This is steamy historical romance (or chick-lit) at its best. For this genre, I give this book 5 stars. I loved every minute of it.

The main character is a plucky, penniless, Vicar’s daughter, who is in the first female cohort at Oxford in 1879, studying Latin and Ancient Greek. She is there on a scholarship from the Suffragist movement, and they are trying to repeal the Woman’s Property Act, which calls for women to lose all their property and freedom when married.

She bravely, and somewhat unwittingly, targets the Duke of Montgomery as a man of influence that she can inform about the injustice of this. He’s never had anyone counter him before, especially not a woman who knows her own mind. Ultimately, sparks fly.

The book is written well, and I’d happily read another book in this author’s “League of Extraordinary Women” series. If you want an intelligent, passionate romp, with both a cause and a woman’s virtue in the balance, read this one. It is very diverting; I stayed up way too late to finish it!