I liked this story, it was a fast read, but somehow it missed being something special. It's the story of Emilie Seldon, who was raised during the time of Isaac Newton in the spirit of scientific inquiry, and, despite her sex, to be a natural philosopher--a scientist. But her father forgot to include the social--and hormonal--in his calculations. Motherless, home-schooled, without other family or friends beyond the housekeeper and never allowed beyond the bounds of the estate, Emilie is so isolated she's all too vulnerable to a seductive visitor, Roger Aislabie.
Despite this being told first person, Aislabie comes across from the beginning as trouble to the reader--and to everyone else, except the too-sheltered, naive teen Emilie. McMahon obviously did her homework on the period, and she's good at getting the esoteric concepts of those early scientific inquiries across and the story is told in a clean style. There's also a mystery at the heart of this book about Emilie's parentage I found quite moving. However, I feel that's more because her situation hit home for personal reasons--and because of my own personal experience, I think part of the problem is that in the revelation scene is too detached--nor do I ever buy how it leads to her change of heart over Sarah.
I also think part of why I wasn't more taken with Emilie is that she's too passive. I don't blame her too much for that, or find her stupid like some reviewers--not given her upbringing and the lack of power women had in the period. But it makes it hard to care. I kept waiting for Emilie's scientific mind and training to kick in somehow for her to find a way out of her problems, but the science and the alchemy is really mere trappings in this novel. I also felt dissatisfied with the lack of resolution at the end. Not a novel I wanted to hurl against the wall once finished--but not one I'd want to put on my bookshelf either.
