The protagonist also became very emotionally dependent on him, and I wish she had stood her ground more firmly in her decisions and what she believed in, especially since this book is supposed to be about suffragists. However, I was a little turned off by how often the love interest would get angry and arrogant towards the protagonist if he didn’t get his way - this was his reaction to everything, even in the last 1/3, and it felt selfish. Unlike other romances I’ve read, the conflict in the last 1/3 of the book was actually warranted - I believed the stakes and the consequences here, and appreciate the complicated sacrifices that weighed their actions. I wish they had connected this way first and the physical attraction came in slowly later, as that would have been more natural. While their initial attraction to each other felt forced at first, I enjoyed their intelligent conversations - they felt genuine and showed the characters making real connections over important topics. Some things I enjoyed: the focus on women pioneers, the discussion about women's roles and position in society and their own homes, the friendship between the suffragists, the banter between the protagonist and the love interest, and the yearning from the love interest as well. There are many good qualities with this book, but at the same time, I wasn't as invested or giddy as I usually am for other romance books I've read. Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke.Ī stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford suffragists in which a fiercely independent vicar's daughter takes on a powerful duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.ģ.5 stars. 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. 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. 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. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can't deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics at the Queen's command. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. 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.

Bringing down the duke