Bringing Down the Duke

Books | Fiction / Romance / Historical / Victorian

4.2

(2.6K)

Evie Dunmore

“Dunmore is my new find in historical romance. Her A League of Extraordinary Women series is extraordinary.”—Julia Quinn, #1 New York Times bestselling author“This series balances friendship, politics, history, and romance in just the right mix.”—U.S. Representative Katie PorterA 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. 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....“With her sterling debut, Evie Dunmore dives into a fresh new space in historical romance that hits all the right notes.”—Entertainment Weekly“There is nothing quite so satisfying as seeing such a man brought to his knees by a beautiful woman with nothing to her name except an inviolable sense of her own self-worth.”—NPR

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Author

Evie Dunmore

Pages

368

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

2019-09-03

ISBN

198480569X 9781984805690

Community ReviewsSee all

"DNF"

Sher Free✌️

"this book was lovely! it has all of that lovely banter and longing that turns into passion that bridgerton and p&p have. I like that it deals with the suffragette movement and while we have a very sexy, sort of dominating love interest, we get to see Annabelle advocate for herself and her female friends lift her up! all in all it was an sweet, exciting, spicy read!"

klow

"2.5 star My impression after reading Bringing Down the Duke can be summed up in one word. Meh. Nothing snagged me, I didn't feel the atmosphere or the longing that it portrayed. Not sure why but with the mention of a strong lower class female character and jerk of a Duke, all I could picture was a sexy Pride and Prejudice. To be frank I didn't hate it, didn't love it, I just didn't really care. Annabelle was too perfect and everyone looked at her in jealousy and wanting. No flaws whatsoever. A woman like that, to me, is not relatable. She did have curves in which I have an abundance of but that to me is not a flaw. It more possibly an empowerment and in her station in the women's right movement she needed even more of. She seemed to join the movement to get tuition instead of going out full force. Most of the book it took a backseat to the romance. She even once flat out refused to ask the Duke to sign because of their problems. Broadcasted as a feminist book but seemed far from it. Annabelle didn't try much at all do bring the Duke to their cause. The Duke himself was very melodramatic. The push and pull of the relationship made no sense to me like they didn't think all this through before they started all this mouth breathing. The collection of these books are called The League of Extraordinary women except Annabelle isn't even remotely great and puts forth little effort, sitting back letting the Duke do all the work. The book had a case of I-don't-trust-my-readers-so-I'll-spell-it-all-out syndrome. And I don't know why but the Duke seemed a bit toxic even though he tries to help at times. I did enjoy the animal hunger for one another and I liked their intellectual conversation but then again the romance dialog was eye rolling at times. Don't want to spend anymore time on this bye."

Ashley

"Modern Romance set in early 18th century "

Donna Q

"I usually don't read romantic stories, or watch romance movies either, but I loved this! Honestly, I read it because I was intrigued by the author and was like, why not let's try and read the actual book. It's not sloppily written, it's not filled to the brim with cliches, it never made me roll my eyes, I liked both main characters, and the supporting characters were all different. The story didn't fall flat and I was invested in the relationship between both characters. Great plot, great characters, on some level relatable, and well written."

Jelly Jinxx

"Everything about this book was fine. I thought because our main character was participating in the women’s suffrage movement it would be a little more interesting. I think I was just expecting more. This book is still a quick and entertaining read, it just didn’t wow me."

A C

Alyssa Czernek

"Didn’t stand out to me among other historical fiction books, but I still enjoyed the storyline (for anyone interested: it’s pretty spicy)."

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"#april "

"What I enjoyed about this book: - The setting (at Oxford in the Victorian Era) - Annabelle’s ***** (can’t think of a better word for it) - The slow burn of Sebastian and Annabelle’s relationship - The side characters, especially Annabelle’s friends (can’t wait for Lucie’s book next btw) - General history about the Suffragist Movement in Victorian England that I was semi-aware of What I didn’t enjoy as much: - The political aspects with Sebastian running the election campaign for the Tory party; that felt unnecessary and penciled in for filler in some parts of the book - The back and forth with Annabelle not being able to fully commit to Sebastian even though I totally get why - Caroline as a basic evil ex-mistress character, also unnecessary IMO Overall, I just was delighted by this book, it was such a great debut for this author. From just the little teaser that I got at the end of this book, I am BEYOND excited for the next instalment with Lucie and Tristan, the dashing viscount I believe (don’t quote me on that) Annabelle danced with at the New Years Eve party."

Erin Smith

"This book was exceptional. It was my first romance and I was so pleased with the characters and prose (I dreaded poor writing for drama’s sake). I’m so excited there are so many books in this series; I’m going to buy every one. "