An Extraordinary Union

DNF - PG 55

Why?

I love the idea behind the story, but...Oy vey. So this is about a pair of spies, right? So they're supposed to be doing spy stuff - not groping each other in the bushes the day they met. Seriously. The very same twenty-four (more like, twelve) hour period that they met.

So, after they get their grope on and Elle comes to her senses and turns him down very vocally because nothing good could come out of this dalliance for her, we get this:

‘“If I really were [a slave], you could have your way with me without this pretense of seduction.” Her face was warm and she was perilously close to tears.‘

blinks What? I mean, she feels heartbroken because he's not madly in love with her after knowing her for all of nine and three-quarter's hours? But, wait!

The very next day, we get Malcolm mourning lost chances with Elle and, basically, lusting after her in his mind. Then:

‘She'd never believe he felt anything for her.‘

Soo... After what might be a full day, he is upset because she wouldn't believe he is madly in love with her?

(No, I'm sorry, this is just lust - he's in lust with her - because that's all this even is.)

Right now, they probably have known each other one full day. They've met each other three times, (ignoring the prologue because that offers little of anything) the first two times, Elle was pretending to be a mute slave and Malcolm was pretending to be a hardcore Confederate soldier.

So, the first meeting, Elle thinks Malcolm is going to rape her (‘it was the smile of a man used to getting his way'). (When we get his memory of that scene, mere minutes later, he's thinking of ‘full Cupid's bow lips had been on the verge of forming a smile' and ‘Her thick heir had been plaited into two girlish braids, but there was no doubt that she was a grown woman: the plain cotton dress she wore highlighted her slim waist and ample bosom.') Malcolm's first words to Elle is a flirt.

The second meeting Malcolm apologies to her (after feeling jealousy that she might be headed home to a husband).

‘“I just wanted to give my apologies again for today,” he said. “I'd fall on my sword before hurting a woman in that way. Any woman.”Her lips parted in surprise, sending a rush of want through him even as he was apologizing for it.‘

...

...

The third meeting, he flirts with her again, strongly, manhandles her, they kind of mutually grope each other - though he does somewhat more groping than she does - and we get this from her perspective:

‘He should have moved his hand from her waist, but he didn't.‘

There are more examples like this in just the fifty-five pages that I read, where Malcolm is a lecherous creep but Elle doesn't mind because he's soo charming. No, he's not charming. He's a lecherous creep.

I actually have even more notes on my phone but... sigh

I'm done.

Dnf.

I wanted to like it but I find it really repetitive, I don't love the writing style, and honestly I don't even care if Elle and McCall get it on.

Apparently I only read in 15-minute bursts on my phone these days. But our son is finally home from the NICU, so I'll take it!

This was a WONDERFUL historical romance/adventure story. Set during the Civil War, two Union detectives meet in Virginia, each undercover to undermine the Confederacy. Spoiler alert, they fall in love. :) I loved that these characters and others throughout the book were based on real people, the research that went into it. Not to mention the sharp banter and no-holds-barred conversations about race and slavery and the South between the two protags (he's white, she's Black, escandalo!) when they kinda sorta don't like each other for a while, ish.

I'm not normally huge on historicals, but I think it's just because one can only read about so many dukes and having one's reputation ruined and whatnot before you need a break for something else? Between this and the one from Beverly Jenkins I read a while back (about pirates in Gold Rush California ... I'm not remembering the title right now, forgive me! I'll update later when I remember) maybe I need to mix other time periods in with my regency reads, since that has made me a LOT happier about delving into history via the romance genre! Looking forward to checking out the next one in this series.

(DESTINY'S CAPTIVE! That's what it was called!)

I feel bad for rating this so low since I usually really like Alyssa Cole's work, but I couldn't stand this book.

The two main characters are incredibly stupid spies (we are told in narration how good at their jobs they are but they spend the whole book overreacting to things, making amateurish mistakes, and doing things they know will threaten the mission) during the American Civil War. The book acknowledges the power differential between the two characters due to race and gender, but then repeatedly shows the hero trying to push the heroine's boundaries, which I guess is okay because she secretly wants him so badly that they have a bunch of embarrassingly written sex (including a notable scene after Elle was shot in the head!!!!) and get married after knowing one another for a week. The final act relies on a false rape accusation against the hero by a spurned lover to propel it forward.

Honestly, the story of the war and the spy network was interesting and I liked some of the side characters a lot, but even outside of the romance the hero felt unnecessary (he didn't actually help with the spying very much). While the whole conceit of Elle pretending to be mute felt contrived, I might have liked the book better as a solo adventure for her as a spy.

For the Read Harder challenge of an historical romance by an AOC. I liked this more than I thought I would since historical romances are not my fav. But it had a fast-paced story, snappy dialog, and lots of passion. I did have to suspend my disbelief a little in order to accept that a Civil War-era heroine would have such a modern feminist sensibility, but, hey, more power to her.

I am not a romance reader by a long shot, but this year I have been focusing on novels written by and featuring kick-ass women. This one fits the bill! First, it's a total page turner with a heroine that is so ....together. She knows who she is, where she is going, and has a cause that is worth fighting for! I love Ellen Burns. I would have loved her if she'd had normal memorization powers. She saved this story for me, because the plot line is just okay and the rest of the characters in the book felt pulled from the appropriate stockpile. As I cringe a bit with romance, I found Malcolm a little too good to be true-but I think that's pretty normal in a romance novel? I don't know, read the reviews of some romance people.
It's a good read, and I'm glad I picked it up.

Wonderful book, doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of America's past, and extremely honest. One star lost for the action scenes that came one after another as of 70% in that seemed a bit too much all at once.

I read historical romance all the time and I love it, but in school, I never liked history class. Even in college, I took art history classes to fill requirements. But if history classes were anything like this book, focusing on the men and women who actually made history happen, I think students would be enthralled.

But although this book is about the past, it's also highly relevant to people's lives today. I was thinking throughout the book that the US still has not resolved a lot of the racial issues that were present at the time of the Civil War. There are many varieties of racism portrayed in the various white characters and a lot of it was very familiar, such as the slaver who says his horrible actions aren't his fault, since he's just taking advantage of the system as it exists.

It does take on some very weighty issues, and it's a thoughtful book. Yet it doesn't feel like a heavy read, due to the constant action. This book is exciting. Elle and Malcolm are always in danger, as spies, but they end up in a good number of specific perilous situations over the course of the book.

Elle and Malcolm's romance is pretty much perfect, in my view. Elle has a very difficult time deciding that Malcolm can be trusted, which is easy to understand, and when she explains how she's feeling to Malcolm, he has to do some uncomfortable soul-searching as well. As a white American, living in the modern world, I'm ashamed to say I would not have guessed at some of Elle's objections either. Malcolm has the best intentions towards her from the beginning, but he only learns to be the best partner he can be over time. So it was very easy for me to feel carried away by the romance.

Overall this is one of the best m/f romances I've ever read, and I highly recommend it. I'm very excited for the sequel.

I loved this! Elle is such a strong, unusual heroine and I could easily have read a whole other book about her (hopefully she shows up in any more books in this series). I don't usually go too much for the mystery/suspense/spy genre of romance, but I've been meaning to read Alyssa Cole forever and this book had gotten such good reviews, I went for it, and I'm so glad I did!