Synopsis:
Growing up in an orphanage prepared Amelia Cooke for the high-stakes role of a female lobbyist surrounded by the egos of the 1887 Congress, a time before women had the right to vote. Her success in the isolating male arena comes from using the tactics she’s learned from those who oppressed her. So when she’s hired by the National Women’s Suffrage Association to help pass a proposed constitutional amendment granting women’s voting rights, Amelia feels empowered to at last win a place for herself and give all women a voice in the world. What she doesn’t foresee is the charismatic and calculating Senator Edward Stillman who threatens to ruin her hard-earned reputation and end her career.
Edward Stillman is desperate for status and power among Washington’s Old Guard. To gain control of the most dominant committee in the Senate, Stillman must crush the women’s amendment and anyone else in his way, including Amelia. He’s driven, clever, and willing to exploit any advantage. But in a political game where bribery, threats, extortion, and seduction prevail, each player must decide just how low they are willing to let the fight go. Who will win? And at what cost?
Set in the extravagant Gilded Age, Remember the Ladies explores the conflict between the sexes with delightful writing and elegant descriptions, which brings the reader back to a time when the struggle for women’s equality had just begun.
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
Remember the Ladies by Gina L. Mulligan is a remembrance of the women’s suffrage movement. Gina L. Mulligan brilliantly recaptures the moment in time when women didn’t have the same rights as men. Those who took on jobs or tried to follow in some men’s footsteps were deemed crazy by both men and women alike. Going against a society’s norm wasn’t looked upon. Yet many women were daring enough to dare and to risk it all. Men took advantage of women’s looks and tried to blame women for enticing them on…when it was indeed them who cannot control themselves.
Inside the delightful novel, Remember the Ladies, women everywhere will relive the important steps for a woman to gain entry into the working field. That moment to be held with honor and respect, when most deem it impossible or ludicrous is thrilling. Readers will meet a young girl who loses both her parents in one fatal night. From there, she is in a school where women are not deemed fit to continue their studies like men are. But that doesn’t stop the main characer, Amelia, from achieving her dreams of working. She has much to learn and to accept before she can find the strength to handle herself, in her new found work. Meeting a man who happens to be a senator does her favor in working her way up in the society, in becoming a working woman among men. I enjoyed this realistic yet highly fictional piece by Gina L. Mulligan. Her novel will forever be one remembered by the ladies.
Urban Book Reviews 