C Gockel Writes

Book Review: A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole

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A Hope Divided A Novel of the Civil War by Alyssa ColeI picked up A Hope Divided with some trepidation. You know how you read a really good book, and after reading it you feel 1) Bereft 2) Certain that no other book can live up to your expectations. 3) You worry that the next book will be the same book with different names slapped on the previous characters. I was in that sort of post book high low after reading An Extraordinary Union.

A Hope Divided wasn’t An Extraordinary Union … it was better. It has all the things I loved about An Extraordinary Union: forbidden love, high stakes romance, history, and characters I really liked, but I think that I could identify with the characters a little more. An Extraordinary Union’s hero and heroine are based on real people, but they’re so blazingly heroic that in some ways it’s harder to identify with them. Hope’s Marlie and Ewan are more vulnerable; they are heroic in the story, but it is more because they have to be. They are both quiet individuals who’d probably be happier in a lab, but the war has forced them outside their comfort zones and they’re trying to make the best of it.

A little about the story: Marlie Lynch is half white and half black, a free black woman living with the very wealthy white half of her family in the Carolinas. She exists in a strange parallel world. She has the benefits of wealth and freedom, but the limitations of her race and sex. Her black mother was a “root woman,” and practitioner of “hoo-doo.” Marlie has turned the practical parts of her mother’s knowledge into a herbalist business.

I’m going to just say right here, that I was really impressed by how the author Alyssa Cole combined science and superstition in this book. She could have made magic real, or she could have dismissed it. Instead she walked a very narrow middle road and did a wonderful job showing how for Marlie’s slave ancestors, magic was really about trying to take control of their lives in a world that offered them few chances to do so. It also shows though, that some of their knowledge wasn’t just superstition.

Like a lot of romance novel series, the two male heroes are related. That may seem contrived to those unfamiliar with the genre–and indeed it is a little bit, but hey, it is a romance novel and I really liked Ewan. He isn’t like his brother at all, which is part of the reason this book is so good. He has a much more scientific mind, and he’s a joy to read. I’m not going to say too much more about that …

This book could be subtitled “Introverts in Love.” Alyssa Cole has captured the minds of two people who have very complex inner lives, and brings them out into the world. Danger runs high throughout the book. The romance is believable and incredibly sweet. (There are smexy scenes, so if those aren’t your cuppa, you might not like it. All of those scenes were well done and fit the characters, developed the story, and were more than just needing some nookie just because … )

Wonderful book. If you like historical romance definitely pick it up. It is traditionally published, and a little more expensive at $9.99 … but worth it. If you’re on a budget, it should be fairly easy to get your library to pick it up.


Happy reading!

An Extraordinary Union

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LOOKING FOR A BOOK TO READ? This weekend I read An Extraordinary Union, by Alyssa Cole. I started this book Saturday and just finished it–so you know, basically I inhaled it. It’s got everything: forbidden love, great historical detail, believable characters, and high stakes action.

The story takes place during the Civil War, and features two Union spies who fall in love while on assignment in Richmond, Virginia, capital of the Confederacy. (Dun-dun-dunnnnnn!)

Elle Burns is a freed black woman posing as a slave, and her love interest is a Scottish immigrant. Elle has helped others on the Underground Railroad her entire life, and she has a secret gift–an eidetic memory. Her motivations for risking her life for the Union are obvious, but they are well explored, without ever being boring. We get to see her uneasy relationship with abolitionists–some who still don’t view African Americans as being much more than animals. And we see her uneasy place as a well-educated woman in Civil War era society, and what that means for her romantic life. These aspects of her were complicated, and for that reason felt authentic to me. Her growing feelings for a white spy were also extremely conflicted, which I found very believable.

Also, what’s not to love about forbidden love?

Ahem.

Malcolm McCall, the white spy in question, is a Scottish immigrant whose family was forced to leave Scotland after their land was seized by the British. One of the strengths of this story was that it showed how that experience gave him empathy for the plight of enslaved African Americans. (It also made me want to read up more on that era of Scottish history.) It also showed how the experience of oppression changes from place to place, but how in some ways, it is eerily similar. It also gives the story a global context, which I liked.

Even though intellectually Malcolm knows that a long-term relationship with Elle will not be recognized by law, or by many people, he is much less conflicted about it. His outlook was naive, but felt real. I know a German family that lived for a time in South Africa under apartheid. They did not understand “the rules,” befriended black Africans, and made everyone uncomfortable on occasion–even, unintentionally, their black friends.

Side note: it was also charming how Elle reminded him of his Mum, personality-wise. I think we tend to look for “the familiar” when we fall in love. And Elle is familiar to Malcom in the most important way. She’s smart and knows her own mind (though not always her heart.)

The heat level in this book is high. There are fairly graphic sex scenes, but the scenes do offer character insights. If it’s not you’re thing though, this might not be the book for you.

I just bought the next book in the series … which I think is a pretty decent endorsement.

Get it at Amazon

Happy Reading!