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September Book Review 2019: Alex and Eliza: Love and War

Reasons For Reading This Book

As I mentioned in my review of the first book in this trilogy series, I am a massive fan of the Broadway musical Hamilton. I not only have the entire soundtrack memorized, but I have also had the opportunity to attend the show in October of 2018. The reason why I am reading Love & War and all three books one after the other is because I will be attending the show once again in September of 2019 and wanted to not only finish the series before I went, but also wanted to celebrate my excitement by thinking of it everyday while I read. Why I chose to read these specific Hamilton novels is because I have always wanted to learn more about Eliza Schuyler. The love story of Alex and Eliza intrigues me and I thought why not read a trilogy series on that topic. If you are interested in how I came to discover this series check out this blog post, August Book Review 2019: Alex and Eliza: A Love Story.


Content of This Book

The second book in the Alex and Eliza trilogy picks up after the young couple were married and ends after a few years into their marriage. Together Alex and Eliza are navigating life as newlyweds. The war is still in full swing and Alex is still General George Washington's right-hand man. Alex is still on a mission to create a name and legacy for himself. He will stop at nothing to achieve just what he wants. He proves this by joining the American troops at the Battle of Yorktown. After the war has come to a successful end the couple sets out on a new adventure by moving to New York. Once the couple move to New York and Alex begins building his reputation as a lawyer the couple face the reality of making time for one another while also maintaining their social status as a highly respected couple. With Alex busy at work Eliza struggles to create a life for herself in the big city and an identity that doesn't involve the name of her parents. 

What I Liked About This Book

With the purpose of this book being more on Alex and Eliza's new life together, I think that Melissa de la Cruz made the right decision to only include the perspectives of Alex and Eliza. In the first book of the trilogy there were a number of different characters whose narration told of Alex and Eliza's love story. 
Like I said in my first review of the series, having the story be told in chronological order made it an easy plot to follow even though there was so much going on. Starting each chapter off with a date and location also assisted the reader in following where and when different events were taking place. I found this addition to be especially helpful when it came to the chapters that were taking place in battle. 
In my opinion Melissa de la Cruz was able to successfully write Alex and Eliza's love story while also informing on the historic war events that were happening at the same time. Hence the title Love & War. 
One of my favorite parts of this book was reading the beautiful descriptions of everyones' clothing and the decorations and china that Eliza was using to decorate and furnish her new home. Melissa de la Cruz's descriptions were so vivid and clear that I was easily able to picture exactly what she was describing. 
Overall the plot flowed well throughout the novel and had a consistent pace to it.

What I Dislike About This Book

I don't know if its because of the fact that I started this book during a busy time in my life or what but sometimes I did find myself not wanting to pick it up to read. I will say that once I got more into it I once again became interested and quickly finished it. I also found that certain chapters seemed unimportant and not necessary to the progression of the plot. For example, I do not agree with the addition of the chapters focused around Earl's portrait of Eliza. 
Compared to the first book in the series I found it harder to get into this one. The reason for why I think that is is because one of the focuses of the book was war and sometimes the plot strayed so much away from the love story that I became less interested. 
I will also say that the level of vocabulary increased in difficulty from the first book to the second. Even though I am an adult and have quite an extensive vocabulary, I occasionally found myself having to use context clues to determine the meaning of a word. With that being said the pace of the novel, reading level and plot of the book still fits with the young adult genre, but is not as young adult in vocabulary in comparison to the first book. 

Would I Recommend This Book

I would recommend this book to those who have the same level of interest in Hamilton as I do. I would not just recommend this book to anyone who asked for a book recommendation. I think that the reader needs some sort of background on either the musical or the lives of Eliza and Alex before they read this series. Even though it is entertaining and has fulfilled my want to learn more about their love story, this is not a book for everyone. In conclusion I would only recommend this book to those who have any interest in Hamilton the musical and also don't mind reading at the young adult level. 


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