love as she flees from the US to Mexico.

Where do I start with this enjoyable and at times funny book? With my favourite characters, Angel the gay hairdresser and Moon, the trans woman. Moon has the most fun in the book, especially the way Funck discovers her true identity. I think we all know someone like Angel, who with Natalia's help, has made his way in life. The First Lady Escapes follows her journey after she escapes and oh what a journey it is. With a government agent and a paparazzi photographer on her trail, will they catch her? Or will she escape for ever? The book is funny, entertaining and a spoof on Donald Trump. I loved this book from beginning to end. I was rooting for Natalia to break free form her loathsome husband. A lighthearted read that's really enjoyable.

This book has a very amusing premise and as a lover of satire I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately I found it quite hard going, Rex Funck disgusted me so much I felt a bit sick reading about him but that will not be the case for every reader. The sex scenes between the First Lady and President Rex Funck are quite stomach churning and unfortunately I just didn’t find the book compelling enough to finish it. Having said that, I am not ruling out giving the book another try further down the line as the premise is quite intriguing.

I really wanted to like this book as it is a satire about the current state of affairs in Washington, focussing on the President and First Lady. Yes, there were some funny moments but overall the language and situations were crude--and although they mirror much of what we see on the news--having those images in my head was just too much for me. And I can't call them "fake images"! Really there were so few redeeming qualities--and yes, I'm sure that was the author's intent--that I got bored in the middle as it felt too forced. Even the author's name is a parody in itself: Truth Speaks. I'm sure many will enjoy this but I'm just not one of them. At least I can turn off the news or disregard Twitter!