Review: Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore

Publication Date: September 3rd 2019 by Berkley 

Pages: 320

Source: Publisher

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

About the book:

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.

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....

My Thoughts:

Bringing Down the Duke was sooo good! There was a delicious push and pull between Annabelle and Sebastian. They started out as enemies with opposing political views, and Sebastian was quite arrogant at first.  It was a meeting of minds with intelligent conversation, and an undercurrent of intense attraction! For as much as they were at odds at times, Sebastian was quite the knight-in-shining-armor often coming to the rescue even when it put him at risk. I fell hard for him!

Annabelle was a breath of fresh air! The kind of woman I hope I’d be in the face of such obstacles. It really was a tough time for women back then.  This was set in a time when women had few rights, really appalling when you think of it. The situation Annabelle found herself in with her cousin was infuriating, and I’m glad he had little to do with the story other than at the beginning. 

I can’t believe Bringing Down the Duke was a debut novel! While it took me a little bit to sink into the story, I was solidly glued to the pages as soon as I hit the %15 mark I didn’t want to put the story down eager to find out what happened next!  I love how everything turned out, and I can’t wait until Lucie’s story next, especially after reading the teaser at the end!

4.5 Suns