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ALEX AND ELIZA by Melissa de la Cruz

ALEX AND ELIZA

A Love Story

by Melissa de la Cruz

Pub Date: April 11th, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-3962-1
Publisher: Putnam

The unlikely romance between America’s first treasury secretary and a young woman from a socially connected family receives fictionalized treatment that speculates on unknown details, ending on their wedding night.

Alexander Hamilton is a young aide to Gen. George Washington when he has his first, unsuccessful encounter with Elizabeth Schuyler at her family home in Albany, New York, setting up romantic tension for subsequent meetings at the home of Eliza’s aunt and uncle in Morristown, New Jersey. The bright, ambitious, but penniless Hamilton is drawn to practical Eliza, falling deeply in love, at one point becoming so addled he forgets a military password. In de la Cruz’s version of events, Eliza’s parents want to marry her off to a wealthy son of one of their connections, forcing Alexander to prove his character superior to that of his rival. This is a mixture of what is known about this period in Hamilton’s life and what might make a good story. The language is as modern as the musical that probably inspired it but not nearly as lively. Other personalities made familiar by the musical, such as John Laurens and the Marquis de Lafayette, make passing appearances. Amid the romantic fervor readers get glimpses of the civic-minded woman the historical Eliza became and the insecurities about his origins that plagued the real Alexander Hamilton.

A pleasant diversion for younger teen readers who cannot get enough of all things Hamilton.

(Historical fiction. 12-16)