If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Live by Mary Calvi: A Book Review

If a Poem Could Live or Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Love

Author: Mary Calvi

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: 2023

Pages: 320

Synopsis: 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 Review: If a Poem Could Live or Breathe tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. Alice dreams of going to college to further her education. One day, she meets a junior at Harvard named Theodore Roosevelt. He falls immediately in love with her and begins to pursue her. This story chronicles the courtship, marriage, and tragedy of Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Lee.

I knew a little bit about Edith Roosevelt, Theodore’s second wife. However, I did not know anything about his first wife. Yet, this novel was very illuminating. I found Alice to be very fascinating. She was strong-willed and spunky. I like how she was a feminist and was for women having an advanced education. Thus, I can see why she managed to capture the heart of the future President.

Theodore was a very compelling and eccentric figure. It was interesting to see the younger and more romantic side of him. He was very loyal and passionate to Alice. He was also a very deep thinker and matched well with Alice. I like how Alice influenced and supported him. Thus, I really liked them as a couple, and I cried at their tragic end.

Overall, If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is a coming of age novel. This was a heart-breaking love story. Both Theodore and Alice had a deep love for each other. It makes readers see another side of this legendary President. He is very sympathetic and human. I also like all of the other characters. They seem very complex. There were a few things I did not like about the novel. I thought that the story moved at a slow pace and seemed drawn out. I also thought the writing was somewhat dry and stilted. It was more like a nonfiction work than a novel. Nevertheless, it was meticulously researched. It was still an enjoyable and moving novel about first love. I recommend this for fans of American Princess, The President’s Lady, and The Kennedy Debutante!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England by John Carmi Parsons: A Book Review

Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England Author: John Carmi Parsons Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Book Release Date: 1998 Pages: 388 Source: Personal Collection Synopsis: Medievalist feminist studies' early concentration on the lives of prominent women has more recently given way to an interest in their less exalted sisters. Historians have seemingly avoided the careers of medieval queens, creatures of romance and legend, women who enjoyed rank and wealth merely as a consequence of birth or marriage. A renewed interest in such women has, however, followed the opening of new avenues to the study of women and power in the Middle Ages. That the lives of these women will reward reconsideration has been amply proven in the works of such historians as Pauline Stafford and Janet Nelson. Eleanor of Castile studies the wife of Edward I of England, a woman eulogized since the sixteenth century as a model of ...

Interview with Meihan Boey

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing author, Meihan Boey. She is the author of The Formidable Miss Cassidy , which is the first novel in the Miss Cassidy trilogy. The first novel is about how a Scottish governess helps her employer's family who is haunted by a malevolent spirit. She has recently released, The Enigmatic Madam Ingram , which is the second novel in the trilogy. In this interview, we discussed not only her latest novel, but also Singaporean mythology. Thank you, Mrs. Boey! What inspired you to write The Formidable Miss Cassidy ? Did you know it would be a trilogy before you started writing or did it form while you were writing it? Yes, I did know I wanted to create a trilogy - I just didn’t know at the start whether or not I would be able to get there! The Formidable Miss Cassidy started life as a COVID project, sent as a short story to a little Canadian indie press. Because I didn’t think a typical Canadian audience was go...

The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (Miss Cassidy #2) by Meihan Boey: A Book Review

The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (Miss Cassidy #2) Author: Meihan Boey Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal Publisher: Harper Perennial Book Release Date: September 8, 2026 Pages: 512 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Miss Cassidy returns to nineteenth-century Singapore to help solve another dazzling supernatural mystery in this follow-up to the award-winning novel that The Guardian called a “classic-in-waiting.” When Letty Ingram arrives in Singapore in 1906, she is an enigma even unto herself. To the residents of the small Scottish village where she lives, she is a wealthy, half-Malay recluse who emerges from her home only for walks with her great beast of a hound. To Letty, she is a woman trying to lift a curse that causes her lose consciousness and wake up in strange places—sometimes, with blood on her hands—and no memory of what occurred. Letty ...

History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

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