After the hype of Hamilton, I was so excited for a book all about Eliza. However, I was hoping it would be a bit more of a true biography. The book falls somewhere between novel and biography, but neither one is done well. I wish the author would have picked one of the other and stuck with it.

I was so excited to read this book, because I like many others, have been completely swept up in the Hamilton fever following the popularity of the musical and I love reading about the strong women of history (who are often ignored). Unfortunately, this book didn't do anything for me. For one thing, Mazzeo couldn't seem to decide what she was writing. It's supposed to be a biography, but she often switched into an historical fiction style, attributing thoughts/words/actions to the subjects that couldn't possibly be verified. That in and of itself isn't enough to make me put a book down, so I kept reading, but that was only one of a couple of disappointing things about this book. Another thing that struck me as odd is that considering it's supposed to be a biography of Eliza, Mazzeo spent a lot of time focused on other people. I know there isn't a ton of source material on Eliza, but the fact that the 50+ years she lived after Alexander died barely got any page time at all (decades when she was super active doing all sorts of amazing things) was disappointing. I also didn't love all the time Mazzeo spent on the Reynolds affair. She has a theory (that is definitely not widely held) and spends so much of the book trying to prove her theory, without any really credible proof to back it up, just that she (the author) can't believe that the Eliza she knew would behave the way she did in the wake of the Reynolds affair. Basically, this is an historical fiction book masquerading as a biography about how much Eliza loved Alexander and that is the sum total of her life. Eliza deserves better, and I look forward to the day when an historian puts out a truly well-researched and well-written biography of this amazing lady.

I requested this book as soon as I saw it pop up on NetGalley. Eliza Hamilton has an amazing story that hasn't been comprehensively explored. She is often in the background of her husband's story, despite living over twice as long as he did. I have not read a book, fiction or nonfiction, that gives a satisfactory and complete account of Eliza's post-Alexander years. This book promised to be the one I was looking for.

But it's not. Not by a long shot.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, the author seems uncertainly wavering between writing a novel and a biography. Lines such as this one appear throughout the book: "Eliza was frantic and had a terrible sense of foreboding. She wanted to come home." Thoughts are also put into other people's heads: "What upset his political enemies were Alexander's words, which were elegant, powerful, and persuasive. They hated his mind." The author seems to know what Eliza was doing at moments that passed unrecorded: "Eliza settled back and smiled to herself."

Sources are rarely cited, though very specific statements are made about people's motivations, personalities, and relationships. The most significant example of this is when the author claims that it is very likely that the Reynolds affair was no affair at all but a cover story to avoid persecution for insider trading. The greatest defense for this seems to be that the author cannot imagine the Eliza "she knows" faithfully defending Alexander's name for 55 years after his death if there was any truth to the pamphlet that Alexander himself wrote. My problem with this reasoning is that I don't see any reason to doubt that the Eliza described in this book would forgive an affair and defend her husband's more positive attributes until her death. She was a strong, intelligent, devoted woman, but she was also a woman of her time and women of the 18th century didn't publicly air their dirty laundry. It is likely that in Eliza's mind, an affair reflected as poorly on her as a wife as it did on Alexander as a husband. If Alexander was guilty of fraud, why did he leave Eliza impoverished? Could Mazzeo's theory be true? Possibly, but there's no evidence to back it up. The basis of the frequently made assertion - that Maria Reynolds had been willing to testify that the affair didn't happen - was unclear.

As usual, Eliza's life is overwhelmed by Alexander. The years after his death are filled with Eliza longing for him, rather than giving greater detail of her accomplishments. This book carries the subtitle, "The extraordinary life and times of the wife of Alexander Hamilton," but very little is included to draw the reader into Eliza's everyday life. We are told that she (and her mother, sisters, & daughters) were raised to manage a household & were therefore good at organizing charities, but we are told nothing of what that would entail or what duties Eliza would perform on a daily basis. I would have loved more factual information like this rather than supposition regarding relationships and other unknowns.

Maybe my hopes for this book were too high, but I will continue to wait for Elizabeth Hamilton to get the biography she deserves.

Great insight into the woman who supported the man while he helped build the country. I've always been more interested in the women, whose narrative has been largely muted, over the men who are credited with writing history and this book doesn't disappoint. If you love Eliza Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton, this book is a must read.

I was really excited to read this ARC because this is the first biography on Eliza Hamilton who I loved since watching Hamilton. However, this reads more like historical fiction than a real nonfiction. The author paints fictional scenes to imagine what Eliza must be feeling. I would prefer for the author to stick to nonfiction facts. Therefore, I would have enjoyed this more if it was historical fiction.

this was a fantastic and thoroughly researched biography on Eliza Hamilton. I truly enjoyed matching up facts in this book with parts of Hamilton the musical.

This is a wonderful account of the life of Eliza Hamilton, wife of American founding father Alexander Hamilton. While this book may not be a musical, it certainly tells a riveting story of one of America's most impressive female historical figures.

The Hamilton phenomenon is strong and this book brings the true heroine to the forefront. Eliza Hamilton was an incredible woman who is finally receiving her recognition. Tilar Mazzeo presents an incredibly well researched book that is very well written and full of heart. It is very clear that they respect her legacy.

An interesting and captivating biography. The citations are somewhat lacking and it seems that the author speculates a fair amount as to what each individual might have felt or thought as there is no evidence that these statements have a source. There were also a distracting number of typos or sentences with extra words or words out of place.

This was a wonderful biography of Eliza Hamilton. I never knew much about her and this book was very informative. I love historical books and this is one of the better ones I have read in awhile. I highly recommend it.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review.

I chose this book because I had read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and was intrigued by Eliza’s story. I really enjoyed Mazzeo’s style of story telling combined with facts. The book was well-researched and organized well.

Fans of nonfiction will enjoy this well written book and will be left feeling proud of this strong woman from our history.

This is an interesting and well-written biography of a figure in history that isn't well known. Interest in her has grown because of the musical, Hamilton (which I have not seen). Sometimes I feel the author is doing a bit of fabricating - presenting as fact things she can't really know are true. Perhaps this book is as much historical fiction as biography. That's not taking away from the readability of the book or the research that was done on it. The author did a very good job of presenting Eliza's story in an entertaining and engaging way.

This is an easy to digest, well written biography that bring to light the story of someone whom most people who saw the musical Hamilton instantly liked. That being said, some of the sourcing is a bit dodgy as many conclusions had to be made based on only one side of the conversation as Eliza most likely did not write letters often (of those she did write, she burned many) and did not keep a diary. That doesn't mean its necessarily incorrect, but the author makes some choices to portray events as fact when it is really conjecture. The most prominent of these being Alexander Hamilton's affair. The author posits that the affair never occurred, but was just a cover story so that he wouldn't be prosecuted on insider trading. It is fair to question and have this as a theory, but it is far from established fact with most modern historians believing that he did, in fact have the affair. Other than that, the book holds up well and brings much of Eliza Hamilton's life to the forefront of history while otherwise it wouldn't have been told.

Eliza Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo is an extensive biography of an extraordinary woman. It doesn't cover just her life with Alexander Hamilton, but her life before and her work after. I was surprised and impressed. I learned a lot about a woman I knew little about. I would recommend this to any history fan.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

"Best of wives and best of women."

This was an immensely readable biography. Mazzeo's writing style creates the immersive reading experience of a good novel. While this at times requires her to take certain liberties and to speculate (the book opens, for example, with Eliza blushing in response to a letter she received from Alexander Hamilton), she does seem to draw from what is known as much as possible. Eliza's thoughts and feelings, while not always documented, can often be inferred from letters she exchanged with Alexander and others. All in all, some speculation, within reason, can certainly be forgiven in the service of crafting a fleshed-out image of a woman so long lost to history.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the biography is Mazzeo's treatment of the Maria Reynolds incident, wherein she questions the commonly accepted version of events, made famous once again by the musical Hamilton. The affair is often treated as fact, but Alexander and Eliza's contemporaries were far from in agreement as to the truth of the matter. Was Alexander simply a cheating husband or was the whole affair a cleverly crafted ruse to cover up the illegal financial activities of which he was suspected at the time?

Mazzeo argues for the latter. I won't go into detail, as the book will surely handle the material more elegantly than I could here, but one interesting question raised is this: If Alexander had love letters from Mrs. Reynolds to substantiate the affair, as he claimed he did, why would he not produce them? He printed transcriptions of the supposed letters in his pamphlets on the matter, but refused to produce the original documents. Mrs. Reynolds, who vehemently denied the affair, was willing to submit to a handwriting comparison in an attempt to clear her name. Alexander refused. This is just one piece of the puzzle which leads Mazzeo to conclude that Alexander's real crimes were financial, not romantic.

If I had to name a weakness in this book it would be this: Alexander looms quite large in Mazzeo's recounting of Eliza's life. Yes, he was her husband, but Eliza lived to a ripe old age and had half of her life ahead of her at the time of his death, years which were filled with joy, sadness, and endless public works. Eliza was so much more than Alexander's wife.

However, her accomplishments are by no means completely ignored. The book goes into detail about Eliza's involvement in founding New York's first private orphanage, as well as her involvement in public education. Children were Eliza's passion, particularly orphans, a focus likely sparked by Alexander's humble origins. Mazzeo paints a portrait of a strong and compassionate woman.

This is a beautiful and well-researched piece of work which shines a well-deserved spotlight on one of US history's most interesting women. The flowing prose makes this an excellent read for fans of biographies as well as historical fiction, and, of course, fans of Hamilton.

GoodReads link below should be live immediately, and the JennaBookish link will be live on the book's release date, September 18, 2018.

Absolutely fantastic! Hands-down one of my very favorite books of 2018. I had only a vague awareness of Eliza Hamilton's story, but am ever so grateful now to feel as though I know her almost personally.

Mazzeo explores the life and context of Eliza Hamilton--her family network of wealthy Dutch patroons, the American Revolution, her sketchy in-laws (Angelica and Cornelia picked creeps with whom to elope), the financial boom of the 1790s, Hamilton's status as an outsider favorite of the Washingtons and user of the Schuyler network, the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia and the four decades of widowhood and philanthropy. This is well-researched, but popularly formatted with references in the back, which makes weighing the author's interpretation of things difficult, especially an assertion that the Maria Reynolds affair was cover for financial scandal, not a sexual infidelity.