Note: Thank you to BookSirens, Ashes to Roses Press, and author Rebecca Flynt for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on BookSirens. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I enjoy historical fiction quite a bit. Some of the first “adult” books I read were John Jakes’s Bicentennial series where he expertly wove his fictional characters into the historical narrative of the American Revolution. Since then, I’ve read numerous books that have done this well. I’ve also read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton as well as other books about that Founding Father and the mess he made of his life thanks to embracing an affair with Maria Reynolds.

When I saw American Harlot was available, I was eager to give it a read. While the story is a good one, it feels like the author formed an opinion about Maria Reynolds’ culpability and crafted the narrative to fit that. Reading her afterword about how she came to write the book, this is pretty much the case.

This can be a problem when writing historical fiction. Facts are facts and when some are ignored because an author wants to tell a particular story, it can be glaring to those who also know about the subject. For instance, Flynt alleges that at one point, Alexander Hamilton was supporting Maria and her daughter in a house not far from his own. Having read those other books, Hamilton didn’t have a lot of money. He didn’t come from family money as his wife did, and while he was working for the U.S. Government in Philadelphia, he made much less than he did in his law practice in New York City. Being able to support two households would have been nearly impossible.

For those who don’t know the story of the first political sex scandal, Alexander Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington when the United States Capitol was still in Philadelphia. While there, he engaged in an extra-marital affair with one Maria Reynolds. It wasn’t a one-time thing but rather went on for over a year even while his wife and four children were also in Philadelphia. Back then, it was a common thing for men to have mistresses (the charge of adultery was only applied to women, not men), so that wasn’t all that big of a deal. However, some of his political enemies got wind of the affair and began investigating if he had misappropriated treasury funds. To combat the accusation, Hamilton wrote a 95-page “pamphlet” detailing his affair and the ensuing blackmail by James Reynolds, Maria’s estranged husband.

Rebecca Flynt paints a portrait of a woman doing her best to survive in a world that marginalizes her. A series of bad decisions and a husband who promises things he has no interest in following through on. Going strictly by the evidence in Hamilton’s writing and other letters that were found, it would seem that Maria had an acquaintance with Aaron Burrwho helped her move to Philadelphia. Was he part of a cabal looking to set Hamilton up, as Flynt suggests? It’s a possibility, but I think it was likely Maria and James who came up with the idea of seducing a politician and then blackmailing him.

Flynt paints Hamilton as a man obsessed with his mistress. Did he love her? The world at that time was much different than it is now. Marrying Elizabeth Schuyler, whose family was a preeminent one at the time, was a step up for him. Elizabeth saved none of her letters sent or received in life, so there’s no way of knowing how she felt. It’s obvious, though, that she was devoted to Hamilton. Following his death, she spent the rest of her life trying to get a biography written about him.

Flynt argues for Maria’s character by talking about who she was later in life. After several tries to reinvent herself, Maria married a doctor and managed to shake off the notoriety she had among the public to become a respectable doctor’s wife who attended church regularly. Flynt thinks that means that Maria must have been in love with Hamilton and not just in it for the money. I think that’s a bit of a reach. Many people have moments in their lives that cause them to rethink how they’ve lived their life up until that point. I would put more stock in that happening than Maria being in it for more than just money.

While American Harlot was a good story, it’s just that: a story. It just happens to involve real people in history. The only person I found sympathy for in this whole story was Maria’s daughter, Susan. Maria claims to be doing everything for her, but her choices are questionable.