Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, #partner, for an advanced copy of If a Poem Could Live and Breathe in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: February 14, 2023
SUMMARY:
A fact-based romantic speculative novel about Teddy Roosevelt’s first love, by Mary Calvi, author of Dear George, Dear Mary.
Studded with the real love letters between a young Theodore Roosevelt and Boston beauty Alice Lee—many of them never before published—If a Poem Could Live and Breathe makes vivid what many historians believe to be the pivotal years that made the future president into the man of action that defined his political life, and cemented his legacy.
Cambridge, 1878. The era of the Gilded Age. Alice Lee sets out to break from the norms of her mother’s generation. Women are fighting for educational opportunities and exploring a new sense of intellectual and personal freedom. Native New Yorker, Harvard student Teddy Roosevelt, is on his own journey of discovery, and when they meet, unrelenting currents of love change the trajectory of his life forever.
If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is an indelible portrait of the authenticity of first love, the heartache of loss, and how overcoming the worst of life’s obstacles can push one to greatness never imagined.
My thoughts:
I’ve always been a little bit fascinated with the Roosevelts and so when I saw that Mary Calvi, who I absolutely love watching on the CBS News This Morning show, had a new book coming out about Teddy Roosevelt’s first love, I knew I had to read it…and I do not even know if I can put into words how much I loved this book!
Most of what I know about Theodore Roosevelt is from his later years in life, when he was president, so this book was such a wonderful insight into his earlier years, and also explains a little bit about why he was the way he was later on in life. It was so evident that he was a smitten man once he met Miss Alice Lee and I loved watching their relationship evolve over the pages. She, herself, was a woman far beyond the times and I loved that she wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she wanted, even if it meant causing a rift between her and her mother.
By including some of the actual love letters between Teddy and Alice, we are really able to see not only the love the two had for each other, but also what was going on in the world around them. The author is able to create her story around these letters and she does such a fantastic job of this. Her sense of place is so strong, using the same language that Teddy and Alice use, really making it very easy to put yourself right there with them.
This book was such a beautiful tribute to a love that unfortunately was cut down way too soon. It had me feeling a wide range of emotions throughout the book, leaving me in tears at the end, which I was not expecting. It is a meticulously researched, strong character-driven story that I will be recommending to everyone!
