Reviews with content warning for Violence - An Unconditional Freedom

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.

Content Warnings

unsuccessfulbookclub's review

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dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

An Unconditional Freedom is the third and final installment in the Loyal League series and perhaps the slowest moving plot while also being the most stressful to read? In this book, we follow Daniel, a free Black man who was training to be a lawyer when he was abducted and enslaved, and Janeta, a free Afro-Latina woman from Cuba who is the daughter of an enslaver and his second wife.

The stress in this book comes from all sides. First, Janeta starts out in this story working for the Confederacy (!!!). We are in her head so we know how she begins to understand the truth of her existence and the world around her but it is so painful to read - for her, but also because she is supposed to be working with Daniel as a Union operative…

…and Daniel is dealing with intense PTSD due to his time being enslaved as well as a VERY STRESSFUL job. He trusts no one, which is great because he really shouldn’t trust Janeta. Like at all.

This is a rare slow burn where I was really worried this couple was going to get together before *I* was ready. I spent so much of the book wondering how Alyssa Cole was going to bring these two people together and get me on board with it. And she succeeded, but not a page too soon!!

👍🏻RECOMMENDED! I have so much more to say about this series as a whole - look for a deeper dive/series review from me soon as I digest. That said, I enthusiastically recommend this book. These are not light reads but they are important ones. Alyssa Cole’s emotional labor cannot be overstated, nor can the talent she displays in this series!

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

amibo's review

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adventurous challenging emotional informative 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? Yes

3.0

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