A Matter of Disagreement is a steampunk (I think, certainly SSF of some flavor) historical romance that follows Lord Ashcroft, who goes by Andrea, the academic second son of a cruel social climber, as he meets Marquis de la Marche (Gregory). The pair have an immediate spark but that is put aside when they find out they are academic rivals.
I had been meaning to read this novella since listening to E.E. Ottoman's episode of the podcast Fated Mates, but ended up picking it up when I saw a negative review of this book that just did not match with my idea of this author. The reviewer was upset by the sexism mentioned in this novella, which having read this is now kind of bonkers.
I think the critique that this book is sexist is kind of ridiculous. This is a very short book, but in the text there are mentions of sexism and transphobia and maybe implied homophobia. The sexism in this story is addressed three times, all three times the narrator is sympathetic to women and in the end, the woman in question is absolutely empowered to make her own decisions. And legitimately seems to be living the most interesting life of the bunch.
Now on to my other thoughts about this book!
I really found this world interesting but it did take quite some time for me to get there. I think I needed more character interaction before I could really care about their academic dispute. So for about a third of the book, I was a bit bored by the world-building elements. After I got to like the characters more, I did start to care about the world. And by the end of the book I did really like this world and will probably be reading the next book in this series.
This book has one of my very favorite things, which is when a character has the sudden realization that someone else has very obviously been wooing them. I adore "oh my! I think they like me!" it brings me endless joy and works particularly well in a novella.
I look forward to reading other E.E. Ottoman books in the future. I would recommend this to people who like fantasy and romance, but I do think the world-building issues I had would be a little more intense for people who just really care about romance.
I gave this book three stars.
