Bringing Down the Duke

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Author: Evie Dunmore

Series: A League of Extraordinary Women, #1

Published: September 3, 2019

ISBN: 1984805681

Goodreads Rating: 4.01/5

For fans of: Historical Fiction/ Romance, women’s suffrage movement, books set in Oxford, books about royalty

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review, and all opinions are my own. If you are interested in purchasing this book, please consider using my Amazon affiliate link (by clicking on the top or bottom pictures) and helping a fellow book blogger out 🙂 I will receive a small fee from Amazon, but your book will still cost the same.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn’t be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn’t claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring…or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke….

A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford Rebels, in which a fiercely independent vicar’s daughter takes on a duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.

My Mini Review:

This was a light and entertaining read at first, but I found the second half of the book a bit boring and hard to get through. I liked Annabelle’s strong willed character, and the fact that she represented the women who at the time wanted to be educated and have the right to vote. It was frustrating to read how oppressed women were, and I am glad there were those like Annabelle who stood for change. It was exasperating how women were thought to have smaller brains and lack the capacity to understand political issues.

I did not care for the Duke’s controlling and domineering character at all, and I found the romance to be a bit forced. In my opinion, the sexual aspects were too steamy for the time period, compared to how prim and proper the characters acted at other times. I thought the ending was predictable but I was satisfied with it all the same. Overall, I would recommend this one if you are looking for a light Historical Romance read, and if you don’t mind getting through the slower second half of the book.