[BWF] A Lady's Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett a bit of a rant even though I rounded this up to 3 stars

[Karin]

Feminist fluff is what I'm calling this. I had no idea I'd ever read something like this back when I was taking women's studies. I can't imagine any of the women in my Women's Studies 400 class (only for those of us very serious about this minor, which was all there was at my alma mater) ever reading a book like that; I certainly didn't read this type of romance back then.

I'm rounding it up to 3 stars simply because I love the premise; it took a number of days to get through it because I found it rather trite at first, and, to be fair, for me it was, but then this is pure romance with no secondary story to speak of even if there was the mystery of who was after Violet. Also, there were some highly anachronistic moments with certain conversations and ideas--of course there were forward thinking people, but some of this was glaringly 21st Century. In addition, I'm not particularly keen on books that play fast and free with history which the author did for the sake of the story, having women invent things that were invented later IRL. There were a number of tropes here as well, but as I said, I love the idea of having a secret women's science club so rounded it up. Plus--and the irony in a "feminist" plot shouldn't be lost here--the woman has to be rescued by a man.

Perhaps I'd cleanse my reading palate with The Paper Bag Princess but my daughter got rid of it!