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What Members Thought
This book is a creative, engaging mashup of genres. it is a historical romance spy suspense novel about an interracial couple of Union spies during the Civil War. The heroine is a strong, feisty, incredibly courageous and brilliant woman (inspired by the real life agent Mary Bowser). The hero is smart and charming with a Scottish accent and some baggage of his own. I appreciated that as strong as their love was, their commitment to the Union and to their cause went even deeper. It helped the sto
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That was really fantastic, and the perfect book to read while tucked into bed for a snow day. Cole is prone to a little too much explaining, and a little too much telling instead of showing, but the characters are wonderful, the dialogue feels real (tho sometimes I wondered if it was a bit anachronistic), the action is good, the romance is delightful, and bonus: the espionage is based on real events and real people!
Jul 27, 2019
Cora
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
romance,
slavery,
civil-war,
19th-century,
1st-in-series,
african-american-author,
racism,
spy,
virginia,
historical-romance
Good historical romance. It was a bit slow in the first half, but the second half made up for it. I liked the characters, especially Elle. I feel like I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit - their happily ever after seemed a bit too easy given the historical era it was set in.
The story was interesting but somewhat slow moving. At first I didn’t feel any of those “this is a perfect couple” vibe. It took a while but it eventually got there. I’m curious to see what the rest of the series is like.
READ HARDER 2019: AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE BY AN AUTHOR OF COLOR
I’m not into romance, so I was glad this is mostly a spy story with a kick-ass black woman spy at the center.
I’m not into romance, so I was glad this is mostly a spy story with a kick-ass black woman spy at the center.
Jul 25, 2016
Ann
marked it as to-read
Dec 11, 2016
Katt Hansen
marked it as to-read
Aug 03, 2017
Christine H
marked it as to-read
Aug 22, 2019
Yasmin Khayal
marked it as to-read
Feb 11, 2020
Erika
marked it as to-read
Feb 15, 2020
Theresa Wright
marked it as to-read
Mar 23, 2020
Lesa Divine
marked it as to-read
Aug 26, 2020
Erin
marked it as tbr-owned
Feb 15, 2021
Melissa Seng
marked it as to-read
Mar 27, 2021
Alison Rose
marked it as want-to-read-unowned
Sep 14, 2025
Christina (AKA Babbling)
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
first-in-series,
2025,
2025-09-sep-tbr,
part-of-a-series,
kindle,
tbr-own,
freebies,
author-c,
aty-2025
