Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - An Unconditional Freedom

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An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole

6 reviews

beccaand's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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yourbookishbff's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was a remarkable conclusion to Alyssa Cole's Loyal League series, and established a new character dynamic among our main couple. Daniel, our male main character, is the friend and former lover of our female main character in An Extraordinary Union (Elle). His backstory was briefly captured there, but the full breadth of his trauma becomes a focal point in this installment. Born free in Massachusetts, Daniel was stolen into slavery as an adult, and survived significant torture and various forms of physical and emotional trauma before eventually being freed through the efforts of Malcolm McCall in book one. He is now an operative for the Loyal League paired with Janeta Sanchez, a Black Cuban woman and the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman and the plantation master who married her. Janeta's perspective is initially extremely narrow - she's clearly been emotionally abused by a former partner and has internalized deeply problematic lessons about herself and her role as the daughter of a plantation owner. She and Daniel circle each other slowly, learning how to overcome their various assumptions and deceptions to ultimately trust each other. This is a slow-burn romance that requires a lot of character development, which, of course, only Alyssa Cole could pull off as successfully as she does. Highly recommend this book and this series to historical romance readers.

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barefootsong's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read (and liked) the first two in this series quite a while ago now, but I put this one off because reading about Daniel (who seemed annoying in Elle's flashbacks and would be dealing with PTSD in this story) sounded less appealing and then his love interest is a Confederate spy and Cole had said this book broke her. Now that I finally read this, though, I think it's my favorite of the series! I fell in love with both Daniel and Janeta almost immediately and I loved reading about how they came to terms with their pasts and learned new ways of being themselves. This is dark and complicated, but it's also hopeful. Alyssa Cole is amazing.

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