Mistress Suffragette by Diana ForbesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Diana Forbes has a knack for this type of writing. In Mistress Suffragette we get a mix of history and romance that, despite the plethora of steamy romance book covers featuring bare chested, 18th century Dukes, is rarely done well. To be honest, it's not easy for me to imagine romance being all that sexy to begin with back before daily bathing became the norm. Perhaps that's only my pesky sense of reality rearing it's cynical head.
Despite the singular historical issue of women's suffrage as a focus, there is a lot going on in this novel. By a lot, I mean a lot of everything; social issues, characters, locations, and story lines. Penelope is a woman hell bent on shirking the burden of the life she was born for. Along the way she acts irresponsibly as often as she does with considerable thought. She finds her affections wildly swayed between very different men and holds close a group of friends whose run the gambit in terms of personality. This makes for an engaging tale from start to finish.
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