This book is actually three novellas, all written under the umbrella premise of Eliza Hamilton collecting stories about her husband, Alexander, in service of recording his legacy. I enjoyed all three of the novellas, but I definitely enjoyed Courtney Milan’s the most (not really surprised there). I’m also not really surprised that I enjoyed Alyssa Cole’s the least, as I’ve not had great luck with her books in the past. But overall, this is a solid trio of romances, set in a time period I […]
In Praise of Awkward Sex
When I was in college, one of my mentors was a lovely woman named Marita Woodruff. Marita wasn’t shy about sharing her life with her students when appropriate. One of her more famous moments was when she was talking about sex. She said, “sex is awkward and messy!” And then she would tell the story of when she and her late husband fell off the bed when making love. At the time that sounded more uncomfortable than romantic. A couple of decades and more experience […]
A Hero as well as a servant
I swear at least half of the books I’ve read this year have come from NPR’s Best Books of 2016 list, and Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner is no different. I was browsing the “love story” section of the list when I came across Lerner’s novel. The blurb stated in part: “Fans of historical romance know that if there’s one thing fictional England has in spades, it’s dukes. But they might not be as accustomed to encountering valets. You might see one briefly, making certain a coat […]
An Ideal Set in Motion is a Dangerous Thing
The United States has never lived up to it’s stated ideals of equality and freedom. It hasn’t even always struggled towards those ideals. Right now, there is a strong push to move backwards. The resistance to moving towards a white supremacist, patriarchal land of the wealthy is also strong. Rose Learner, Courtney Milan, and Alyssa Cole have fired their own shots in the beautiful short story collection, Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances. We make a lot of arguments about diversity and representation, but it […]