An Extraordinary Union

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole, 258 pages

In the midst of the Civil War, gifted freedwoman Elle Burns has signed on with the Pinkerton detective agency to spy for the Union. Her mission has put her back into slavery, undercover as a mute slave in the home of a Confederate senator. Elle's mission has also brought her into the orbit of Malcolm McCall, another Pinkerton spy for the Union who is undercover as a proud Rebel besotted with the senator's horrid daughter. But in real life, despite all the danger and taboo of a mixed-race relationship, Malcolm is besotted with Elle, whose common sense keeps falling in the way of her attraction to her fellow spy.

This is a romance novel, and thus it's pretty easy to figure out what's going to happen (and when it does, yup, it's steamy). But Cole gives a depth to Elle's internal fight that is lacking in lesser novels. It's obvious, as well, that Cole did her homework before taking on a novel set during this time period, and I very much enjoyed reading a romance with a bibliography of historical sources. Also, according to Cole's afterword, Elle is loosely based on a real woman(!), which made this book that much more intriguing. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Alyssa Cole, you've made a romance reader out of me. I'll be picking up the next book in this series by and by.