We would characterize Milan’s works as the best possible combination of historical research and alternative realities that serve her characters’ stories. She doesn’t fudge history out of laziness or received wisdom, but in order to tell a better romance and backs up her creative license with research into aspects of history that might go underdeveloped in a weaker author’s books. She says of her settings: “I try to write books that I say are historically possible, but not historically average.” The Countess Conspiracy is the third book in the Brothers Sinister series, which is linked together by two brothers, one the heir and one illegitimate and their best friend, who is their cousin, from school. This book’s hero is the best friend from school and the heroine is his childhood best friend, with whom he shares a deep secret about his career as England’s leading researcher on genetics in botany.