Tina's Reading Books

Araminta Woodhall knows she is a curiosity. It is late 1800s in New York City. She is a mixed-race female with "Negro blood' whose culinary creations are unparalleled. She works as the chef in a men's gambling establishment headed by an unsavory character named Linder Kane.

She is only working for Kane long enough to save enough money to open her own restaurant. But even that would not have convinced her to stay since she really can not abide the man. However she feels protective of Kane's mistress. A young woman he beats and terrorizes and whose reasons for staying with Kane form a bit of a mystery.

Kane loves to serve his guests her glorious food and will often have her come to take a curtsey so they can take a look at his very lovely 'curiosity'. During one of these 'come take a bow' evenings, Araminta is surprised to see Griffin Calverson, the brother of her former employer and good friend.

Griffin is a man of power and means in New York City. It is obvious he has some rivalry going on with Kane, a man who himself is connected to the powerful yet corrupt Tammany Hall.

Griffin is just as surprised to see Araminta and wastes no time in trying to convince her to leave, hinting that something dangerous is in the offing.

But Araminta won't leave without Olivia and Olivia has her reasons for staying.

And during all this Araminta and Griffin start to give into their attraction for each other.

I admit I was attracted to this book in the first place because of Araminta being a woman of color. It is rare to find a historical romance that takes place in this time/place, but rarer still for the heroine to be non-white.

The book was technically well written and Araminta and Griffin's romance was engaging. The two had really good on page chemistry. However, the book didn't necessarily 'sing' for me and I was a little disappointed in how Araminta's status as a woman of color seemed sometimes to be almost wallpaper.

This is not to say the author ignores it completely. She doesn't. In fact there a couple of places in the story where the fact of Araminta's race is used rather well, quite nuanced in fact. But sometimes while reading I wondered why even make her part black because there were times while reading I could easily forget that Araminta isn't just your run of the mill white heroine in a historical romance novel. There were times when I had to wonder "Would a non-white person react that way in that space?' Admittedly there are tons of times I let behaviors that feel anachronistic in Hist romances slide.  But for some reason I felt more hyper aware of such things with this book. It could also be because Araminta seems to be the only non white person in the entire book. She doesn't seem to even cross paths just to nod a greeting with other persons of color.

To give the author credit, though, when we do get reminded that Araminta is a WOC navigating spaces that would not be normally welcoming to her, we get tantalizingly close to something really interesting.

Araminta is British. She is the granddaughter of a man of the wealthy merchant class from Englad who only acknowledged her on his death bed. She also well travelled. Because of her background and training and of course her accent, Araminta retains her 'curiosity' status. She carries herself with the bearing of the queen. And in some cases I think this extends to her a sort of 'color invisibility' so much so that Araminta herself sometimes gets lulled into a sense of false security. Until she gets reminded forcefully that she is a woman 'with Negro blood'.

There is also a really good scene where Araminta admits, almost defiantly, that sometimes she gets mistaken for Italian and she allows people think that. Griff somewhat curiously and somewhat judgingly wonders why she would deny her heritage like that. I thought this was a well done scene because of course Araminta would allow herself to pass. If she could be admitted to the rarefied place that white people at that time are accepted why wouldn't she? And of course Griff just doesn't get it because he is steeped in his own white male privilege. It is just a small conversation that just nips at the tip of the iceberg of something a little deeper. And the author lets it stop there. I almost wish she had delved into the conversation a but more. But then again, I am kind of glad she just left it there.


This isn't the only place where Araminta and Griffin seem a bit at cross purposed wrt to her race. Griff offers Araminta a position as his mistress. She of course believes it is because a man of his stature can't marry a mixed-race woman. Griff otoh has no problems with her race, he just has no intention of marrying anyone. Frankly I would have liked it better if the thought had given him pause even for just a minute or two. Would've felt more realistic, imo.

Overall this was an easy read and generally well done historical romance.