(no subject)

[skygiants]

I didn't like An Extraordinary Union, the first book in Alyssa Cole's romance novel series about Civil War Spies, as much as I wanted to. I've just read A Hope Divided, the second book, and I thought it was a lot more interesting -- it makes some ambitious and unexpected choices, though I don't know if all of them necessarily work.

The premise: our heroine Marlie is the daughter of a former slave, raised since childhood by an abolitionist white woman whom she figures has to be her half-sister, although The Exact Details Are Never Spoken. She learned herbal remedies from her mother and Scientific Medicine from her studies and has a chemistry lab in the attic that she uses to support the family's Secret Pro-Union Activities, but otherwise rarely leaves the safety of home and her white family's well-meant but stifling protection, because, you know, the Civil War South.

...and her love interest, Ewan, is a Northern POW who spent the war reluctantly serving as a torture expert for the Union army.

THIS IS QUITE A CAREER FOR A ROMANCE HERO. Most of Ewan's romantic angst throughout the book is, understandably, 'I am so into Marlie and I think she should probably date someone who's not a torture expert.'

(Marlie's romantic angst, meanwhile, even more understandably: 'I am so into Ewan but it's the 1860s and trusting any white guy to be a good relationship partner seems! unwise!'

...with a brief detour after the reveal to 'I also think I should probably date someone who's not a torture expert.')

Ewan is also pretty clearly written as being on the autistic spectrum, and I do not feel particularly qualified to write about how that's handled and, in particular, the link between Ewan's autism and the fact that the Union army tapped him to be their torture guy. Either way, it does make for an interesting romance storyline that falls outside of a lot of the standard beats.

Meanwhile, the external plot -- external to the room where Ewan and Marlie spend a good half the book Tropetastically Trapped In Close Proximity while Ewan hides from the evil general who has decided to quarter himself in Marlie's house -- revolves heavily around the clash between the local soldiers and a group of deserters and draft-dodgers who have no interest in participating in the Confederate Army. Which is also an interesting and unusual choice, for a book set in the Civil War South.

I do wish there was more time to deal with all that and give some kind of resolution for Marlie's relationship with her white family, which is also interesting and complicated and then sort of gets dropped in the middle of the book after a Dramatic Revelation Smokebomb, but there IS an awful lot going on already and I can see that the plot would make this structurally difficult ....

Comments

[sovay]

and, in particular, the link between Ewan's autism and the fact that the Union army tapped him to be their torture guy.

May I ask?

[skygiants]

Ewan's lack of emotional affect leads his superiors to assume that he is more suited than others to effectively torturing people without being personally affected himself, or getting carried away. (Of course it turns out that he is emotionally impacted by having to torture people, but in denial about it.)

[sovay]

Ewan's lack of emotional affect leads his superiors to assume that he is more suited than others to effectively torturing people without being personally affected himself, or getting carried away.

Thanks. I wondered if it was something like that, but did not want to assume and insult someone.

[evewithanapple]

This sounds . . . really interesting, actually. I may have to check it out!

[skygiants]

I will be curious to hear your thoughts if you do! :D

[evewithanapple]

I just finished it! Despite being somewhat cousins with autism (NVLD isn't technically classified as being on the spectrum, but it overlaps a ton) I don't feel hugely qualified to speak on the ways Ewan's lack of emotional affect overlapped with his career; that particular facet of his personality just doesn't relate to my experiences. I DID find the descriptions of his special interests, his tendency towards over-logical thinking, and his blurting out the wrong thing because he can't read the room to be quite well-written and true to life, so props to that.

I guessed the Big Reveal about a third of the way into the book, so that didn't come as a huge surprise; like you, I felt like the whole subplot with Marlie's white family kind of trailed off into nothing ("her soul is white?" what the hell, Sarah-) but at the same time, I get what Cole was going for - she wanted the narrative trajectory to be about Marlie gaining a sense of independence and self-sufficency. It's just that the various plot threads - her relationship with her mother, her relationships with Sarah and Stephen, her conflicting feelings about science vs. spirituality - didn't all really resolve at the end. The romance was also a tad open-ended, but I felt like that worked - they know the road forward is not going to be especially easy, and neither of them have reached the end of their personal growth, but they're getting there.

(Also, was Daniel in a previous book of Cole's? His appearance/plot relevance felt very abrupt.)

[skygiants]

Yeah, I really liked where the book ended up in terms of romance, but I felt like we needed a little more resolution with Sarah and Stephen -- especially since we got all this setup about Marlie lying to Sarah about Ewan, and struggling with her feelings of affection/obligation/justifiable resentment/need for independence, and then the plot kind of took care of that situation without things between them ever coming to a head.

(Daniel was in the last book as the rejected love interest and I think is going to be the hero of the next book in the series, so I guess she felt she had to remind us of his existence?)

[oracne]

That author has been on my wishlist for a while, but the TBR is so huge...maybe I should move her up!

[skygiants]

My absolute favorite thing she's written is a novella, Let It Shine, which is about Freedom Riders and is probably one of my top five romances!

[jadelennox]

Yeah, I enjoyed this one very much. It never makes the case that the romance will be not fraught or loaded, too; there's no notion that there love will conquer racism, or some such. (I also am not qualified to judge how Ewan's autism was handled.)

[skygiants]

Yeah, that's one thing Alyssa Cole is really good at -- these are books that very much understand the weight of their fantasies.

[wakeupnew]

I also liked this book much more than the first one! It's been a while since I read the first one, but I think I found Ewan a whole lot more compelling and sympathetic than the hero in the first one (I loved the heroines in both).

[skygiants]

Yeah, same! I .... honestly do not remember any significant traits about the hero in the first one except that he annoyed me and was kind of pushy; I also found Ewan way more compelling, and the book as a whole much more memorable.

[izilen]

Okay this sounds...wild?? I have read Alyssa Cole's modern romance about the girl who ends up dating the Undercover Not Actually A Scam African Prince She Was Destined to Be With, and enjoyed that a lot, so I am intrigued about these. How do you think I would get on with these?

[skygiants]

I haven't read her modern one yet, but I've been meaning to! I think you would definitely enjoy this second one; not sure about the first. (But DEFINITELY read the novella "Let It Shine.")