“Alex and Eliza”: The book inspired by the love story in the hit musical “Hamilton”

It has been over a year since Hamilton: An American Musical premiered on Broadway, and the buzz is nowhere close to stopping. From filming the original cast to the documentary that aired on PBS to the show playing in Chicago, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece is far from leaving the minds of the American population. Now, author Melissa de la Cruz, known for her “Blue Bloods” and “Witches of the East End” series, is hopping aboard the Alexander Hamilton train and coming out with a book that many fans are looking forward to: Alex and Eliza, a story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler’s love story.

Alex and Eliza will cover the early years of their courtship, from their meeting in 1777 at ages nineteen and seventeen, respectively, to their marriage in 1780. (Although, the ages in her book are historically inaccurate. While the exact year of Hamilton’s birth is unsure, either 1755 or 1757, both he and Eliza were twenty years old when they began their courtship.)

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, de la Cruz opened up more about her book, the research she did, and the inspiration she drew from Hamilton. The New York Times best-selling author explained how her ten-year old daughter became obsessed with the story of Alexander and Eliza after seeing the famous musical. To answer her daughter’s questions about the colonial lovebirds, de la Cruz began researching about the Hamiltons and soon fell in love with their love story. “I am a sucker for the popular girl-poor boy love story trope,” she told EW. “I loved the story of the poverty-stricken colonel and his beautiful bride from the most prestigious family in the Colonies. I just swooned to their love story.”

Another reason Melissa de la Cruz felt such a deep connection with Hamilton was the fact that she is Filipino-American. “I had never realized how much of an outsider I had felt to American history until we (brown people) were suddenly thrust into the center of it…. Hamilton made this bold statement that you―yes you, Puerto Rican, African-American, Asian―are part of the founding father’s story, too. The story of America is also our story.”

The book will be available on April 11, 2017. You can pre-order it now on sites such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. It can be assured that the early days of the love story between Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler is in good hands.