As has become my tradition in reviewing Courtney Milan’s Brother Sinister books I was on the lookout for the trope that Ms. Milan had turned on its head. In The Duchess War the male protagonist shows the insecurities which would typically be portrayed by the female protagonist. In The Heiress Effect the ‘damsels in distress’ save themselves. And in The Countess Conspiracy the gentleman at the center of the story works to move forward the career aspirations of his lady love. All of these are reversals of the expected tropes of the world of Romance. Milan is at it again with The Suffragette Scandal and her target is the rescue fantasy and the bad boy making good.
The story should be rather straight forward, and it would be in the hands of almost any other Romance writer. Edward Clark arrives back in England with the goal of revenge. In order to achieve his revenge, he needs to prevent James Delacey from framing an innocent man and destroying the life and work of Frederica Marshall. In other hands the action would have been at Edwards’s command and Free would have been along for the ride. That is most certainly NOT what happens in The Suffragette Scandal.
Free Marshall, youngest sister of Oliver Marshall featured in The Heiress Effect, has used her inheritance from her aunt to pay for her Cambridge education and set up her newspaper, The Women’s Free Press. Free is perhaps the strongest, smartest female protagonist I’ve come across in a long time, and she is always two steps ahead of everyone, including Edward. When he attempts to blackmail her into compliance with his plan (his go to move after 7 years on the continent) she goes around him and blackmails him in return to have exactly the outcome she’s looking for. But this is only the first incident in a book chock full of them. As the stakes increase in the plot against Free Edward attempts to rescue her again and again, only to find that she’s perfectly able to rescue herself.
The other related trope is the bad boy going good for the love of a good woman. It is probably one of the oldest tropes in romance. Normally the heroine is looking for that. Not Free. She loves Edward for the scoundrel he is, and has no desire to see that changed. Free is much more interested in knowing and loving him as he is. She is so confident in the success of her plan that she doesn’t fight him when he returns to France and instead begins to write him letters. Because Edward is besotted, he cannot help but write back and the legendary puppy cannons are born.
There are other charming things about this book. Because Milan is working on a delightful feminist bent Free’s newspaper is not about male bashing, but about empowering women. It isn’t often that you get this overt feminism in romance novels, and certainly not ones set in 1877 England. It is a delight. The other benefit of the timing of this book, ten years after the events of The Countess Conspiracy is that we are able to visit most of the characters we’ve come to adore in the previous books – Oliver and Free’s parents from The Governess Affair, Minnie and Robert from The Duchess War another ten years into the future, which is something that I always enjoy.
There are so many other wonderful things about this book. I suggest wholeheartedly that you visit emmalita’s review for her musings on punctuation and how the characters use it to flirt. Or scootsa1000’s review of the series as a whole. Or you can have a read of Mrs. Julien’s lovely and insightful review. Or, you can take a look at Malin’s in-depth six star review that convinced me to start reading this series in the first place.
Great review. So glad you liked the book. Thank you for the shout-out. I still get all gooey inside when someone name-checks me in a review.
One of the reasons I love reading reviews of books I’ve read and reviewed is seeing another reader’s take. Such a good review. And thank you for the shout out.
Thank you for the shout out and for getting the word out there about Milan.
Thanks for the shout out! It reminds me that I need to read MORE by Milan and others recommended by this group. Hurrying off to check Malin’s top 100 list and cross reference with my library…
Ok, with so many people here apparently using my top 100 (from 2013!) as the ultimate go to guide for romance, I really need to get round to updating it. Too bad I’m still at least 60 mid-terms worth of correction work away from being able to do that.
I’m also not sure I’m comfortable with the pressure of being the romance guru for large parts of the CBR. Not everyone agrees with my opinions and tastes – just want that on the record.
That’s why I referenced you *and* our other lovely reviewers, so as not to put too much pressure. I tend to poll the group for reviews and decide from there.
And thank you all for the kind words about my review, I love that I get to write substantive reviews of Milan’s work… it isn’t always that way with Romance reads.
Oh, it wasn’t just your comment. It’s the comments that have been made in various places around the blog lately, because Mrs. J linked to my Top 100 list. It feels like I now have a lot to live up to, and having looked over the list, it’s not entirely representative, as there are two more years worth of romance that I need to take into account when amending the list. For one thing, The Suffragette Scandal isn’t on there!
I just want to leave a general THANK YOU to a few of the CBR ladies, including Mrs. J, emmalita, Malin, alwaysanswerb, faintingviolet and more.
I always thought that romance novels in general, and especially historical romance novels, were a guilty pleasure. Books to be borrowed from my mom in the wee hours of the morning, and put back (her bookmark back in place) before anyone noticed. It didn’t help that a lot of historical romance seemed to be TERRIBLY written. It was embarrassing, but sometimes a girl just needs a swoon-inducing happy ending, right?
Now, thank to CBR reviews, I have confidently purchased some Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean and Eloisa James. Looks like I’ll be adding Courtney Milan to the list, as well as checking out Malin’s top 100.
THANK YOU!
I love that I now have an online community to discuss and enjoy romance with. I’m one of the few people I know in my day to day life who openly and proudly reads romance, so it’s so good to have people to squee with.
If you wait until after the weekend, I will have my new and improved top 100 (or possibly extended to Top 150) up on my own blog. Because there is clearly a big demand for it at present and I’m just not going to be able to concentrate properly on my work until I get it edited.
Yay! I will totally wait (although I already perused your existing list, and have started googling…)
I am not there yet. I still can’t bring myself to read them on the subway (mostly because the covers are often SO cheesy), and I’ve read about 6 in the past 2 weeks, but can’t quite bring myself to write reviews. I used to be such a literary snob, it’s hard to get over it.
Oh, I have a lot of romances that make me extremely glad I have an E-reader, and before I read digitally, I would frequently keep something in front of the cover (Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible comes to mind, my cover is extremely pink and features a quality example of man-titty).
As someone who would read tons of very badly written romances in my teens, with the occasional memorable gem sticking in my memory, it was a revelation to me to re-discover the genre a few years ago, with authors like Loretta Chase, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas and Georgette Heyer to prove to me that romance could be really good, as well as enjoyable. So I totally get that it would take a while to get over your previous preconceptions.
Yay! Cannonball did the same for me in a lot of ways. Back during CBR4 I would start every Romance review with a veiled apology. Like I shouldn’t be reading and reviewing these, but I really wanted to hit 52 books so I was going to… Now I don’t have to feel guilty about them, because I know that there are LOTS of other readers just like me who enjoy them for all the various reasons we all love books.
Post those reviews, its like ripping off a band-aid. :)