Griffin and Cassandra, the leads characters in this book, reminded me of Emerson and Amelia Peabody Emerson from Elizabeth Peters’ novels. Since I happen to enjoy Emerson and Amelia, this aspect worked for me. However, this book and its characters were definitely not on the same level as those by Elizabeth Peters.

Cassandra Whitney is a 30-year-old spinster with passionate ideas involving women’s suffrage. In her first demonstration, she encounters some difficulties and literally ends up falling on Griffin St. John. Griffin makes it obvious immediately that he is not a supporter of women’s suffrage, and tries to convince Cassandra to leave the demonstration. Cassandra refuses, and wishes that this interesting and intelligent man supported her cause. She assumes that she will not meet up with him again. But both families are part of the same social circle, and she encounters Griffin and his sister Helena at her aunt’s house the next day. Sparks fly once again as Griffin and Cassandra entertain each other with a spirited debate over women’s suffrage.

Cassandra becomes friendly with the younger Lady Helena, who joins the suffrage movement, much to her family’s dismay since Griffin and Helena’s brother is the opposition leader in the House of Lords of a bill regarding women’s suffrage. Griffin is an author and explorer only recently home to visit his family. Though he wants to support his sister, he fears for her safety when she joins the suffrage movement. Cassandra infuriates him, but also challenges him on many levels.

The book’s strength lies in its setting and depiction of the suffrage movement. Cassandra and Helena are active members and are arrested at one point during a demonstration. The descriptions of the suffrage movement are vivid and interesting. Cassandra’s experience in prison feels very real and frightening. The author gives a flavor to the time period by the manner of dress and the activities engaged in by the characters. I was able to determine by the descriptions that the time period was the early 1900’s, but wished for a more accurate date.

The story is written in first person narrative, which weakened the connection to all the characters save Cassandra. Cassandra is an interesting heroine, with strengths and weaknesses both displayed, but because the reader is never a part of Griffin’s thoughts, his character and motivations remain partially obscured. Cassandra displays some extremely poor choices at times for such a strong heroine (which again reminded this reviewer of Amelia Peabody).

There is a complex subplot complete with villains out to harm Cassandra, Griffin, and eventually, Helena. The villains meet at the end of the chapters to obliquely discuss their dastardly plans, which is completely unnecessary since their plan can only be revealed through Cassandra. All this foreshadowing was annoying and unnecessary. Most of the secondary characters, of which there were many, were flat and did not further the plot.

Still, the time period and subject matter were interesting and for the most part, I enjoyed the lead characters. This was a hard book for me to review because I enjoyed some parts immensely, but believe that in other aspects, it was poorly done. The back of the book states that the author is working on another book involving Cassandra and Griffin. Even though I had problems with this book, I plan to take a look at the next book. If you are getting tired of reading historicals set in the Regency or the Victorian era, think about giving this one a try. You could do worse.