I don't know why, but it took me a long time to get into this. Maybe I just had too high of expectations or maybe not.
The main character is super pushy when she does what she believes is right and that grated on me for awhile. However, I did get used to it as the book progressed.
I also want to note that I appreciated how the author made this book about politics without making it political if you know what I mean.

Content: kissing, very few scattered uses of language

3 Stars ( )

If you try to fix things when you're a congressman's daughter, beware. Every move, every action and every facial expression is capable of backfiring. This is how we find Kate at the beginning of this story. She's been whisked from DC to Red Dirt, Texas after her well intentioned attempt to fix things at her private school backfires and her father loses his bid for re-election. Fortunately, or unfortunately, both of them get the opportunity for a do-over in Texas, the place where her dad was a star high school quarterback. Kate's initially a fish out of water, but her attempts to fix things in her new school and town keep backfiring...Until they don't. Following her as this happens makes for a quick and very satisfying read. ( )

I am a huge Jane Austen fan and when I heard this pitched as Emma meets Friday Night Lights I knew I had to read it. It didn’t disappoint. I loved Kate even if she always thought she was right she had good intentions and was so kind, caring, and strong. She is moved back to her father’s home town with her parents after causing a scandal that hurt his political career. At least that was their story for moving Kate there. Turns out it has just as much to do with her as her father wanting to run for Red Dirt congressional seat. I adored the romance between Kate and Hunter. They were so cute together and I loved their banter. Hunter is a swoon-worthy hero and the perfect Mr.Knightly. I loved that this book had a main character who is a photographer because I love photography. I also really liked how the book showed both the good and bad side of politics. I really love books in small towns because I am from one and it always brings back all the memories and the author wrote small-town life perfectly. The writing and plot were great. I really needed a fun contemporary novel and this book delivered. I highly recommend this book for football fans, Emma fans, and people who just love a good small-town story.
Rating: 5 stars ( )

The inside flap of this book describes it as Emma meets Friday Night Lights, placing unfairly high expectations on it. Interference does entertain, just not quite to the lofty degree of those two titles.

After scandals for both father and daughter, Kate and her parents head to her father’s small Texas home town purportedly to lay low for a while, however, their plans quickly change when her dad gets embroiled in a local election and Kate gets embroiled in high school.

Since this is a contemporary re-telling of Jane Austen’s Emma, Kate shares that literary heroine’s power to frustrate, consistently acting before she thinks anything all the way through, be it with matchmaking or revenge schemes. Kate has good intentions for the most part, so it’s not that she’s unlikable, it just gets a bit old when nearly every action she takes blows up in her face and unlike the reader, she seemingly never sees it coming.

While Interference does a solid job of touching on many of Emma’s plot points, it would have been interesting to see Kate’s dad be more of a fussbudget like Emma’s father in the original (he is uptight about how their family is perceived for his political career but not as extreme about health, diet, etc.) and I wasn’t clear on who, if anyone represented Miss Bates, admittedly, those are both somewhat annoying characters in Emma, but they’re also sources of humor which it might have been fun to have more of throughout this book.

As for the Friday Night lights comparison, the entire town is crazy about football, there’s QB drama, and a few scenes of on-field action, however with the entire story told from Kate’s point of view - a non football fan who isn’t all that invested - it never quite captures the whole clear eyes, full hearts feeling.

I would have loved to see the familial relationships explored further than they were, to have them take precedence over the politics, the romance, Kate’s machinations, etc., still, whenever the focus did shift to Kate with her dad, Hunter with his mom, or Kyle with his dad, those brief moments were when I found myself most emotionally engaged with the book, and they’re why I would try more from this author. ( )

Classic YA Romance. There is nothing that makes this book stand out; however, the story is good and characters are vivid. ( )