The Countess Conspiracy

The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan

I absolutely was not expecting to enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did. I thought it would be a nice diversion, instead, I found myself sucked in and really wanting things to work out well for both characters. Despite knowing this was a romance and so there was going to be a HEA, I was worried the HEA would have Violet make compromises.

It totally didn’t.

Violet Waterfield is a widowed Countess who is hiding a very big secret. All the scandalous scientific theories and papers put forth by her childhood friend (and notorious rake) Sebastian Malheur are, in fact, her theories.

No one will respect the ideas of a woman, and so Sebastian has been pretending for years to be the authors of Violet’s papers. But dealing with the derision and scandal (for he is essentially talking about intercourse in public, even if it is plants and animals, is considered by many to be indecent.

“He’s flaunting his godless ways. He is the most dissolute reprobate. Talking in public about breeding and intercourse.”

But if he gives up the charade, what will become of Violet’s research?

Violet is a very intelligent, very witty, but also damaged character. Her past is full of tragedy and repression and suppression and secrets, and she believes herself to be without value and fundamentally unlovable. She’s sharp and caustic and refuses to let herself feel anything for anyone.

Despite that, Sebastian loves her.

Now, sometimes when you read things like that, you have to wonder yourself what the other character sees in them. In this case, Sebastian and Violet were childhood friends, so she allowed herself to trust him perhaps more than anyone else in her life, and he knew her far better than anyone else, and knew that she was more than her fragile and sharp exterior.

All of which is great, but what I liked best about the book was the science and the humor.

There was nothing shameful about the figure Sebastian was pointing to, not unless one harbored an irrational hatred for bar charts.

Ah, Violet wouldn’t say that if she’d ever been forced to sit through a PowerPoint presentation.

But Violet and Sebastian together are utterly marvelous.

Violet narrowed her eyes at him. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to distract me with science.”

“Of course I am.” He winked at her. “And it’s going to work.”

“That’s specious,” Violet retorted. “If I asked you not to talk of elephants and you wandered around bellowing about not-elephants, you’d be mentioning elephants with every breath. The column of all things that are not elephants includes marsupials, canines—”

“The column of everything that is not an elephant does not include not-elephants?” he inquired, innocently examining his nails. “That’s counter-intuitive.”

“The column of conversational topics,” Violet stressed, “that are not elephant related does not include a discussion of the elephant-shaped hole in the conversation!”

So, shipping—”

If there was a more baffling change of subject, Violet didn’t know it. “Shipping?”

“Yes. You know. Ships. Floating things that displace water and carry cargo?

They’re really quite marvelous.

But more importantly, there is the science. The story doesn’t go into the science itself in depth, but rather the place women had in science at that time.

Which was, as far as the general public was concerned, none.

Which makes the dedication of the story so wonderful.

For Rosalind Franklin, whose name we know.
For Anna Clausen, whom I discovered while writing this book.
For every woman whose name has disappeared without recognition.

It’s a wonderful story, that I highly recommend, despite the boinking.
Rating: 9/10

Published by Courtney Milan

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