Book Synopsis:
Peggy Schuyler has always felt like she’s existed in the shadows of her beloved sisters: the fiery, intelligent Angelica and beautiful, sweet Eliza. But it’s in the throes of a chaotic war that Peggy finds herself a central figure amid Loyalists and Patriots, spies and traitors, friends and family.
When a flirtatious aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton, writes to Peggy asking for her help in wooing the earnest Eliza, Peggy finds herself unable to deny such an impassioned plea. A fast friendship forms between the two, but Alexander is caught in the same war as her father, and the danger to all their lives is real.
Everything is a battlefield—from the frontlines to their carefully coded letters—but will Peggy’s bravery’s and intelligence be enough to keep them all safe?
My Review:
4/5 stars. This was so fun! The pacing was a little slow at times but then it would pick back up again. I thought this book was really funny without even trying to be and didn’t feel like a historical book a lot of the time because of how it was written. This book is great for fans of history or even just the Hamilton musical.
I'm not a huge history fan, but I love the musical Hamilton and I like historical fiction, so I was very excited to read this book. My dad found it at the library and showed it to me. Since the very first time I watched Hamilton, "and Peggy" from the Schuyler Sisters has always made me laugh, she's the forgotten little sister, so when a book exists where she's the main character, I'm definitely going to read it.
The character of Peggy in the book was pretty different to how she's portrayed in the musical, but it's more accurate to how she was historically and I like her better this way. In Hamilton, Peggy is seen as the reserved girl who just wants to obey her father and stay out of trouble, kind of the goody-two-shoes. In this book, and in real life, she was kind of a combination of her two older sisters. She had the sweet composure of Eliza, but was also much more rebellious and strong-willed like Angelica. She was very intelligent and always wanted to be in on the conversations about the revolution her father would have with other men.
I loved Peggy's relationship with her sisters in this book, it was so realistic. Even in just the first chapter, the three of them were teasing and annoying each other while still always being there for each other. I also liked how all the other, younger, Schuyler children who aren't even mentioned in Hamilton are active characters in this story.
Now I'll talk about the plot. This book doesn't really have a linear storyline, because in each new chapter, months or more have passed since the last chapter. It goes through many different events because of this, but it also made the pacing feel off. There were a lot of chapters where nothing really happened and it didn't keep my interest like some other parts. A lot of the book focuses on the revolutionary war, like all the happenings of Patriot spies or what the generals are doing when, which I wasn't super into and didn't fully pay attention to, but the other aspects of the book I really enjoyed. The last two chapters of the book had a lot of action and made me keep flipping to the next page fast.
This book was obviously based on both the Hamilton musical and on real letters from people in history, but it didn't feel like I was just reading a retelling of Hamilton. While there were some events that coincided with the events of the musical - for example, the winter's ball where Alexander was courting Eliza - it tells a much different story and the majority of the story had nothing to do with the focus of the musical.
I would say this book is good for tweens and older. It's based on history, so it might be confusing or uninteresting to some younger kids, even if they're fans of Hamilton. There's hardly any language, and the language that is there is not very bad. Obviously, it takes place during the revolutionary war, but the majority of the violence is just mentioned by other characters, so there's no gore at all. There is one scene in the last chapter, however, that involves a character giving birth and might be disturbing for some people, despite not being described in much detail.
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