Miss Rose Sweetly is a young black woman living with her pregnant sister while her brother-in-law, a ship's captain, is at sea. Rose is a calculator, someone who performs calculations for the Royal Observatory astronomers in Greenwich, England. She's a mathematical genius and extremely well versed in astronomy, but by virtue of her sex and her skin color, she is relegated to the sidelines despite her great aptitude and fascination with astronomic research. I love the feminist bent of Ms. Milan's work, and both Rose and Stephen are positive role models both for their time and for now.

Stephen has been intrigued for some time by Rose, and cleverly figures out how he can get to know her better under the guise of learning computations from her, while allowing her to maintain the appearance of propriety. Ms. Milan does not shy away from showing us how both Stephen and Rose are faced with daily obstacles simply due to their positions in society. There no sugarcoating of the difficulties they will face as a couple either. This unflinching honesty makes the poignancy of their burgeoning love resound even more sweetly.

TALK SWEETLY TO ME is a short story, but Milan's superb writing packs a lot of goodness into a tiny package. The story is filled with her signature witty prose, and some excellent puns, continuing the tradition started in The Suffragette Scandal. TALK SWEETLY TO ME can be read as a stand along novella, but all Milan fans will want to read this to enrich their Brothers Sinister experience. An outstanding contribution to the series, and I wait on tenterhooks for the next by this author!