{"id":4797,"date":"2014-08-18T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T00:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4797"},"modified":"2025-10-01T17:41:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:41:39","slug":"the-countess-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4797","title":{"rendered":"The Countess Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Countess Conspiracy<\/a><\/em> (2013) Courtney Milan <\/p>\n

\"The-Countess-Conspiracy\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

It totally didn’t.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> in public, even if it is plants and animals, is considered by many to be indecent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s flaunting his godless ways. He is the most dissolute reprobate. Talking in public about breeding and intercourse.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But if he gives up the charade, what will become of Violet’s research?<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Despite that, Sebastian loves her.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All of which is great, but what I liked best about the book was the science and the humor.<\/p>\n

There was nothing shameful about the figure Sebastian was pointing to, not unless one harbored an irrational hatred for bar charts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, Violet wouldn’t say that if she’d ever been forced to sit through a PowerPoint presentation.<\/p>\n

But Violet and Sebastian together are utterly marvelous.<\/p>\n

Violet narrowed her eyes at him. \u201cI know what you\u2019re doing. You\u2019re trying to distract me with science.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I am.\u201d He winked at her. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s specious,\u201d Violet retorted. \u201cIf I asked you not to talk of elephants and you wandered around bellowing about not-elephants, you\u2019d be mentioning elephants with every breath. The column of all things that are not elephants includes marsupials, canines\u2014\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe column of everything that is not an elephant does not include not-elephants?\u201d he inquired, innocently examining his nails. \u201cThat\u2019s counter-intuitive.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe column of conversational topics,\u201d Violet stressed, \u201cthat are not elephant related does not include a discussion of the elephant-shaped hole in the conversation!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, shipping\u2014\u201d <\/p>\n

If there was a more baffling change of subject, Violet didn\u2019t know it. \u201cShipping?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. You know. Ships. Floating things that displace water and carry cargo?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’re really quite marvelous.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Which was, as far as the general public was concerned, none.<\/p>\n

Which makes the dedication of the story so wonderful.<\/p>\n

For Rosalind Franklin, whose name we know.
\nFor Anna Clausen<\/a>, whom I discovered while writing this book.
\nFor every woman whose name has disappeared without recognition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a wonderful story, that I highly recommend, despite the boinking.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Courtney Milan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,30,33,742,26,56],"tags":[719,128,729,607,557],"class_list":["post-4797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-british","category-historical","category-physical-health","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-brothers-sinister","tag-courtney-milan","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-miscarriage","tag-victorian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1fn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12787,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12787","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":0},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"April 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister) Set in England in 1867. Violet Waterfield, Countess of Cambury, has been keeping secrets all her life. But this secret belongs also to her best friend, Sebastian, and he is done with this secret. He\u2019d agreed to this charade years ago, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Countess Conspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy-e1511010902812.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5686,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5686","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":1},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"February 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1867. I really REALLY love this story. And I loved it just as much if not more the second time through, since I was just waiting for the awesome bits. There was nothing shameful about the figure Sebastian was pointing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Countess-Conspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24335,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24335","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":2},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #3) Set in Cambridge in 1867 \"...the chance that a male cat will show tortoiseshell coloring is so small we cannot calculate it\u2014one in a thousand, perhaps. My theory provides no explanation for such smallness.\u201d The woman\u2019s voice was beginning to rise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Countess Conspiracy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9185,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9185","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":3},"title":"The Countess Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"August 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan Set in England in 1867 And this, this is my favorite story in this series. There was nothing shameful about the figure Sebastian was pointing to, not unless one harbored an irrational hatred for bar charts. \u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d Sebastian told Violet\u2019s niece. \u201cI\u2019ll try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Countess-Conspiracy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5694,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5694","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":4},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"February 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan .Set in England in 1863 Another re-read, and although good, I don't love it as much as the Countess Conspiracy. But not for lack of trying on the part of the story. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen this before. And it\u2019s really not my sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Duchess-War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24331,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24331","url_meta":{"origin":4797,"position":5},"title":"The Duchess War","author":"Michelle","date":"March 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan (Brothers Sinister #1) Set in Leicester, England in 1863 \u201cYour Grace,\u201d Stevens finally said, \u201cyour concern does you justice.\u201d The man\u2019s toad-eating did him none. Robert met Stevens\u2019s eyes. \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s called basic human decency, and I deserve no credit for doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Duchess War","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/The-Duchess-War.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}