Book Review
Jun. 29th, 2023 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariAn Unconditional Freedom
by Alyssa Cole
This romance is set during the Civil War and concerns two spies. Daniel, a free Black man, was studying to be a lawyer when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Now free again, he is working as a spy for the Union and struggles to overcome the trauma of his past. Janeta is a mixed-race woman from Cuba who grew up in luxury on a plantation. When her father is taken prisoner, she is recruited to infiltrate the Union's spy network on behalf of the Confederacy. However, when she is assigned to work with Daniel, she is confronted with truths that open her eyes to the reality of slavery and cause her to shift her allegiance. Along the way, Daniel and Janeta come to care for each other and see a future together.
I enjoyed this book a lot, even though I felt that the romance was not typically romantic. Both Daniel and Janeta undergo immense growth over the course of the book, and their relationship seems almost more like a by-product than a driver of that growth. I really liked how even though they were catalysts for each other, they did their own emotional work. This is a romance that focuses on the hero and heroine becoming people who can be together rather than on people resolving their feelings and finding a way to be together.
by Alyssa Cole
This romance is set during the Civil War and concerns two spies. Daniel, a free Black man, was studying to be a lawyer when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Now free again, he is working as a spy for the Union and struggles to overcome the trauma of his past. Janeta is a mixed-race woman from Cuba who grew up in luxury on a plantation. When her father is taken prisoner, she is recruited to infiltrate the Union's spy network on behalf of the Confederacy. However, when she is assigned to work with Daniel, she is confronted with truths that open her eyes to the reality of slavery and cause her to shift her allegiance. Along the way, Daniel and Janeta come to care for each other and see a future together.
I enjoyed this book a lot, even though I felt that the romance was not typically romantic. Both Daniel and Janeta undergo immense growth over the course of the book, and their relationship seems almost more like a by-product than a driver of that growth. I really liked how even though they were catalysts for each other, they did their own emotional work. This is a romance that focuses on the hero and heroine becoming people who can be together rather than on people resolving their feelings and finding a way to be together.
