The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan

[lightreads]

The Suffragette Scandal

3/5. Historical het romance. She is a badass publisher of a controversial feminist press. He is the prodigal son of a noble house returned from criming his way around Europe. They team up to take down his awful brother.

I forget which one of you told me I'd like this book years ago, but you were right. It falls into one of my favorite romance categories: romances where the leads spend 95% of their time snarking at each other. It's great. There is suggestive banter about punctuation.

Also, this is a book about the struggle, and how it is done, and what it is for. As Milan and her heroine both say, about the work of emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. I've never read a romance that was so interested in that struggle, or how a woman would make it worthwhile to do, even as its ends seem impossible. It's a fitting end to this series which has been, in one way or another, about various kinds of social justice around the edges. This book centers that, and it works.

I was less interested in the romance – he does a thing that is so dumb and contrived that I never really got over it, even though it is a thing that particular person damaged in that particular way would have done. But I would have read about the press and her work and her friends a lot more.

Also, you're damn right he eats her out and is grateful for the chance.

Comments

[lokifan]

Oh, it's so wonderful, isn't it?

Also, this is a book about the struggle, and how it is done, and what it is for. As Milan and her heroine both say, about the work of emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. I've never read a romance that was so interested in that struggle, or how a woman would make it worthwhile to do, even as its ends seem impossible.

Yeah. One of the parts that stayed with me is where - I think he says it? - they talk about the idea that it'll be decades before women get the vote, and a hundred years before there's a woman Prime Minister, and longer after that before it happens again. And of course he's right (cos it's written with the benefit of hindsight) but Freddie sticks with it anyway, it's worth it to her. And that was so striking to me. Because of course I think it was worth it, but I'm her posterity, a hundred years and more on. So much work and it took so long - is taking so long. That honesty about that (and that it's still valuable) is unusual, I think.

[lightreads]

Yes, and I love that they got a drawn-out denouement post deciding to be together, because they needed it to work out how they were going to live (and to decide to prioritize her career! omg!)

[norah]

Still reading this in Spanish translation. I save it for when I can make the mental effort to do that - about halfway through.