Bringing Down the Duke: 1 (League of Extraordinary Women)

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Years later, dozens of romance books devoured, I’m so happy to report that, on that score, I was wrong. I was given a digital copy for review from EW but chose to listen to it on audio, which I highly recommend.

Bringing Down the Duke - Evie Dunmore - Google Books

In fact, Regency (historical romance in general, really) and paranormal romance were my first true books love genres and will FOREVER hold a special place in my heart. It's not just one instance, either - there's a constant underlying thread of how the Duke is so good and so honorable because unlike the other men of his station, he doesn't take advantage of his privilege (except when he does it, it's For Good), and I'm like. Gilbert would snatch the chance of a lifetime from her here in his cramped little study and go straight back to admiring his freshly pinned butterflies in the display case on the desk between them. Add to this the vague but disturbing racial undertones (Annabelle is stunningly beautiful, and this is implied to be because of distant French aristocratic or even royal descent; Sebastian looks "Nordic", which means blond and square-jawed; the description of Disraeli and another Jewish-coded character made me squirm); the dialogue which far too often sounds more 21st-century American than it does 1870s upper-class British and which uses terms like "existential angst" which would not be coined for several more decades; the vicious pantomime dame caricature of Queen Victoria (look, I'm an Irishwoman with a disdain for the system of monarchy and if I think it's an unfair caricature. 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.Oh, and I also don’t like the way the hero treats his younger brother, but that’s a whole other conversation. It could be a legitimately terrible book (*cough* The Shadows Between Us*cough*), and I would still give it a high rating just because it succeeded in holding my attention, because my attention is often so hard to hold.

Bringing Down the Duke – Evie Dunmore

Before I even start my review of this book, I think it would be remiss of me not to talk about something that’s been on my mind – something that other reviewers seem to have completely missed. 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. first, the writing is delightful - the story is written with a quality that is very reminiscent of the time period, but also feel refreshingly modern.An intrepid female reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning author Manda Collins' fun and flirty historical rom-com!

Bringing Down the Duke book By Evie Dunmore Read Bringing Down the Duke book By Evie Dunmore

If Bringing Down the Duke had more interesting and likable protagonists with solid character development and if the feminist aspect was inclusive, then this book could have easily been a winner for me. The pretext for their run-in was the first hint of bad things to come because it was a badly devised supposed suffragette subplot. Evie Dunmore has written a story we need right now-strong, smart, and passionate, featuring a heroine who won't settle for less than what she deserves and a swoony hero who learns to fight for what really matters. I know very little about the tropes of the genre, but I can guess that nothing in this book would be considered terribly egregious to the average romance reader (please correct me if I'm wrong), but personally, I struggled.I was heartily entertained by how the two love interests meet and was looking forward to see how they would interact. Dunmore brilliantly allows you to get to know the emotional complexities of the main characters independent of each other.

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore | Waterstones

But it is equally important that we remember the women of colour who are too often erased from history for their contribution to women’s rights. It's whilst fulfilling this duty, that she first meets the wealthy and powerful Duke of Montgomery (Sebastian), a cold and brooding man, with links to the Tory party and to Queen Victoria.To tell him that it was like a slow drip of poison, this daily flattering and placating of men for a modicum of autonomy; that she sometimes worried it would one day harden both her heart and her face? While Evie Dunmore's writing style is more modern in parts which makes this story extremely readable, I'm not complaining, mind you, because this author's words wrapped themselves around my heart. 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. 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.