Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $4.77 shipping
97% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
97% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
90% positive over last 12 months
Usually ships within 2 to 3 days.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
An Extraordinary Union: An Epic Love Story of the Civil War (The Loyal League) Paperback – March 28, 2017
| Alyssa Cole (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Hardcover, Large Print
"Please retry" | — | $2.44 |
|
Pocket Book
"Please retry" |
—
| — | — |
- Kindle
$0.00 Read with Kindle Unlimited to also enjoy access to over 1 million more titles $9.99 to buy -
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial - Hardcover
$6.418 Used from $2.44 - Paperback
$11.1265 Used from $1.35 27 New from $6.20 - Audio CD
$27.942 New from $27.94 - Pocket Book
—
Enhance your purchase
A Bookpage TOP PICK
A Kirkus BEST BOOKS OF 2017
A Vulture TOP 10 ROMANCE BOOKS OF 2017
A Publishers Weekly BEST BOOKS OF 2017
A Booklist TOP 10 ROMANCE FICTION 2017
“Richly detailed setting, heart-stopping plot, and unforgettable characters.”
—Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author
The first of award-winning author Alyssa Cole’s highly-acclaimed Loyal League series! As the Civil War rages between the states, a courageous pair of spies plunge fearlessly into a maelstrom of ignorance, deceit, and danger, combining their unique skills to alter the course of history and break the chains of the past . . .
Elle Burns is a former slave with a passion for justice and an eidetic memory. Trading in her life of freedom in Massachusetts, she returns to the indignity of slavery in the South—to spy for the Union Army.
Malcolm McCall is a detective for Pinkerton's Secret Service. Subterfuge is his calling, but he’s facing his deadliest mission yet—risking his life to infiltrate a Rebel enclave in Virginia.
Two undercover agents who share a common cause—and an undeniable attraction—Malcolm and Elle join forces when they discover a plot that could turn the tide of the war in the Confederacy's favor. Caught in a tightening web of wartime intrigue, and fighting a fiery and forbidden love, Malcolm and Elle must make their boldest move to preserve the Union at any cost—even if it means losing each other . . .
Praise for the novels of Alyssa Cole:
“Rich in atmospheric details and rife with unexpected dangers.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Sweet, sensual, and suspenseful . . . rousing and entertaining.”
—Publishers Weekly
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherKensington
- Publication dateMarch 28, 2017
- Dimensions5.49 x 0.71 x 8.22 inches
- ISBN-101496707443
- ISBN-13978-1496707444
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
“It’s gratifying to read a novel that deals so frankly with such issues and takes an unflinching view of the realities of life during the Civil War rather than reiterating the dangerous Lost Cause rhetoric that often colors romance narratives of this era.” —Entertainment Weekly on A Hope Divided
“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. And yet Cole has managed to do just that with her second book in the series.” —Shondaland.com on A Hope Divided
“Thoughtfully portrayed characters with deep minds and passionate hearts make this second novel in Cole’s Loyal League series, following An Extraordinary Union (2017), sparkle. Highly recommended for lovers of historical romance.” —Booklist, starred review for A Hope Divided
“Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union was one of our favorite spring romances, and this season she returns with the sequel.” —Bookish “Autumn’s 2017 Most Swoon-Worthy Romance Books” list for A Hope Divided
“An exceptional story that both educates and entertains and beautifully launches a unique series.” —Library Journal STARRED REVIEW, Editor’s Fall Picks for An Extraordinary Union
“The second book in Cole's Loyal League series (An Extraordinary Union, 2017) follows much the same pattern as the first. Again, Cole's heroine is gorgeously portrayed and powerful enough that readers will worship at her feet just as Ewan does. But if this book shows that Cole is settling into a pattern, readers won't want her to break the mold on book No. 3. Her prose is flawless. Her historical research is absorbing, and her characters are achingly human. This book is fantastic. As the war closes in around them, the line blurs between who is the rescuer and who is the rescued.” —Kirkus starred review for A Hope Divided
“Brace yourself for another amazing installment of Cole’s The Loyal League series! A Hope Divided features plenty of twists and turns that make Marlie’s family secrets as surprising to the reader as they are to her.” —RT Book Reviews, 5 Stars Gold for A Hope Divided
“Cole’s books are always timely, and yet timeless. She has a solid grounding of how to use history in her plots, and knows exactly what story she wants to tell. I could not put this down, even as some of the characterizations made me squirm in recognition (Marlie’s White sister is the ancestor of a lot of white feminism. Like, a lot). I love it when the second book in a series totally exceeds the (very high) expectations of the first book.” —Smart Bitches Trashy Books on A Hope Divided
“Cole does the seemingly impossible, using the Civil War as a backdrop for a realistic, gripping interracial romance that interrogates slavery, systemic racism, and more, while still remaining utterly swoon-worthy.” —Entertainment Weekly on An Extraordinary Union, Top 10 Romances of 2017
“Cole deftly interweaves the fraught realities of American history with romance and adventure — this is a spy story, after all — and it is elegantly told.” —Vulture.com on An Extraordinary Union
“The first installment in Cole’s Loyal League series defies genre stereotypes at every turn. It’s both a romance and a spy novel, with a healthy dose of adventure thrown in, and it offers a nuanced portrayal of Civil War–era racial politics. Any reader who thinks romance novels are pure fluff will be schooled by Cole’s richly drawn characters, who must overcome generations of trauma in order to let themselves love each other.” —Kirkus starred review on An Extraordinary Union
“Cole’s sparkling gem of a romance portrays love at its most practical and sublime.” —Publishers Weekly starred review, BEST BOOKS OF 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
“Cole spins a tale that will pull you in from the very first page.” —RT Book Reviews *five star* Top Pick review on An Extraordinary Union
“In the first installment in what should be a spectacular new series, Cole opens her adventurous historical romance at the beginning of the American Civil War.” —Booklist starred review Top 10 Romance Fiction: 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
“Cole's Civil War-set romance boasts one of the most delightfully, unapologetically powerful heroines in recent memory. Elle Burns quotes The Art of War in between dodging Confederate bullets, and by the end of An Extraordinary Union, readers are just as smitten with her as her adoring love interest is.” —BookPage 10 Best Romance Novels of 2017 on An Extraordinary Union
“Alyssa Cole in any situation is magic, and from what I’ve heard from advance readers it’s going to change the face of historical romance.” —BookRiot Best Books of 2017 (So Far) on An Extraordinary Union
“With projects like WGN America’s Underground, Cole’s lively novel—besides being an enjoyable romance full of adventure and extremely good lust—is therefore part of a long-overdue pushback against the way historical fiction portrays this seminal moment in American history.” —Jezebel on An Extraordinary Union
“A compelling and engrossing historical civil war romance between two spies, a free black woman and a Scottish immigrant that leaves you spellbound.” —Huffington Post on An Extraordinary Union
“With its richly detailed setting, heart-stopping plot, and unforgettable characters, An Extraordinary Union is everything you can ask from historical fiction. Alyssa Cole has taken an unforgettable hero, a uniquely resourceful heroine, and mixed them together for some truly combustible chemistry. Brava!” —Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
“Alyssa Cole’s AN EXTRAORDINARY UNION is as extraordinary as the title suggests—riveting, romantic, and utterly remarkable.” —Courtney Milan, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
“Alyssa Cole is just a wonderful storyteller, and she’s fast become one of my auto-buy authors. An Extraordinary Union is the perfect blend of history, adventure, and heart-stopping romance, with a courageous heroine you’ll love and a hero you’ll fall in love with. I read it in a single sitting, and my heart wants to go on living with these characters.” —Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author on An Extraordinary Union
“Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union is the first in what promises to be a riveting series.” —Heroes and Heartbreakers on An Extraordinary Union
About the Author
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Kensington (March 28, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1496707443
- ISBN-13 : 978-1496707444
- Item Weight : 8.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.49 x 0.71 x 8.22 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #126,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #273 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books)
- #2,954 in Black & African American Romance Fiction
- #3,520 in Multicultural Romances
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Alyssa Cole is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of romance and thrillers. Her debut thriller When No One Is Watching was the winner of the 2021 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Paperback Original and the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut. Her Civil War-set espionage romance An Extraordinary Union was the American Library Association’s RUSA Best Romance for 2018, and her contemporary royal romcom A Princess in Theory was one of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018. Her books have received critical acclaim from the New York Times, Library Journal, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, Booklist, Jezebel, Shondaland, Vulture, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, and various other outlets. When she’s not working, she can usually be found watching anime or wrangling her pets.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on March 18, 2020
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Instead of giving us the stereotypical master and slave who fall in love trope, we get something far more exciting--two Union spies in the Loyal League infiltrating the household of a Confederate senator. One of the spies is Elle, a free Black woman with the gift of being able to remember *everything*; as a spy, she puts her life on the line by going to Richmond, Virginia to pretend to be a mute house slave to get information that will help foil the Confederacy. The other spy is Malcolm, a Scottish immigrant pretending to be a Confederate soldier who manages to get close to the senator for the very same purpose--to get whatever information he can about the Confederates' plans in order to bring them down.
Of course their paths cross in a not-so-meet-cute, but it's exciting and it sets up the story well. We are reminded constantly of the dangerous situation that Elle and Malcolm are in--if they are found out, they will be tortured and/or killed. And for Elle, who has seen the horrors of slavery as a child and has willingly put herself back in the same situation for the sake of the Union, she is not willing to give in to the attraction she feels for Malcolm--initially she does not know he is also a spy, but also because she has seen the reality of her situation face to face--she and other slaves are property, they are seen as breeders, less than human, disposable. And she's seen it from the side of slavery and from the abolitionists, some of whom view abolishing slavery as a mission while not caring about or even respecting the very people they claim to want to help. Malcolm's own experiences in Scotland at the hands of English tyranny have left an indelible mark on his life and that of his family. And while he knows it cannot compare to what Elle has seen and experienced, it does make him more aware of the reality they face and it strengthens his conviction that this is not the sort of world--where men can deem other men as being less than human, buy and sell other men, rip apart families, even kill other men with no fear of the law--he wants to live in.
Cole has woven an exciting story that hooked me from the first page. And my skepticism was completely blown away thanks to her writing a story that does not shy away from the harsh realities of slavery and racism. I used to live in Richmond, Virginia--the capital of the Confederacy--so it was nice being able to picture the story taking place there.
Highly recommended! I am definitely looking forward to the next instalment of this series.
While the book illuminates an important story that is not told enough, I found that the characters were a little too anachronistically 21st century in the way they related to racial and gender power dynamics--by this I mean that their internal thoughts often sounded a lot like a Twitter conversation in 2019. It's a fine-line in historical fiction between showing us characters who are open-minded and egalitarian in their thinking (and therefore likeable) without making them seem like they were plucked out of our time and placed in a historical setting. They have to be realistic for their time, even if they are advanced for their time, and I think this story missed that mark sometimes.
There were also little historical inaccuracies that I noticed--such as when Elle quoted Mark Twain by name, even though the story is set in January 1862, a full 13 months before the first time Samuel Clemens used that pen name in February 1863. Also, there is a reference to the war raging around Richmond, even though that hadn't happened yet (1861 was a quiet year in that part of Virginia, and the fighting wouldn't come close to Richmond for several more months). As someone who knows a lot about the Civil War, these took me momentarily out of the story.
If you like historical romance, you will like this story.
The romance wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t fully buy it. The chemistry wasn’t really there for me. I liked Elle and Malcolm as characters, but I didn’t get their attraction to each other.
The historical parts were what really got to me. There’s so much tension because Elle and Malcolm are spies. It made me perpetually anxious. Then, there’s dealing with the race issues. Ms. Cole doesn’t hide from the atrocities of American history. But she also doesn't blanket vilify Southerners (or glorify Northerners). Humans are complicated and this shows that. I really appreciated the raw look at things that happened.
While this isn’t a new favorite, I did like it and will read more Alyssa Cole books. It also does some important things. It’s also important to tell more non-traditional romances-whether character, time, location, or situation.
Ok this has probably gone on too long.
Top reviews from other countries
As you can imagine, the dynamic between heroine and hero is rather richer than the typical adventure-romance. She is a free black woman, voluntarily living as a slave so that she can collect and pass on information. She has an eidetic memory, too. He is a white man, pretending to be a Confederate soldier. In public they keep up these roles. In private they develop a relationship. There is tension and conflict, resentment and mistrust for reasons that go beyond the usual romance fare. And of course there is deadly peril from the people around them, and their success or failure could have major consequences for the lives of others and for the war effort. Lots of meaty material,
But I had real difficulty with Cole's use of language. At first I thought it was just a matter of style, which is purely subjective. But after struggling through a third of the book I had to take a break and go off and read something else. When I resumed, I realised that there was absolutely nothing in Cole's narrative or her dialogue that gave me a sense of time and place. There were only a couple of jarring anachronisms, so that wasn't the problem. Rather, the language was bland and colourless. I couldn't tell that this was the middle of the 19th century, in Richmond, Virginia. Neither vocabulary, nor cadence of speech, nor sentence construction distinguished the slaves or masters or soldiers (or spies pretending to be these) as living in that place at that time. And surely, the time and place are paramount to the story. In fact, the time and place were the reasons that I bought the book.
I do wonder whether this was a deliberate choice. Did Cole intend to cater to her target audience by making her language more accessible, thereby stripping it of distinguishing characteristics? As a reader, the effect on me was to make it difficult to believe, difficult to immerse myself in the story and so neither the romance nor the intrigue/adventure had an impact. It seems to me to be a lost opportunity.
Romance novels often have stakes, that’s just part of the genre. However, I’ve never read anything with such high stakes and tension as An Extraordinary Union. A huge part of this is the fact that it is set in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Cole does not shy away from the realities that slaves faced at this time -- particularly enslaved women. Although Elle is a free woman, she is posing as a slave in a Confederate senator’s household. The fear for Elle’s safety grips you from the very start of the book, however it is woven in well and doesn’t make it an unpleasant or anxiety-inducing. The differences between herself and Malcolm are made very apparent -- despite the fact that they're both fighting on the same side, their lives and lifestyles will never be the same and their relationship wouldn't be accepted by others on the side of the Union.
Elle and Malcolm are both fantastic characters. Elle is one of my favourite heroines -- she is so intelligent and fierce and has so much agency. She’s fighting for a higher purpose, to release the US from the grip of slavery, and damn you believe in her every step of the way. She’s so fierce and fantastic and was one of the reasons the book is so compelling. Malcolm is a lovely hero and the perfect fit for Elle, but she was really the star of the show and the most memorable character for me.
If you're looking for historical fiction or historical romance, I'd highly recommend you pick up An Extraordinary Union. It's not an easy read at times, but it is a fantastic story packed with passion and heart.
This story of spy and Pinkerton agent is engaging, gripping & really well written, with enough plot & tension to have me read it virtually all in one day. Seriously considering buying the next installment.











