Welcome everyone! I am back with a Historical Fiction review today! I haven’t been reading many of them for the last few weeks and I just realized that. We all go through periods of genres, I am sure. 🙂 Today, as part of the blog tour organized by Over the River PR, I bring you my thoughts on What Passes as Love by Trisha Thomas. This is a touching tale about a young girl who breaks away from the shackles of slavery and reinvents herself as a lady and wife. Read on for the synopsis of the book, important content notes and my thoughts.
1850. I was six years old the day Lewis Holt came to take me away.
Born into slavery, Dahlia never knew her mother—or what happened to her. When Dahlia’s father, the owner of Vesterville plantation, takes her to work in his home as a servant, she’s desperately lonely. Forced to leave behind her best friend, Bo, she lives in a world between black and white, belonging to neither.
Ten years later, Dahlia meets Timothy Ross, an Englishman in need of a wife. Reinventing herself as Lily Dove, Dahlia allows Timothy to believe she’s white, with no family to speak of, and agrees to marry him. She knows the danger of being found out. She also knows she’ll never have this chance at freedom again.
Ensconced in the Ross mansion, Dahlia soon finds herself held captive in a different way—as the dutiful wife of a young man who has set his sights on a political future. But when Bo arrives on the estate in shackles, Dahlia decides to risk everything to save his life. With suspicions of her true identity growing and a bounty hunter not far behind, Dahlia must act fast or pay a devastating price.
Content Notes include depiction of slavery, extramarital relaitonship, sexual assualt, violence, racial slurs, racism, rape, death at childbirth.
Thoughts on What Passes as Love
I was introduced to Dahlia as a young girl when she was taken away from her caregivers. In a society where slaves are treated poorly and lords do not think twice about having their way with them, Dahlia’s move into a big house seems an unlikely dream. By stepping from one house into another, she leaves behind her childhood friend Bo and it is only a decade later when they are older, that a companionship on pins and needles starts to develop. In her search for freedom, when Dahlia finds an opportunity to set Bo free as well, she risks everything to get her wish.
On Cost of Freedom
Dahlia is quite young when Timothy mistakes her as a white woman and she does not correct him. She is so focused on wanting to be free of her sisters and family that she jumps in without a thought, letting Timothy lead her back to his home and present her as his to-be bride. This felt far-fetched to me that firstly, Timothy would do that, and second, his family would support him taking a wife of a girl they have never met before and who does not seem to have any family at all. Dahlia’s choices also show her young age and as she learns in her first few days of integrating into the Ross family, she has dreams but worldly experience is lacking.
It took me some time to adjust to Dahlia and the protagonist that she is. I felt that her naivety ended up playing to her advantage as she stands by 100% with her wish for freedom and, in the process, does not care about the impression she is giving or who she displeases. She is unapologetically willing to be herself while also hiding her true self. Meeting someone and marrying them the next day does not set up life for success or make all wishes come true. She might have escaped the family who treated her like a slave, but now comes societal expectations, marital expectations and much more.
On Alliances
One of the principal characters in the book is Timothy’s brother, Ryland. He is quite smart, if not personable. Dahlia does not have a positive interaction with Ryland and hence, does not like him. However, something she learns over time is that a person shouldn’t be defined by their one action. Relationships develop and a codependency can emerge even between the least expected people.
Dahlia sees her own kind working under her and she tries her best to lift them up. She becomes close friends with one of the maids, Cleo, and seeing how the staff talked about her, showed that our similarities connect us, even if someone is pretending otherwise. When Bo arrives, a fire kindles in her that was lacking before and she wants her freedom from life with Timothy as well.
Reading Experience Summary
Overall, What Passes as Love is a thought-provoking book about trying to be visible and the realization that only time can teach that everyone is a complex, what we see of a person may very well be the tip of the iceberg. The cover beautifully portrays the dichotomy of Dahlia’s existence and choices. The cast was mostly well done though towards the end, I felt that the plot was not able to keep up with character development and the ending wrapped up too quickly and conveniently. I also expected Timothy to have a bigger role in the book based on the synopsis but that did not end up being the case.
The story progressed at a good pace and the events of the Ross house kept me engaged and on my toes whether Dahlia’s secret was going to come out. So good mystery and suspense points! The Ross family just moved to the States from England where slavery was abolished years ago, yet they have no problem taking advantage of the slaves. Books such as What Passes as Love are a reminder that the laws we abide by are usually situational, especially when it comes to making money and personal gain.
Stay tuned for an interview with Trisha, coming to the blog next week! Also check out The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd if you haven’t yet – it also touched on slavery and reinventing self. It was a very good buddy read.
Will you pick up this book?
What Passes as Love is available in stores. Be sure to check your local library and order it through there to help this book reach more readers.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle (available with Kindle Unlimited)
Many thanks to Over the River PR and the publisher for the gifted copy of the book for an honest review and the giveaway copy of the book.
Cover image: Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash
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