Two years ago, Viola Carroll seized an opportunity to live as herself: she allowed the world to think she had died at Waterloo, and returned to England and rejoined her family posing as her sister in law’s paid companion. The joy of being free is tempered by loss, however – her best friend, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, believes her to be dead as well, and suffers with lingering physical and emotional injuries from that battle. When Viola and Gracewood “re-meet,” her efforts to draw him out of his depression spark feelings in them that neither expected.

This is, somehow, my first Alexis Hall book, and I feel silly for keeping them in my emergency box for so long because this was so lovely that clearly I need to read all other Alexis Hall books now. ALFAD is very tender, very aching, very romantic, and just so kind and nice to read. Alexis writes that this book is an effort to write a historical romance with a trans woman where the plot is not “this woman is trans,” and I think it mostly succeeds. The book revolves much more around emotions and trust and strength than it does, like, someone shrieking “what if they find out?” and I loved that.

I would say that this book didn’t quite connect all the dots for me - Gracewood in particular felt quite insta-lovey to me, and there are some nuggets of really moving prose that just don’t feel fully integrated into the rest of the book in a way I’m having difficulty explaining, as well as two specific scenes that felt wildly out of place. The second one is the reason this is a 4 star review and not a 5: there’s a scene of violence at the end (not transphobic in origin) that just felt incredibly unnecessary in its intensity that I understand was meant to set up someone as a villain for a redemption arc but just absolutely did not work. 

I loved this book, and it’s a book that will do well with the masses and be even more important to people looking for representation of themselves in historical romance. Nobody bother me for the next week, I need to binge all other Alexis Hall books.

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

battle scenes (remembered), addiction to alcohol and laudanum, chronic pain from a battle injury, PTSD and depression, brief suicidal ideation, guns (no one is shot), infertility, parental abuse (remembered), Viola I guess is technically deadnamed but it like is actually someone talking about someone they believe to be dead, it’s not malicious