Reviews
The Hamilton Affair: The Epic Love Story of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler by Elizabeth Cobbs
marie_2003's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
'das Buch lies sich sehr langsam lesen & war durch die Sprache des 18. Jahrhunderts teils zu verstehen. Ich das Musical bereits kenne verstand ich den Inhalt zwar relativ gut, ansonsten mir das schwerer gefallen.
Trotzt en hat der Inhalt Idas Buch sehr gut gefallen.
Trotzt en hat der Inhalt Idas Buch sehr gut gefallen.
swirlnswing's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a fictionalized account of the life of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, one that was pretty well crafted, in my opinion. I wondered if any format of the Hamiltons' story would engage me the way the Musical has for the last year and a half, and though this wasn't quite that significant for me, it was still an enjoyable read.
It probably helps that at every chapter or so, I was singing (or rapping, as it were) the song that correlates to the events that happened therein. My favorite moments, for my fellow Hamilton Nerds? Humming "The Room Where it Happened" at the start of the dinner, singing notes of "Helpless" when Eliza originally falls for Alexander, and hearing the low, throaty notes of the start of "Say No To This" when the illustrious Maria Reynolds appears on the scene.
Fun little read. Glad the hubs picked it up for me from the library!
It probably helps that at every chapter or so, I was singing (or rapping, as it were) the song that correlates to the events that happened therein. My favorite moments, for my fellow Hamilton Nerds? Humming "The Room Where it Happened" at the start of the dinner, singing notes of "Helpless" when Eliza originally falls for Alexander, and hearing the low, throaty notes of the start of "Say No To This" when the illustrious Maria Reynolds appears on the scene.
Fun little read. Glad the hubs picked it up for me from the library!
fictioncourt's review against another edition
2.0
I have to say that Cobbs is a genius for releasing this now, the Hamilton hype is strong and everyone is looking for anything that has to do with the musical. Like myself. I have the Musical playing 24/7 so when I saw this on NetGalley I had a mini heart attack, Hamilton but in a novel? Hell yeah!
Unfortunately this was not what I hoped it would be, first of all it took me days to push through and the only thing that kept me going where the little snippets that were just like the musical.
Second of all, where in the world is Angelica? She's pretty much MIA here, I mean I love Eliza and this is obviously her book but where's Angelica?! I found myself getting disappointed pretty early on and then I just didn't even want to continue. I wanted more depth and more development, the only character that felt truly developed was Ajax and he was fictional...
I'll go back to the musical and cheer myself up now...
Unfortunately this was not what I hoped it would be, first of all it took me days to push through and the only thing that kept me going where the little snippets that were just like the musical.
Second of all, where in the world is Angelica? She's pretty much MIA here, I mean I love Eliza and this is obviously her book but where's Angelica?! I found myself getting disappointed pretty early on and then I just didn't even want to continue. I wanted more depth and more development, the only character that felt truly developed was Ajax and he was fictional...
I'll go back to the musical and cheer myself up now...
vicky_1993's review against another edition
2.0
That was gosh darn awful and I'm disappointed since I'm a huge fan of the musical. Yes this was written before the musical but the publisher was smart to wait till after the musical came out just to get a quick buck (and I sadly fell for it). The story was all over the place and the scenes with Aaron Burr just came out of no where! It was like the author was thinking "oh crap I need to wrap this up so I guess I'll just start talking about Burr now" and about 20 pages left the author just randomly writes that Burr and Hamilton secretly challenged each other to a duel the next week and I'm like wait what how did we get to this point. This could have been executed so much better and after reading this I have become more weary of reading other Hamilton fan fictions.
renoravenclaw's review
3.0
Being a fan of the Broadway musical "Hamilton", I can't get enough of Alexander Hamilton's story. One of my favorite parts about the musical is Hamilton's relationship with his wife Elizabeth Schuyler, so when I found this book I was very intrigued.
I initially thought this book was mainly going to be focused on the relationship of Alex and Eliza and delve more into the affair Hamilton had with Maria Reynolds than the musical previously had. That wasn't the case, in fact Alexander and Eliza don't meet for the first 120 pages or so and the story before their meeting is more focused on Hamilton's life in St. Croix and Eliza's upbringing in Albany. It wasn't a disappointment for me, because I was interested in the story anyway.
I loved that we got to read from both Hamilton's and Eliza's point of view. That way the book had a very good balance between family life and politics. Furthermore I enjoyed that the author added the year, and sometimes month, as well as the place the chapter was taking place.
One thing I wasn't the biggest fan of was that some of the subjects in the story were just quickly touched upon. Sometimes I felt like this book was trying to be a very shortened version of [b:Alexander Hamilton|16130|Alexander Hamilton|Ron Chernow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436131915s/16130.jpg|1205304]. Throughout the book there were many chapters that I wish were longer like the chapters dealing with Hamilton's affair or the chapters after both duels.
Overall this book was very enjoyable, I just wish it was longer and more focused on Hamilton's relationships rather than trying to fit all of his life inside a 400 page book.
I initially thought this book was mainly going to be focused on the relationship of Alex and Eliza and delve more into the affair Hamilton had with Maria Reynolds than the musical previously had. That wasn't the case, in fact Alexander and Eliza don't meet for the first 120 pages or so and the story before their meeting is more focused on Hamilton's life in St. Croix and Eliza's upbringing in Albany. It wasn't a disappointment for me, because I was interested in the story anyway.
I loved that we got to read from both Hamilton's and Eliza's point of view. That way the book had a very good balance between family life and politics. Furthermore I enjoyed that the author added the year, and sometimes month, as well as the place the chapter was taking place.
One thing I wasn't the biggest fan of was that some of the subjects in the story were just quickly touched upon. Sometimes I felt like this book was trying to be a very shortened version of [b:Alexander Hamilton|16130|Alexander Hamilton|Ron Chernow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436131915s/16130.jpg|1205304]. Throughout the book there were many chapters that I wish were longer like the chapters dealing with Hamilton's affair or the chapters after both duels.
Overall this book was very enjoyable, I just wish it was longer and more focused on Hamilton's relationships rather than trying to fit all of his life inside a 400 page book.
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