When Edward and Free first meet, Free hands Edward her card and tells him, "Well, Monsieur le Realist. Call on me if you ever find yourself in need of an exclamation point. I have an entire box of them." Well, I am borrowing some exclamation points from Free to gush about how amazing this book is!! I really don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to convey how astoundingly wonderful THE SUFFRAGETTE SCANDAL is.

Miss Fredonia "Free" Marshall is a suffragette, and runs her own newspaper "by women, about women, and for women." She is being harassed by James Delacey, a misogynistic brute of a near-peer who propositioned her to be his mistress. When she turned him down, he vows to ruin her.

Edward Clark, a rogue of the first order, is James Delacey's brother in disguise. Edward's family forced him to Europe and abandoned him there at the cusp of war. They denounced him and he was forced to scrabble for his life, ending up as a con man and being up tortured along the way. He returns to England and wants to thwart his evil brother, so he aligns himself with Free.

Neither of these strong characters has any intention of becoming romantically involved. Edward believes himself to be a complete scoundrel, although underneath he his rather floating moral compass he does hold straight for those he counts as true friends. He tells Free "I have no moral sense to speak of, I lie, I cheat, I steal, and I'll probably drive you away screaming within the week. But if you marry me, I'll only do those things on your behalf." Free is a staunch suffragette, but such a realist too. Her speech about thimbles and bailing the Thames is deeply moving.

This book felt true to its Victorian time, but resonated so strongly with me about women's trials still ongoing today.

THE SUFFRAGETTE SCANDAL is book four in The Brothers Sinister series. It can be read as a standalone novel. Readers who have read prior books in the series will love seeing previous characters here, but this book stands solidly on its own lovely attributes. The witty banter and sheer cleverness of the characters was endlessly entertaining. I was captivated with this beautiful story from start to finish. I especially loved all the punctuation jokes in the story.