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Talk Sweetly to Me

(Brothers Sinister #4.5)

Courtney Milan (Goodreads Author)

3.68 · Rating details · 3,763 ratings · 497 reviews

Nobody knows who Miss Rose Sweetly is, and she prefers it that way. She's a shy, mathematically-minded shopkeeper's daughter who dreams of the stars. Women like her only ever come to attention through scandal. She'll take obscurity, thank you very much.

All of England knows who Stephen Shaughnessy is. He's an infamous advice columnist and a known rake. When he m ...more

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Kindle Edition, 109 pages

Published August 18th 2014 by Courtney Milan

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Lists with This Book

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean

Rules for a Proper Governess by Jennifer Ashley

How the Scoundrel Seduces by Sabrina Jeffries

2014 Historical Romance (July - December)

281 books — 731 voters

The Duplicitous Debutante by Becky Lower

Best Historical Romances of 2014

158 books — 412 voters

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· 3,763 ratings · 497 reviews

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Apr 27, 2016 Nenia ⚜️ Author of Filthy Trash and Unhinged Psychos ⚜️ Campbell rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, poc-interracial, kissing-books, victorian, stem-heroines

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Rose Sweetly is a brilliant, scientific mind whose efforts go mostly unrecognized because she is a) a woman and b) black. Most people roll their eyes a little once she starts to talk "Sweetly" (a.k.a. go on a major geeky bender), but not Stephen Shaughnessy.

Stephen is the columnist (Actual Man) for women who want to ask men questions and have an "actual man" respond. He's also a bit of a rogue and a rake, though not a rapacious one. The fact that he's so charming and so forbidden causes Rose no short ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Kate rated it it was ok

Shelves: author-please, fair-albion, space

WARNING: This review is nitpicky, cantankerous, and possibly even querulous. Proceed at your own risk.

I had high hopes for Talk Sweetly To Me, but today they were dashed--dashed I say--against the unforgiving shores of reality. Here in no particular order I present my grievances:

1. Sloppy editing. Stephen's name is--have you guessed it?--Stephen, yet at one point the author refers to him as Patrick. At another point Rose marvels "You've mounted an entire theodolite telesc ...more

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Mar 24, 2015 UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-have-read, author-courtney-milan, 2015-reads, 4-stars, historical-romance, series-completed, series-brothers-sinister, series-finale

Without fail, Courtney Milan gives me stories I can get lost in and amazing characters I can fall in love with! Talk Sweetly to Me is a charming, romantic, passionate tale of two people who could be poster children for 'opposites attract.'

A full review may come later, but the bottom line is that historical romance fans will love Ms. Milan's writing, and those who are not fans of the genre should give her a try anyway - and prepare to be wow'd!

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Aug 19, 2014 Ingie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-read-2014, romance-m-f-historical, romance-m-f-audio, short-novella-audio-1-5-hours, series-standalone-stories

Written December 28, 2014

3.8 Stars - Charming with several important topics

Book #4.5

This was the last part in the amazing well done Brother Sinister series. A quite short novella (3:50 hrs) I buddyread (me listening...she reading) together with my 'Milan'-friend Sofia.

description

A lot of happy roses...
A worthy conclusion to a fantastic HR series. So very well done and romantic as ever.

“I’m merely making you com

2014
3.8 ...more

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Aug 21, 2014 KatLynne rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads, one-of-my-fav-authors, novella, heroine-with-backbone-smart-strong, mild-steam, g-historical-romance, one-of-my-favorite-series, sweet-warm-romance, hero-i-adored, interracial-romance

Milan’s ingenious recipe for a charming, short read...

An African American woman – the very clever and gifted Rose Sweetly...
A scrumptiously delicious Irish, Catholic male... Mr. Stephen Shaughnessy...

Toss in...

Mathematics, astronomy, humor, seduction, and a few surprises along the way....

And, of course, the main ingredient...

The very talented pen of Courtney Milan...

The Results...

An appealing, engaging love story featur ...more

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Aug 18, 2014 Caz rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, romance-1850-1900s

This is a short and sweet (sorry!) coda to Ms Milan’s superb Brothers Sinister series which features the rakishly charming Stephen Shaughnessy, one of the secondary characters from The Suffragette Scandal and author of the controversial Ask A Man column in the Women's Free Press .

As with all the books in the series, the novella packs a serious political message in amongst the wonderful writing and the love story. Here, we have an Irishman with feminist sympathies and a young Black woman who happens to be ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Nakeesha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arcs, historical-romance, poc, novella

Romance novels are an escape for me. I turn the news off. Tune out the kitchen table talk of girlfriends. Bow out of the supper club nights of my social circle. I plug in my earbuds on the commuter bus, shut the bedroom door to the kids, hideaway from all of the troubles of the world and get lost in books. That's what romance novels are for in my world.

Like many women of color romance readers, I've lamented that there are too few historical romance novels featuring non-white women. I ...more

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Jul 22, 2014 WhiskeyintheJar/Kyraryker rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, historical, regency

3.5 stars

Courtney Milan could make a priest reading the phonebook to a nun sound like sexual banter....or something like that. You know what I mean, Milan knows how to use words between couples. Was too short, I'm aware it's a novella but I'm a greedy obsessed fan.

When does the next Milan book come out?

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Feb 03, 2014 Marita rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reading-challenge, badass-heroines, august-2014-releases, beta-heroes, favourite-novellas, incredibly-sweet-heroes, fictional-hubbies, unrepentant-reformed-rakes, banter-glorious-banter, incredibly-sweet-heroines

(EDITED TO ADD REVIEW):

This was just as fun, heartwarming and sweet as I imagined it would be. I mean it's inevitable when you pair a heroine who is so unashamedly a maths geek (to those who care to listen to her anyway) who has to live in a world that is, at best, indifferent to her as a black female mathematician, with a hero whose devil-may-care rakish sardonicism hides a world of hurt and a yearning for love buried so deep even he can't recognise it anymore.

I loved Stephen well before TSTM, because, really, who ...more

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Jun 30, 2018 Starr (AKA Bam Bam) Rivers rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-series, historical-romance

I seem to like the novellas a lot better than the full-length novels in this series. This was a great book!

I like how CM finds unique (very smart, or damaged or brave) characters and bring them to life.

Rose Sweetly is an black woman who is also a genius mathematician. Stephen Shanghessy is a white Irish Catholic man and a genius with the written word, I suppose, since he's a writer for a woman's newspaper column and a successful novelist.

They are both in their early twenties to boo ...more

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Aug 18, 2014 Jaclyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, historical-romance, net-galley, novella, bluestocking, opposites-attract

Talk Sweetly to Me is the last Brothers Sinister addition, and this little novella was a lovely finale to the collection. Readers were introduced to Stephen Shaughnessy in The Suffragette Scandal , as the “Actual Man” that offers advice in Frederica Marshall’s newspaper. In Talk Sweetly to Me, Stephen has met his match with Miss Rose Sweetly, an extraordinary mathematical genius, who is quite opposite to Stephen’s carefree attitude.

Rose, like the all of the women featured in the Brothers Sinister series has a ...more

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Aug 29, 2014 Steelwhisper rated it it was ok

Shelves: feminism, abuse, ireland, strong-heroine, possibly-too-cute, m-f, victorian-era, historical-romance, 2-ok, has-preachy-agenda

I need to sleep over this. Review to come!

I normally like Milan's books, they vary from 3 to 4* for me usually--mainly because she writes genuinely strong heroines who tend to be at least still partially true to their era. And she tends to have heroes who aren't outright dicks or completely bland apart from their looks, titles and riches. So far I took the slight preachiness and the usually very atypical sex in stride, a minor price to pay for something somewhat different than the ma I need to sleep over this. Review to come!

I normally like Milan's books, they vary from 3 to 4* for me usually--mainly because she writes genuinely strong heroines who tend to be at least still partially true to their era. And she tends to have heroes who aren't outright dicks or completely bland apart from their looks, titles and riches. So far I took the slight preachiness and the usually very atypical sex in stride, a minor price to pay for something somewhat different than the mainstream.

This time it was a bit too much. Too much of everything. And herewith under spoilers (you were warned, don't open unless you want to be spoilered).
(view spoiler)[
I liked Stephen, he was fun to read about, but I absolutely disbelieved he wouldn't but once think about Rose's ethnicity. In a country which has but very few PoC and which itself was in the slave trade not that many years before, a country above everything which would but shortly later engage in racial wars in Southern Africa and implement the very first ever extermination and concentration camps against black people they considered of little more worth than animals, I quite patently DISBELIEVE such a positive and naive attitude. Sorry, no. No way.

Not just that, the reader constantly then gets reminded of Rose's dark skin, as in "look, look, I wrote a PoC here!". It is there where the short space of a novella worked against this story, possibly a few more practical occasions, as with the doctor, would have brought home the point in a less attention-hogging and more show-instead-of-tell-manner.

Next is that while a quip now and then is nice, the way whole stretches of pages contained nothing but double entendres made this a suboptimal experience. I quite frankly grew quickly exasperated with the flip talk. After one page of such dialogue it was quite enough already, yet almost all of the dialogue between H and h was like that.

Then I am really done with Regency and Victorian era heroes who fuck as if they were taught by feminist instructors and even think of not just owning, but using condoms.

Newsflash: the majority of men, especially middle and upper class men, of that era learned their way around women from whores. Usually their fathers, brothers or guardians would introduce them to a prostitute. Some would go there as per mates egging each other on, usually those in the lower classes would end up there that way.

The common prostitute of these eras however was no sex worker or surrogate. She was intent on getting it done and over with and fleece the punter of as much hard cash as possible. She often would suffer from serious STDs (to which there was no cure at the time), so that a great many of these men were carriers themselves. The classic sex with a whore wasn't geared to please the woman, it was geared to serve the man. Period.

So, any guy masturbating a future wife repeatedly to completion or going down on her is as anachronistic as a laser gun. I'm not saying such men didn't exist, but I encounter way too many of them in romance, and definitely far too many in Milan's books.
(hide spoiler)]

So, this book simply contained way too many modernisms and not enough realism for me to like it. It was, of course, still well-written (with a few SPaG issues), and I liked the MCs, so I rounded down from around 2.5*. ...more

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Aug 18, 2014 Dabney rated it really liked it

Like The Suffragette Scandal, this politics of this novella are almost impossible to separate from its fictional merits. The heroine, Rose Sweetly, is a brilliant black mathematician; the hero Stephen, a feminist Irish Catholic writer. Both are practicing their craft in Victorian London despite the prejudices of the time. Their love story is a rousing cheer for diversity and overcoming the limits of the society in which they live. I liked both Rose and Stephen tremendously.

This is not Ms. Milan's best ...more

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Jul 24, 2016 Obsidian rated it really liked it

I wanted more. That's my big issue with this novella. I wanted more information on Rose's background. I wanted appearances by the other Brothers Sinister. This book didn't feel part of that universe at all. That said, I enjoyed Milan touching about race relations in the 1800s and throwing some mathematical and astronomy our way via the heroine.

Rose Sweetly does her best to keep Stephen Shaughnessy out of her mind. He has a reputation from the articles he writes, and Rose knows her duty is to ma ...more

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Nov 04, 2014 Sofia rated it liked it

Shelves: shorts-anthologies, historical

A nice short, not as fully developed as her longer work or as her The Governess Affair.

What this reminded me most of was me taking my eight year old son to see the transit of Venus across the sun back in 2004 at the telescope set out in Sliema. Nice memories. This story infact recounts the same transit of Venus which happened before the 2004 one that is on 6th Dec 1882. Plus it also opened my eyes about the existence of 'computers'.

More on the transit here.

BR with Ingela

A nice short, not as fully developed as her longer work or as her The Governess Affair.

What this reminded me most of was me taking my eight year old son to see the transit of Venus across the sun back in 2004 at the telescope set out in Sliema. Nice memories. This story infact recounts the same transit of Venus which happened before the 2004 one that is on 6th Dec 1882. Plus it also opened my eyes about the existence of 'computers'.

More on the transit here.

BR with Ingela

...more

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Nov 01, 2015 Iliada rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, regency-georgian-victorian, short-story-novella

3 reasons for the 3-star rating:

1. This is a novella.
2. The heroine was a bit annoying, especially towards the end, when she kept blaming Stephen for merely wanting to seduce her instead of marrying her, while all along it was her who was afraid to trust him and take the next step.
3. Stephen is too good for words. He deserved a full-length novel of his own.

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Jun 17, 2018 Lexxi Kitty rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-romance-historical, setting-country-england, heterosexual, series-book, job-reporter, age-020s, nationality-english, genre-romance, 03-x-and-three-4ths-stars, reviewed

Stephen Shaughnessy, who appeared in the prior Brothers Sinister work as someone needing to be saved (though somewhat barely making an appearance in the story), stars in this shorter work. With him in the starring role is Rose Sweetly. I’m fairly certain Rose hasn’t appeared in this series up to now. Both have POV’s.

Stephen, as those who might remember from the prior book, is a newspaper columnist with a column titled ‘Ask a Man’. This story here adds 4 novels to his writing career. Stephen Shaughnessy, who appeared in the prior Brothers Sinister work as someone needing to be saved (though somewhat barely making an appearance in the story), stars in this shorter work. With him in the starring role is Rose Sweetly. I’m fairly certain Rose hasn’t appeared in this series up to now. Both have POV’s.

Stephen, as those who might remember from the prior book, is a newspaper columnist with a column titled ‘Ask a Man’. This story here adds 4 novels to his writing career. To add to his relatively disreputable reputation, gained, I mean, from being ‘the man’ columnist for a women’s newspaper, is the part where he’s Irish, Catholic, and known to be something of a ladies man. The player reputation (aka Rake), is probably the easiest for him to ‘handle’, normally. Irish? Catholic? Writes for a women’s paper? In 1882, London, those three things are negatives.

“My father was a stable master,” he told her. “My mother was a seamstress. I’ve done very well for myself, but don’t imagine that I’m one of those gentlemen who look down on you.”

Stephen meets Rose through the odd little accident of living next to her. About two doors down. Actually, to be exact, he lives two doors down from Patricia, Rose’s pregnant married sister. This is why Rose is there – to ‘take care of’ Patricia while her husband, a Naval Doctor, is on assignment.

Stephen, from the first, is intrigued by Rose. Rose, for her part, is flustered by Stephen. Also, there are certain reasons for not wanting his attention. Which I’ll get to later.

In addition to being a helper for her sister, 20 year old Rose actually has a job, a paying job. She’s a computer. A term I’d first heard when I read that nonfiction book that later became a movie I still haven’t seen (referring here to Hidden Figures). A computer is someone hired to do the mathematical calculations for a scientist. They are the kind who tends to be able to do advanced math in their heads. Rose works as a computer for an astronomer.

Right, so, the reasons why Rose doesn’t really wish to receive Stephen’s attention. Many reasons, like how Stephen has that rake reputation and the like. Mostly, though, there’s the part where Stephen, in addition to being Irish, Catholic, etc. etc., is white. Rose, you see, is not. White. She has dark skin, you see, black skin. As does her sister and her sister’s doctor husband (the author notes at the end make mention of things like this – one of the interesting tidbits, to me, was how, by 1882, ‘Britain had probably trained at least as many black doctors as there were dukes.’ And yet, so many historical fiction romances works seem fixated on matching up people with dukes – and yet I almost never see black doctors in historical romances – almost as in never, except here where the husband of a main character’s sister is one, though he makes only a very brief appearance in this novel).

Right, so – much of the book involves a growing attraction between the two main characters, mixed with Rose’s awareness of her position and what the result might be of a union with Stephen (Black, Irish, Catholic children running around).

I liked the story, for the most part. I liked the characters. Story was kind of short, though.

Rating: 3.77

June 17 2018 ...more

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Dec 31, 2018 Sam (AMNReader) rated it liked it

Shelves: hrbc-mad-about-series

A cute and funny but unfortunately sightly too shallow and unexplored novella. The modem (though I'm sure they aren't just modern at all)parallels (guessing intentional, but no more in author's note on it) for physicians and those in medicine not taking black women's pain and symptoms seriously is well done.

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Jan 27, 2015 Susana rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-romance, 2015-reads, novella

2.5 Stars

TW's: Racism

I decided to start reading this novel mainly because it features a character that first(?) appeared on the previous book of the series, "The Suffragette Scandal", namely one Stephen Shaughnessy who in that book was the target of a villain.

Stephen writes a column for Free's _Frederica's _ newspaper. He's the man behind the "actual man" column, in a time when propriety was still much alive:

“I’m Stephen Shaughnessy,” he said. “Actual Man.”

Stephen has alalive:
“I’m ...more

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Aug 05, 2014 LPJ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

Rose Sweetly is a Victorian heroine like no other. She's a genius and she's nerdy, which makes her awesome, and she's also black. And our favorite Actual Man, Stephen Shaughnessy, is utterly taken with her. So much so, he devises a way to spend more time with her under the guise of researching a novel. Since Rose is a genius, she sees through his ruse, and though he's pretty dreamy, his reputation as a ladies man, and her need to watch out for men who'll treat her badly because of her race, put Rose Sweetly is a Victorian heroine like no other. She's a genius and she's nerdy, which makes her awesome, and she's also black. And our favorite Actual Man, Stephen Shaughnessy, is utterly taken with her. So much so, he devises a way to spend more time with her under the guise of researching a novel. Since Rose is a genius, she sees through his ruse, and though he's pretty dreamy, his reputation as a ladies man, and her need to watch out for men who'll treat her badly because of her race, put them somewhat at odds.

The story is lovely. It's not *about* race -- any proper young lady of the time would have been scandalized by an association with Stephen, but Rose's place in society was so much more precarious due to her race. The movie Belle covers similar ground. Does this guy like me because he thinks I'm easy and he can ruin me without a care, or does he really *see* me?

The insidious nature of racism makes it so things that are simple for others are tinged by this veil of uncertainty. I've certainly have countless experiences where I'm wondering, is that waitress/salesperson/whomever racist or just an asshole? Are we sitting in the table next to the kitchen and bathroom because this section needed filling, or is it a statement? These are questions many people of color can't avoid and white people never have to even think about. Rose and her sister give the benefit of the doubt to a certain character whose actions obviously come from a place of disdain and prejudice. But they choose to interpret it as mere rudeness, likely as a coping mechanism, until the truth is unavoidable.

I admit, I'm fascinated by the lives of black people during this time period in England. How *were* they treated? How did they survive at all? Did they live in constant fear like post Civil War blacks in America? Were there lynch mobs? An analog to the KKK? I honestly don't even know if England had a version of Jim Crow or not.

But like I said, this aspect did not comprise the largest part of the story by far - just the part I was most interested in for obvious reasons. The characters themselves were masterfully done and the love story well played.

Courtney Milan is at the top of her game here and I'm sad to see the Brothers Sinister series end.
...more

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Jan 18, 2015 Quinn's Book Nook rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-romance, historical-romance

Historical Romance 101 was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had regarding this blog, and one of the benefits is discovering new historical romances. When Amanda mentioned Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan in one of her HistRom101 posts, I immediately went to Amazon and downloaded it. This turned out to be an excellent decision because I LOVED Talk Sweetly to Me, and it will not be the last Courtney Milan book I read.

Talk Sweetly to Me is a novella done right! The two protagonists of this novel are/>Talk ...more

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Aug 02, 2015 Ashley rated it liked it

Shelves: class-gender-race, romantical, naughty-bits

This last book in the Brothers Sinister series was cute, but a definite let-down after the last two books, which were practically perfect. I really liked both main characters, and they had some really cute banter, but honestly the main thing that earns this three stars instead of four is that the dude kept telling the lady to "talk Sweetly" to him, which was cute the first time (because her last name is Sweetly, and she talks about math and science all the time), but every time after that, I jus ...more

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Aug 07, 2014 namericanwordcat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-romance, inter-racial, historical-romance-series, glasses, genius, sisters, historical-romance, banter, shy-heroine, writer

I tend to need to pace out my reading of Courtney Milan's work. She intoxicants me. I get drunk. Her books are so rich that I must take small bites.

This novella is her usual amazing fare.

An English woman of African decent who is a mathematical genius and her Irish Catholic nieghbor (a writer by trade) fall in love.

Wit, astronomy, dedication to family, prejudice, opportunity, charm and and sheer attraction come together in a perfect romance.

Come gaze at this star.

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Feb 26, 2019 Linda (un)Conventional Bookworms rated it really liked it

Shelves: fave-author, fave-series, historical-romance, historical-fiction, coyer-winter-18-19, read-in-2019

4.5 stars
Talk Sweetly to me had a different feel than the other novels. There was just as much romance, but a little less action. The main characters were lovely, especially Stephen! Of course, Ms. Sweetly was really something too - but the way he managed to see how important women were in society made him awesome!

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May 05, 2019 Sometime rated it it was ok

Shelves: short-reads-novellas, historical-romance, from-library

I liked this novella with a young Black woman who is a mathematical genius, and an Irishman who is a journalist, author and a complete rake. The story highlights prejudice and the difficulties of interracial marriage. I liked the MCs as characters but I couldn't ever warm up to the Hero. He has a "hard earned" reputation with the ladies and he is a charming jokester who got on my nerves. The constant mentions of his sordid (and well documented in the papers as well as his own column) past affair ...more

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Dec 14, 2018 Mariana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: already-have, historical-romance-the-book-club, novella, victorian

3.5 stars

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May 21, 2017 alexis rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-reads, genre-romance, mc-writer, genre-historical-romance, setting-england, mc-poc, mc-mathematician, category-novella, trope-you-dropped-something

"I don't want to dream timid dreams." Her voice was soft, with just a hint of a catch in it. "I want to dream large, vivid ones. I want to dream that you'll fall in love with me. That..." She bit her lip, but continued on. "That I could dare to reach out to you, that I needn't fear what would come."

Typically, Courtney Milan is hit or miss with me. I can go from loving one book in a series by her and then fail to be enchanted by the next one. Talk Sweetly to Me, which follows a brilliant black mathematician working for an observatory, falls somewhere in between.

Overall, I enjoyed Stephen and Rose as individuals and a couple. They were cute. It is very much a suddenly reformed rake meets innocent girl narrative. However, I do I wish there were more interactions and development between them individually and together.

The thing I really enjoyed about Rose was her love of math and astronomy. There are a lot of romances out there with STEM heroines that don't really feel they are about STEM heroines. That was not the case with Rose. Her passion for the universe was at the forefront and she talks about it constantly (and accurately too. Thank you Courtney Milan). I enjoyed that a lot.

I loved how much astronomy was focused on in the story. When I first decided to read Talk Sweetly to Me, it was because I was looking for more books to add to my forthcoming STEM Heroines in Romance Masterpost. I knew astronomy was going to be an aspect but I also saw that Rose was a mathematician so I didn't know what to expect. I'll go ahead and say that the story is much more about Rose as an astronomer than Rose as a mathematician because of how much astronomy is focused on. There's a lot of cool context and dialogue about actual things that astronomers did like finding the parallax of objects (which is math but for the purpose of astronomy). Because I'm an astrophysicist major it was entertaining to see those conversations, but if you're not interested in astronomy I don't know how engrossing a lot of the story will be because of that.

I liked a lot of the bare bones to Talk Sweetly to Me. So, why didn't I rate it higher? Well, I wanted more. I rarely rate novellas highly. I'm a development person and achieving deep, meaningful development over the course of a hundred pages or less isn't realistic. Since I liked a lot of aspects of the story, it was disappointing that the components weren't taken advantage of in a full length story. That being said, I have only read one other book in the series and there might be more backstory in the other books in the series which I didn't get because I haven't read them. Even then, there still could've been more on the character side, especially with Stephen (who did like. I simply wanted more from him!!)

Review originally posted on Lacy Literacy. ...more

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Aug 17, 2014 Sonya Heaney rated it it was ok

Shelves: victorian-era, historical-romance

Courtney Milan writes “issues” books. Set in what is possibly my favourite time period, the Victorian era, her books are outspokenly feminist and concerned with multiple social issues at one time.

Talk Sweetly to Me is a novella that fits somewhere into the middle of a series, but I haven’t read all of the books and I had no trouble following the story or the characters. We have a heroine who is not white, who is a mathematician, and who tends to start talking in great detail about science an/>Talk ...more

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Nov 20, 2016 Z-squared rated it it was amazing

Shelves: shorties, historical-romance

Loved this! I'm not sure why it's so poorly rated compared to the rest of the books in this series. Maybe readers were expecting more fan-service in the last novella of the series? Or were hoping for something longer? Well, it very clearly says "novella" on the cover, peeps. And I hate maudlin series-enders that skip plot in favor of endless cameos from previous characters. Other reviewers complained of preachiness--again, I'm confused as to why, because at no time do any of the characters preac ...more

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Aug 22, 2014 Jill rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-romance-european

3.5 stars

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About Courtney Milan

Courtney Milan

3,753 followers

Courtney Milan’s books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist. She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller and a RITA® winner.

Courtney lives in the Rocky Mountains with her husband, an exceptionally perfect dog, and an attack cat.

Before she started writing historical romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry fr ...more

Other books in the series

Brothers Sinister (4 books)

Books by Courtney Milan

The Governess Affair (Brothers Sinister, #0.5)

The Heiress Effect (Brothers Sinister, #2)

The Countess Conspiracy (Brothers Sinister, #3)

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Trivia About Talk Sweetly to M...

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Quotes from Talk Sweetly to Me

“I would never interrupt you," he told her. "I love it when you talk Sweetly to me.” — 2 likes

“You're trying to charm me with mathematics," she said.

"It's it working?"

She looked up at him. Yes, said her dark eyes, shining up at him. Yes, said the past of her lips, the fingers that drew up to brush her hair. Yes, said the tilt of her body in his direction.

"No," she told him with a firm shake of her head. "It isn't.” — 1 likes

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