Short review: A promising debut set in Gilded Age NYC, Striking Romance follows Jewish labor reformer Sarah Fischer on her fight for women workers rights, a fight which also brings Mayor's aide Clifton Stokes into her life and heart despite their vast political and personal differences.

Thoughts:

This story hovered right on the edge of not having enough on page time for the main couple for me. Yes, there is a solid HEA, but be aware there is a lot of of tough, important historical detail about how awful it was to work in the shirtwaist factories, how terrible women were treated, and how absolutely horrifying Gilded Age workhouses/prisons were. This attention to Sarah's personal struggle against society, bad working conditions, and City Hall made the romance arc feel a bit secondary to me. BUT, this is still definitely a romance, I just wanted to note. I believe many readers will absolutely adore this tale and find there to be just enough romance for them. I would consider this a high heat level too, which I enjoyed.

The times Sarah and Clifton are together on page are charming, even if I felt Clifton fell a bit instantly, and I appreciated the handling of their very vast differences in class, faith, and station in life. Clifton is a rich, white man who only has to work because he feels like it. Sarah needs to support her family and her fellow friends and colleagues while balancing her political work. My favorite scenes revolved around Clifton introducing Sarah to new foods and restaurants.

Someone has asked me if this is #ownvoices, and I am not sure. Sarah is Jewish and to me, a White ex-Catholic with a Jewish Studies degree, I had no issue with the representation.

CW for violence to women, gory medical details, gun violence, sexual assault

I reviewed from a free ARC provided by the author.

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

Sarah is assaulted at a party by a rich man, who stops when she asks him to but she's scared. Sarah and Clifton discuss birth control methods, but then forgo using birth control, consequences be damned (she is pregnant at the end). Sarah is locked up for her part in the strike, unfairly so, and Clifton is able to break her out of jail and hide her.