Review: Love & War by Melissa de la Cruz

Hey all, Dani here.

Today I am happy to bring you an ARC review. I received a copy of this book in the mail from the publisher, so thank you to Penguin Random House for sending this to me. As always, I need to state that being sent a copy of a book did not affect my rating or review in any way.

What may have affected my review, though, is my obsession with the Hamilton soundtrack, which yes, I did listen to at some points while I was reading this book.

Let’s just get started before I start gushing too much about Hamilton.

Summary

1780. Albany, New York. 

As the war for American Independence carries on, two newlyweds are settling into their new adventure: marriage. But the honeymoon’s over, and Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler are learning firsthand just how tricky wedded life can be. Alex is still General George Washington’s right-hand man and his attention these days is nothing if not divided–much like the colonies’ interests as the end of the Revolution draws near. Alex & Eliza’s relationship is tested further by lingering jealousies and family drama.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

First thing to mention with this is that it is not wholly historically accurate. To increase the jealousies and drama of Alex and Eliza’s relationship, the author decided not to follow actual events and give them their first child very early on in their marriage. So if you are expecting this to be exact with historical detail, this is probably not the book for you.

Then again, considering that de la Cruz was inspired to start this series because of the Broadway musical, there’s bound to be some changes to make for a more entertaining story. Hamilton changed events to make the story flow better as well.

What I rather enjoy about these books is that though they are historical fiction, they read like contemporary romance. Mostly this is because of the way the words flow. I find that contemporaries read rather quickly and smoothly, while historical fiction tend to be a little more dense and take just a tiny bit longer to read.

I still loved all the witty dialogue between characters. The intelligence of Alexander Hamilton, the Schuyler sisters, and others is just portrayed so well.

It was also interesting to see how Alex and Eliza dealt with the later years of the war, and then how they settled into domestic married life after getting their own place. So much of their early married life was spent apart, so it stands to reason that they have to make adjustments and figure out how to find a balance between work, social obligations, and each other.

I flew through this book, and I can honestly say that I’m already waiting for news about book three, because it is already on my anticipated releases list.

Where to Buy

You can preorder Love & War from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore. This book will be released on April 17, 2018.