An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

genre: adult fiction/historical romance

Elle has got a pretty astonishing gift - she can remember everything she sees and hears. While she’s used this gift as a parlor trick for most of her life, she finally finds a way to use her gift to help the Union cause - she poses as a mute and allows herself to be enslaved at the home of a Virginia senator. Soon, however, she realizes she may not be the only person in the senator’s circles that’s undercover - Malcolm McCall, the roguish Scotsman, declares to be a dyed in the well Reb and yet there’s something about him that Elle can see through, even if she can’t trust. Can a white man and a black woman find a way to work together for the Union in the middle of the Confederacy at war?

I read this book to fulfill the Read Harder Reading Challenge prompt “an historical romance by an AOC.” Truth be told, I probably would have never picked it up otherwise because straight up romance novels are not my cup of tea. I prefer my books to be plot driven with some romance in them as opposed to the opposite. So there’s that. However, I will admit that there were several things I did like: I liked that the female character was capable, strong and black. It was interesting to see her in a position of power, somewhat, in a Civil War context ( obviously when she has to pretend to be a slave she has to be subservient but because we hear her inner most thoughts it still feels like she has her power to a certain extent ).

While I don’t know how true to the time period their are thoughts are, Elle schooled Malcom in white fragility and if readers pay attention, they can actually learn about how to temper their own white privilege just by looking at how Malcolm learns from Elle. I thought that was pretty awesome - and I enjoyed reading about a healthy biracial relationship in the south during the war.

Did I have to suspend my disbelief a lot? I did. I think that’s one of the weaknesses of the romance novel, for me. Sometimes I had to hold back an eye roll because of how the storyline played out. Is there a lot of “scenes?” Yes. If you don’t want to read about adults having sex than this not the book for you.

I am not sorry I read it though. Parts of it made me uncomfortable because of the racial tension and the power play, which is I think exactly what the author intended. It really makes you think about how horrible and hard it was for black women, and, to a certain extent, how it still is. Elle does a good job explaining how bad it sucks to be not just a slave but also just a person whose value is based on her gender and her skin color instead of her capability and intelligence.