I expected this to be a story about a strong willed and driven woman who has a hate to love journey.

You might find yourself looking at this plot summary and thinking, sure sure, read that HR a thousand times. From Annabelle’s friends in the Women’s suffrage movement( all of whom get their own books) to members of society that Annabelle meets on her journey to happiness. Montgomery even confesses to her that if their stations were equal, then he would have made her his wife. If you are a voracious historical romance reader like me, then you have most likely read a plethora of historical romance novels where the Duke hero refuses to marry the heroine because she is below him in station.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.

He has the nerve to be offended when she tells him that he only thinks she’s good enough to be his whore.

As for the hero, he is the powerful Duke of Montgomery who thinks that his lofty position in society gives him the right to ask things of the heroine that he has no right to ask. Not only it had all the "ingredients" I usually adore in a romance book, from the exquisite slow-burn tension to the accurately rendered and smoothly interwoven era bits and manners, but what impressed me the most was how skilfully balanced everything felt, to the point that if I hadn’t previously known this was the author’s first work, I would have ascribed it to a much more seasoned hand. A protagonists of Britain’s politics and at only 35 one of the most powerful peers of the realm, with an unruly younger brother to manage, a scandalous divorce in his near past, the ancestral ducal seat to regain and now the Queen appointing him chief strategic advisor for the Tory party in the upcoming elections his life is already complicated as it is and, though not opposed on principle, adding support to women’s rights campaign on his agenda is out of the question. The fiery Miss Archer, is awarded a scholarship on the condition that she supports the Suffragette movement, and helps to recruit powerful men to the cause. But it bugged me because the marketing for this book made it seem like Annabelle was a passionate suffragist, someone who is committed to the cause, and that is what drew me to this book.