SL: To each their own, but what do you think makes a romance novel great?ĪC: Oh, so many things! It can honestly depend on your mood. Supportive men can be coded as "weak" in society at large, so I particularly love books that subvert this idea and focus on what romance is really about: two (or more) people learning that they are particularly suited to facing their personal and/or societal obstacles together. In Beverly Jenkins’ "Breathless," the hero supports the heroine in her dream to open her own bookkeeping business in a time when black women weren’t expected to do such things. I mean, the heroine/partner should be supportive, too! But let’s be real: In a society where women are expected to put their dreams aside and take on the bulk of the emotional workload, I love relationships in which, whatever the conflict, the hero has the heroine’s back. The heroine has to have agency, just as she would in any other setting, in order for it the story to really work. And yet Cole has managed to do just that with her second book in the series, "A Hope Divided," which features a second McCall brother and another freed woman, Marlie Lynch, on sale November 28.īetween promoting her newest release, writing her next one, and penning recommendations for, Cole made time to talk with us over Gchat (the future is now) about "A Hope Divided," the book’s surprising relevance in 2017, and her overall love of the romance genre. Successfully navigating the challenges of writing an interracial romance set during the Civil War is difficult enough to do once, but to pull it off twice is truly impressive. To make matters even more complicated, on her mission, she meets and falls in love with fellow undercover agent, Malcolm McCall - a white man. This assignment means allowing herself to be sold back into slavery, an obviously risky move for a freed woman. The first book of her newest series, "The Loyal League," is no exception: Released earlier this year, "An Extraordinary Union" follows the story of Elle Burns, a former slave with an eidetic memory who finds herself working as a spy for the Union Army.
Whether she’s writing Scottish knights, Indian demi-gods, or American civil rights activists, Cole’s characters shine with unique voices and deep humanity. She splits her time between the East Coast and the Caribbean, lives with a loving partner, and gets paid to let her imagination run wild.Īs the author of multiple historical and contemporary romance novels, Cole has always featured protagonists spanning a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Author (and contributor!) Alyssa Cole is living the dream.
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