Just go buy it and read it. That’s all the review you need.

There’s no need to read my review. Just click on the link and go buy the book.  You will not be sorry.

Expectations – mine and the characters:

My expectations for this book were high. I was afraid they were unrealistically high. I did my best to check my expectations so that I can just enjoy the story, but I need not have worried. Milan took my expectations, subverted them, and then schooled me on what my expectations should have been.  I don’t feel bad, she does the same to her characters

James Delacey expects that his standing as a man and an aristocrat should afford him all the privileges.  If you asked him, he would surely tell you that he has those privileges because he deserves them. The world is the way it is because that is the way the world should be.  He certainly expects that he should be able punish any challenger to his privilege – especially a woman and someone from a working class family.

Edward Clark has experienced the disappointment of expectations and failed idealism and now wants only to get a little revenge, protect a friend, and rescue the pretty lady.

Frederica Marshall, Free, is smarter than the both of them and needs very little rescuing.  She plans to be shouting into the wind as long the wind is blowing against her.

Punctuation, and the joy of a well turned phrase:

This book is highly recommended for people who like language and enjoy arguing about punctuation.

Free took the money she inherited from her aunt’s Mrs. Larriger Adventures and started a newspaper by, for, and about women.  Her agoraphobic aunt, who found freedom in writing about a woman’s adventures in the world, gave Free the power of money to speak out when no one wanted to listen.  To Aunt Freddy, words were the world she couldn’t give herself. To Free, words are the weapon in the battle to put the world right.

Free and Edward flirt about punctuation and seduce each other with word play.  The things that they say to each other take root and change them. Words have meaning in this world and come back to the speaker either as reward or punishment. The reader is rewarded for paying close attention to the author’s words.

Free has such faith in her words that she lets Edward go trusting her words to bring him back. Free’s faith in herself and in her abilities is astonishingly refreshing.  And Edward is the actually sinister man she deserves.

Going forward with Courtney Milan:

I wasn’t kidding about giving her your money.  Just do it.  Go buy her books and read them.  A novella centered on Stephen, about whom I will say no more because you need to read the book for that joy, is coming out next month. Later in the year she is publishing a new series of books.  Milan is a writer to watch, but more importantly, she’s a writer to read.

For two other, gushing and more descriptive reviews of The Suffragette Scandal, I recommend Malin and Mrs. Julien. Both of them agree that this is a masterpiece of the romance genre.

Malin: https://cannonballread.com/2014/07/9590/

Mrs. Julien: https://cannonballread.com/2014/07/another-historical-romance-but-a-master-work-of-romantic-fiction/

I will be personally and profoundly disappointed in you if you don’t go buy this book and read it.