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I never wanted this book to end but the cycle of life is harsh and that is the way that it is: everything must end some day. What kind of people are we when we are constantly tasked with surviving to make it to the next day with no real opportunities to make money and death lingering on every corner?
There are sweet and gentle characters (old and young) who look after everyone, there are gang members who become multiple heads of government in the cities where the police does not bother to enter, a pastor who convinces his flock that they have better chances of focusing on their souls getting into heaven after they die than to claw their way out of poverty and find peace on Earth while they're still alive, many people can only carve this dream life for themselves while they still inhabit this mortal coil on social media. The characters popped off of the page (especially Cécé herself) and were completely alive and breathing; there's even a character named Jules César! This book is absolutely brilliant and something I will think about for years to come.

Plot aside, the writing in this book feels very amateurish, I am kinda paraphrasing here but I knew I would be in for a very hard read when over the course of a few chapters, this was the character description being established: ‘All the Bridgerton boys are 6 feet tall so all the debutante girls want them sooo bad but Daphne is average and plain looking because she is a brunette with brown eyes' lol ok (this is also all that I know about what they look like aside from Colin having green eyes, that's it. This is the true extent of the character descriptions within the entire book).
 
Absolutely no world building at all. They go to these lavish balls and grand estates yet there is no mention of what they look like... there has to be some kind of interior design/decoration done at a ball, no? We are going to so many places yet nothing is being described, it's horrible. “They go to the garden” (another paraphrase but the actual quote is not much better, I assure you), What does the garden look like? What kind of plants are there? What arrangement are they in? What's the weather like? What does the sky look like? These are the frustrations I found myself having with this book throughout my time reading it. On that note, there is also no description about the attire of the characters as well. Only 3 characters (if I am recalling correctly) throughout the entirety of the book have their attire described but of course, it's only ever down to the fabric and color. That's it. Those are all of the details we receive.

The SA plot was gross and disgusting and was quickly “forgiven” and swept under the rug and made out to be not a big deal (of course it is a very big deal!). (And the author added an “uncivilized Africa” dig into the mix too?!? Hello?! Totally unnecessary!)
 
There is a character whose ‘villain origin' story is that he has a stutter and that most definitely cheapened the already weak writing even further since that seems to be the only reason that we, the readers are supposed to empathize with him and how we get to know him. To add to that point, I don't feel anything for these characters since nothing is fully developed outside of very rarely hearing their thoughts, the majority of the book is just dialogue... when there are little paragraphs to break up that dialogue, it just feels like things are being told to you: emotions, thoughts, and feelings are being told to the reader instead of allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions. Any kind of description is told in very few words, there is a lot of handholding here.
 
Maybe I am just not the intended audience for romance novels but that doesn't mean that they should be poorly written... this novel feels like it's still in a draft or conceptualization stage; the plot is very weak and thready but most importantly: none of these characters are fully fleshed out at all and that is a huge concern seeing as everything else within the book does not have the same priority. I'm surprised this was formally published.

As James Baldwin wrote in his novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, those who are and those who know someone who is imprisoned should not be ashamed, those who created these prisons in the first place should be. It's easy to see why there is such a fierce and deeply devoted community impassioned with preserving and protecting the legacy of the honorable General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas even two centuries after his death. I bawled like a child that lost her father at the end of this book, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a truly honorable man who was deeply loved by the people we was sworn to protect and the men who followed his command because of his fierce ideals on liberation and respect for all humanity.

I did not have many hopes for Enlightenment Era France but seeing a version of 1790's egalitarian society with pro-egalitarian policies regardless of race and an abolition of slavery for almost a decade (even during the very homicidal Revolutionary Era France) only for it to swiftly crash and burn as soon as Napoleon seizes control of France is incredibly disturbing and frightening.
This book went in incredible depth to explain the politics of the time to get a better insight into the world Thomas-Alexandre was born into and died in, I can't help but be a bit worried that I had never learned of this era and that Napoleon went through such great lengths to undo this progress and to bury Thomas-Alexandre's name and achievements (especially making no mention of his race in the government-issued biography)... there are honestly many similarities between Napoleon's reign and the situation we find ourselves in the present day on a global scale. Much to mull over.