The Countess Conspiracy (Brothers Sinister, #3) by Courtney Milan

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I kind of burned myself out reading roughly 12 to 13 books by one author in a row, so slipped over to a book I already owned but hadn’t read yet (owned because I bought the whole series in one package) – referring to this book here.

And you know what I found? That book that lead me to needing a respite from a particular author featured a titled guy from the late 17th century named Sebastian. And my did I loathe that man. LOATHED. ‘I’d never read another book with a man named Sebastian loathed.’ So I started reading this book here, and . . . the lead male character’s name is Sebastian. Heh. Mmphs.

This is the third full length book in this series. There’s been several shorter works I’ve read previous to this one – one is a generation before that follows the parents of several of the later works characters, and another involves a friend of the first book’s lead female character. I didn’t particularly like either shorter work, but I have, in general, liked the longer works – or that was what I was thinking before I started this book here. Two things worried me about this book before I started – I liked the idea of Violet Waterfield seen in prior works, but wasn’t sure I’d want to read a full length work about her, and, more importantly, I had glanced at . . . well, nothing, the prior book ends with the start of this one from a different perspective of the same scene – more importantly, Sebastian, the Sebastian of this series, seemed too depressing to follow in a full length work (shesh, Sebastian’s are depressing, aren’t they? Well this one and that one in Kristen Painter’s Nocturne Falls series).

But, as noted, I needed to read something, I owned this book, so I read it. And, oddly, it turns out I’m quite happy that I did (which bodes well for the next book, one I find myself even more reluctant to read; maybe the more reluctant I am to read a book before I read it, the more I’ll actually like it once I actually read it?)

Well, as I noted, this book starts with the end of the prior book (not literally, there are scenes after this one in that other book, heck, I’m not even sure if it was at the end portion of the book that this scene occurred, just that the scene did occur in the prior book). The scene involves Sebastian giving a speech about . . . I don’t remember exactly now, it wasn’t Violets, because that’s a later speech, hmm . . . amoebas? No, again, later . . . well, something about sexual reproduction in plants. Several characters from the series are in the audience – of importance to the prior book, that includes Oliver, and, of importance to this book, that includes Violet Waterfield. The scene shows an audience watching with both fascinated attention and horrified attention. And with Violet on the edge of her seat. Scene concludes with Sebastian telling Violet to fuck off. Or words like that.

Sebastian, you see – and it is quickly revealed in this book, has cracked under the strain. The prior books have shown how the other characters view him, and his ‘place’ in society – the scandalous jokey rake who has been making many advanced contributions to the science profession. Here we see that it had always been a lie (somewhat, shown in the book why it is ‘somewhat’). For, you see, the scandalous science theories, the speeches given, the science papers submitted and published in prestigious publications were all . . . actually authored by Violet Waterfield. Women, you see, just didn’t work as scientists. So . . . .. Mind, Violet tried hard to get her papers published in her own name, but . . . well, woman name on cover as author, no one would even glance at the papers. Then Sebastian, who was already Violets friend (and who had loved, at least lusted after, Violet since he was something like 8), put his name on to see if they’d get published with a man’s name there as the author. Fame and fortune followed.

This book is about the struggle Violet had trying to become a working scientist – trying to deal with a horrible marriage – trying to live, to breath. While also about the struggle Sebastian had trying to be taken seriously by people like his brother, trying to live a lie, trying to . . . get Violet to return some of his love. This is, in its way, a quite depressing book. Lots of struggling going on by super rich, titled people (Violet being a Countess, I forgot to mention; Sebastian is the younger brother, so he has no title himself but does have money to do whatever he wants in life).

Despite words I use, or any impression I might have given up to now – I rather enjoyed this book. A lot more than I had expected to do so. To a certain extent the book is more about Violet coming into her own as a person, but there is a real romance going on between Violet and Sebastian as well to be seen. And read.

Rating: 3.75

February 21 2018



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