This is the second volume in Elizabeth Everett’s The Secret Scientists of London series, about a group of ladies who form a scientific club, and manage to find true love during their adventures.  This one is a bit weaker than what came before it (A Lady's Formula for Love), but is still a welcome addition to any romance lover’s shelf.

Mathematician Miss Letitia Fenley is the kind of woman who snaps back at a group of men protesting outside of Athena’s Retreat, a club for lady scientists founded by her close friend Violet, Lady Greycliff, without any concern for what might happen to her own self in the process.  Letty frequently and proudly stands up against those who would abuse honest women.  She has good reason to.  Her dour, dry-eyed realism replaced girlish, romantic flights of fancy years ago, her heart hardened against romance ever since she gave her body to a nobleman named Nevin six years previously on the assumption that they’d be married, only for them to be caught in bed by his father.  Her reputation was ruined in the crucible of a scandal when Nevin’s father declared his son would never marry a shopkeeper’s daughter.  Letty was blamed for the seduction and turned into an outcast, making her a persona non grata, and forcing her to keep her distance from her friends to avoid damaging their reputations.  Thus Letty is a loner with little to lose.

Letty plans to compete for the Rosewood Prize in Mathematics disguised as a man, but her best friend Violet (heroine of book one) has recently suffered a miscarriage, and she and her husband, Arthur, are planning on a long vacation in warmer climes to help her recover.  They ask a reluctant Letty to take over stewardship of Athena’s Retreat in Violet’s absence.

Lord William Hughes, Viscount Greycliff (Grey) saves Letitia from brawling with a protester ( a situation she didn’t need SAVING from, thank you), which will be perfect practice for taking over his uncle’s soon-to-be-vacated spot in the Department, a secret government organization.  Grey has his own damage behind him – a seizure disorder which made his childhood an isolated hell, which he only surmounted due to what he believes to be his own iron will.  That means emotions are a remote thing for him and he Refuses to Love.  He and Letty have been at loggerheads about her behavior for ages now.  But Grey is intrigued by Letty and Letty is intrigued by Grey.

When Violet asks Grey to stand in Arthur’s place and guard the retreat in their absence, he jumps at the opportunity to at least prove to the Department he has what it takes to make it.

Naturally, love soon intervenes.  But when Nevin reappears – together with a dangerous group of anti-Athena protestors called the Guardians of Domesticity, who want to stop the group at any cost – a happy ending doesn’t seem to be assured at all.

First things first – I loved the tension in the romantic and sexual attraction between Letty and Grey, including their fun banter.  I loved Letty and Grey as people, too, and their friendship with Violet and Arthur.  Letty becomes friends with the other women living at Athena’s Retreat, and that is lovely to see.  And Grey has to learn to let go of his fears and be vulnerable, which is well-done.

I am utterly math-dumb, so Letty’s love of the subject was fun to delve into.  The other women continue their own experiments, which involve ants and a particularly adorable hedgehog.  I felt as if I were learning something as we went along.

I did subtract some points for a few pat plot twists - we even get a traditional sex-act-in-a-carriage scene.  Also, the supporting cast continue to be large and diverse, but I desperately want Everett to give them books in which they fully feature instead of acting as window dressing for another book about white Brits.  We have a Black housekeeper adept at science, two women in a Boston marriage, and a trans footman – it’s nice that they all exist in the story as people, but I want them to DO something, drive more of the plot, have different romances of their own.  Also, the villains are very thin, their machinations an obvious jab at men's rights politics and anti-vaccine, anti-science types.  They get their due and it is good, but nuance would’ve been appreciated.

Yet I did really like the spicy connection between our hero and heroine, which makes A Perfect Equation well worth recommending.

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Another great read from Elizabeth Everett!

I love women in histrom who do unconventional things. In a time where it was frowned up and often, vehemently opposed, for women to be educated, we have this wonderful series of women in STEM. Ugh, I love it so much.

Elizabeth has a beautiful prose to her writing, making you very present in the Victorian time. The characters and romance is spot on and I loved it all.

Can’t wait for more from this author!

This book was gifted to me by the publisher, I am mutual friends with the author on social media, review is my own.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Cw: miscarriage (side character off page), abandonment/neglect by parent, sex-shaming, ostracization by society, childhood seizure disorder, misogeny, sexism

This is the second book in the series and can be read as a standalone but I adored the first book and highly recommend it

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)
-m/f historical romance
-frenemies to lovers
-women in stem
-hate that I'm attracted to you
-an adorable hedgehog
-a rocking carriage ride
-competency kink

I adore this series so much. A society of women in STEM. The metaphors for life and just society are too many to count, but I just want everyone to have a space like this where they are safe, accepted and can make their dreams come true.

Letty and Grey had a complicated history but the sexual chemistry was clear from the beginning. I loved the banter between the two. Both with their walls up, believing love wasn't in their future. Watching those walls breakdown as they kept crashing into each other was electric. They saw each other, even if they didn't always understand the other. The consent, the competency kink, I read it almost all in one sitting. How Grey supported Letty but knew she didn't need a protector. I love this fiercely feminist series so much. Already dying for book 3.

Steam: 3.5

Relationship disclosure: I am social media mutuals with the author

A Perfect Equation was not as fun for me as A Lady's Formula for Love, but I still enjoyed it. This book follows Letty and Grey, and they had some serious chemistry caused by friction. There were a lot of characters in this one, it was a bit hard to keep track of everyone. I loved how brilliant Letty was written (big fan of smart women in romance novels). Overall, fun but less suspenseful and intriguing as the first.

This book was explosively good! Elizabeth Everett has once again created a fabulous story about a smart, brave woman and a man who develops the good sense to love her. Letty and Grey were marvellous characters. They both won my heart from the very beginning. Letty's fierceness and Grey's determination (and his wonderfully endearing moments of boyishness!) made for a romance that never faltered in carrying the story to its fulfilling conclusion. I loved their mutual insults and their palpable sexual tension and I loved the way they learned to truly appreciate each other. Woven through this was an unflinching portrayal of the many injustices and barriers women of the era experienced, making for not just a swoony read but a powerful, feminist one too. Everett continues on form, and I can't wait to read the third book in the series.

I was really looking forward to reading this second installment in the stories of the women of Athena's Retreat. While I did enjoy the book and the characters of Letty and Grey, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as the first book. I was disappointed that the freshness and originality of the series has already faded. I'm hopeful that this is just a sophomore slump, though, and I do look forward to reading more.

3.5 stars. We return to the world of Athena's Retreat, where lady scientists can safely invent and experiment and calculate, free from the judgmental eyes of London society. Letty and Grey are summoned by their friends Violet and Arthur, whose travel plans mean they need someone to watch over the retreat and its eccentric occupants. Grey's political ambitions and Letty's mathematical ones clash as a proto-men's rights group threatens the women of Athena's Retreat. But there's no denying the spark between them, despite their turbulent history and a scandal in Letty's past.

This just didn't hold my interest as much as the first book. Everett sets up a great premise, but she lets some of the plot just peter out. I didn't feel the same tension or concern for these two characters as I did for Arthur and Violet, although I was still invested enough to keep reading and see what happened.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I just couldn't get into this one. I had trouble relating to Letty and Grey, and it was difficult to keep track of the many, many side characters. Setting aside for now at 50%, but I might return to it at a later date.

Thank you to Elizabeth Everett, Berkley, and NetGalley for the advance copy; all opinions are my own!

After falling in love with A LADY'S FORMULA FOR LOVE, the first in The Secret Scientists of London series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the next installment. Letty and Grey's story far exceeded my already high expectations, and I truly fell in love. Their dislike-to-love, friction-filled chemistry absolutely oozed sensual tension; their vulnerabilities and hidden wounds were sympathetic and believable; and their growth arcs as they lowered their guards and finally let each other in were so satisfying.

This plot felt slightly less suspenseful but still very much in keeping with its predecessor in that the amount of suspense and intrigue was perfectly compatible with the characters' personalities and the overall plot that allows their growth trajectories. I was a bit less on edge as the last one and while I loved the suspense in book one, I felt more able to settle in to the daily goings on at Athena's Retreat as Letty and Grey go head to head and the secondary characters fill in their days with benign explosions, rogue animals, and a delightfully steady stream of comedic mishaps.

One of the things I love best about Elizabeth's writing is how deeply she develops her characters as individuals while also developing their romance; even though her stories have strong plots propelling the narrative, the characters' backstories, arcs, and motivations fuel the story powerfully, too. A PERFECT EQUATION felt like an even deeper exercise in character-driven writing and to me this creates the ideal romance. I finished this book on a happy sigh, missing Letty and Grey already. I cannot believe I was lucky enough to early read this book, and I cannot wait for others to fall in love with it as I have.

Letitia is a radical: a member of Athena’s retreat, a place where women of science can gather to experiment and do other natural and hard science. Grey is an earl with a connection to Athena’s Retreat- it is run by his former stepmother. When she must take a position in the north - really to recover from a miscarriage- she leaves Athena’s Retreat in the hands of Grey and Letty. They are former friends and now enemies. From the first, sparks fly between this brilliant mathematician and the regimented ex military man who wants to close down Athena’s Retreat.
This was a fascinating book, a good look into the brilliant female scientists and what they had to go through back then.Many of the characters are eccentric in a fun way. Grey and Letty are intense and well drawn characters. There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep a reader interested and invested in the story. I would recommend this book to my patrons.

What happens when a mathematician who loves romance novels clashes with a spy who thinks emotions will wreck his life? It all starts when the president of Athena's Retreat - ostensibly a women's social club, but actually a secret suite of laboratories for STEM-minded women - asks Letitia (the mathematician) and Grey (the spy) to take over in her absence. It should come as no surprise that they eventually fall in love - but the fun is in how they get there (of course!).

A Perfect Equation is a book for seasoned romance readers who are looking for something a little bit different. While we have our cameo from the previous book's romantic leads, it's not in the way we're used to. While we get all of the enemies-to-lovers, wall-makeout goodness, there are also more in-depth examinations of the genre. We have so many thoughts on this one it's hard to get them all out. We have Letitia's Defense of the Romance Novel, a feminist examination of Whose Work Is More Important, and a critical examination of the aristocracy (Grey is a viscount, of course). Absolutely recommended as a romance that makes you think.

At least as good as the first in the series, A Perfect Equation does not disappoint! Emotionally intelligence plus steam plus meta discussions of the 'worth' of novels equal a charming read. I would recommend this to fans of feminist historicals and will be looking out for the next one.

Letty, some of the things said of her, prickly, bossy, a shrew. Six years ago, when she was seventeen, she was caught in bed with the man she thought was going to marry her by his powerful father. Being a shopkeeper's daughter, although rich, she wasn't good enough for his son. She was labeled a seductress and, being the woman, was blamed for the encounter while the man was unaffected. She and her family were ostracized by society, her sisters' future chances of marriage imperiled, leaving Letty to keep a distance between herself and other women so as not to taint them with her reputation. She is a self-taught mathematician and is working to win the prestigious Rosewood Prize disguised as a man. Greycliff had a terrible childhood suffering from seizures. He endured terrible "treatments" and was secluded from other children. His uncle finally gave him advice such as to control your feelings to control your body and think of yourself as ice to control your pain. The seizures eventually stopped as an adult but Greycliff believes it was by the force of his will that he conquered them. Never show emotion and don't feel anything but the superficial for other people. He now wants to take over from his uncle as Director of the Department, a secret organization working with the Crown, supported by 8 rich men known as the Funders. Someone they care about asks Letty and Greycliff to temporarily be in charge of Athena's Retreat. Secretly a haven for women scientists, it must be put forth as only a social club which is still barely acceptable. Enter the Guardian's of Domesticity, an increasingly violent group of rioting men who blame women for society's problems. They believe women should be home with the children, serving men, and not taking jobs that should go to the men. "Bring back the better days of Britain," "Return this country to the ways that made us great." Science is a sham. The similarity to today's USA gave me chills. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of laughter too. The women scientists and their individual experiments are something to behold. Tarantulas, ants, hedgehogs, and a few explosions are involved. All of these outside forces jeopardize Athens's Retreat, making Greycliff and Letty re-evaluate their beliefs and what they thought of each other the past six years. Be sure to read the Author's Note with interesting information about a real woman scientist of the era, and the last paragraph of the Acknowledgements to all the girls out there. This is a delightful romance that will also make you think.