I liked this book a whole lot more than I thought I would. I suppose I'm in the minority when I say I do believe two people from opposing political parties can get along and dare I say it, fall in love and live happily ever after. I've always thought that agreeing 100% with a partner would be weird and not healthy and I never wanted that for myself. This book lends many examples of that. Ben even tells Kate towards the end of the book that even though their political affiliations are different, their values and interests and wants and needs and futures look exactly the same. I agree with that. I think it's a poor stance to take to write off EVERYONE you disagree with. How are you going to be challenged in life if you only surround yourself with like minded people? You end up in an echo chamber. In the beginning, Kate swore she would never, ever date a Republican and I get that. I do. However, she and Ben have more in common than she thinks and I'm so glad she came around to it and they give each other chances and fall in love and live happily ever after. Ben's reasonings for wanting to protect Kate and take her to the gun range (his sister being raped at a frat party in college) made me just like him even more, as did Kate. I KNOW there's strong opinions about this book being realistic but I found it be a great representation of how things could be if we didn't have such a divide.