Review & Giveaway - - The Gentleman's Gambit

The Gentleman's Gambit

by Evie Dunmore

A League of Extraordinary Women - Book 4

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: December 5, 2023

Reviewed by Hellie

Deeply introverted Catriona lives for her work at Oxford and her fight for women’s suffrage. She dreams of romance, too, but since all her attempts at love have ended badly, she now keeps her desires firmly locked inside her head—until she climbs out of a Scottish loch after a good swim and finds herself rather exposed to her new colleague. 

Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell’s circle under false pretenses: he did not come to Oxford to classify ancient artifacts, he is determined to take them back to his homeland in the Middle East. Winning Catriona’s favor could be the key to his success. Unfortunately, seducing the coolly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing... 

Forced into close proximity in Oxford’s hallowed halls, two very different people have to face the fact that they might just be a perfect match. Soon, a risky new game begins that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake.

 

Hellie’s Heeds 

The premise of this series always lured me in (I *LOVE* Suffragettes!), but occasionally some of the characters were a little hard for me to like. (Hallmark of a great writer, really, to make a reader forget these are not real people!) However, this book is, I believe, my favorite of the series. Undoubtedly it’s because I could identify so much with the character who is deeply introverted, feels things very deeply, and doesn’t trust herself when it comes to who she falls in love with. The hero himself is a delicious scholarly and sensitive sort (beta in the best way) who has come to befriend her father for rather nefarious reasons: to help steal back some artifacts to their rightful country. 

While the story spins around these two very different people with very different lived experiences who find a connection and risk everything to be together, it is also a story about the relationships of these friends (Hattie, Lucie, Annabelle, and Catriona) and being a modern woman in their time, challenging the status quo while fighting for justice for their sex. I saw plot glimmers that reminded me of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and how she framed her lawsuit to get more rights for women, the constant tug of family and career (“Am I a good mother?”) and the various ways other women have shamed women rather than supported them, and even the pernicious society shaming of “who deserves to wear white on their wedding day?”--we all do, as Bull Durham will tell you. Elias is a very deserving hero–I think my love of the alpha males has gone away and now I’m almost exclusively in love with the kind of men who definitely put consent and kindness before anything else.  

There were also other interesting layers of history for this book that I would never have learned if it wasn’t for this story: some history of the Middle East, Maronites, British colonialism, and women’s rights in the 19th century along with the process of passing laws. There was enough information to make the story feel anchored and authentic without bogging down the pace–which is extremely hard to do–so kudos to the author. I wondered many times how the author managed to come across so many history threads to pull them together into one believable story–I am in awe really. I believe she did this as well for her previous books but being the hero was from the Middle East, the history was more apparent (since I read a lot of England set novels I occasionally take the history for granted as something everyone knows) and interesting. I can only hope to find more books like this in the future.  

This is marked as book 4 of 4, and there was an epilogue that suggests this is the last, so I’m interested to see what this author will be doing next. I’m sure it will be awesome. If you’ve been looking forward to this book, this is the conclusion I believe you wished for; if you haven’t read this series, this is a good time to pick up all the books because in reading this, i wanted to go back and read the others again. Bravo to Ms. Evie Dunmore–this has been a great series!

Thanks, Hellie! You've definitely piqued my interest. 

Readers, have you discovered Evie Dunmore yet? 

Are you surprised by the factual tidbits you absorb through reading historical romance and fiction? I knew a Jeopardy answer the other night and turned to the person next to me, saying smugly, "I learned it in a romance novel." ;-)

One randomly chosen person posting a comment before 11:00 PM, December 17 will receive a print copy of The Gentleman's Gambit.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

Review - - Bringing Down the Duke

BRINGING DOWN THE DUKE

by Evie Dunmore

Publisher: Berkley Jove
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Reviewed by Hellie 

    

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....

THOUGHTS:

Annabelle is a Victorian Cinderella, poor but honorable, as she struggles to make ends meet and not blow her chance for a university education. If it means she needs to persuade the unpersuadable Duke of Montgomery, then she’ll do it. The suffrage movement who is footing her tuition bill needs men like the duke to stand up for their cause in Parliament, but the conservative duke seems like the last possible candidate for the position.

The Duke of Montgomery is delicious, rich, confident, conservative, and inescapably attracted to--of all things--a suffragette. Sebastian inherited the dukedom at a young age, finding that his inheritance had been squandered by his father and he was now in charge of raising a young brother fifteen years his junior and restoring the family name. Now thirty-seven, he has almost everything, save the lone family castle his father had lost in a game of cards. He will have it too, the Queen has assured him, so long as he remains on the right side of the suffragist cause. (That would be the Far Right. Queen Victoria is not a Modern Woman.) This is no problem--until he comes home and finds his house has been overrun by suffragettes his brother has invited for a house party. 

A brief house party becomes a stay until Christmas, then a New Year’s Ball. There is a fabulous scene of mistaken identity and the fallout as rightfully Annabelle decides she wants to stay anywhere but in the duke’s manor and takes off in the snow. There is a rescue...and in keeping with the time period and reality, somebody catches a cold and has to stay in bed. Which leads to more time spent together, which of course leads to “he’s falling for her!”

What’s new with Ms. Dunmore’s debut is that in addition to the language and behavior being in keeping with the time and society group, there is more conflict over class and what people in their station are allowed to do. For instance, a duke of Montgomery’s station does not marry a poor little church mouse from nowhere, especially if she is attending university (horrors!) and is a staunch suffragist. It is a detriment. While this is something that is handled in many a duke novel, it does seem to be more de rigueur nowadays to have a forward-thinking duke who has no problem marrying someone who should only ever be his mistress. Don’t get me wrong. I love reading about these titled men thinking in a way I would love 21st century men to think; however, sometimes all these forward-thinking 19th century dukes can be a stretch, even for my happy-escapism fiction. 

Still, in the end, it was a good solid read. And perhaps best of all, Annabelle has some friends who I think will have very delicious books of their own...and which we’ll all be looking forward to reading as well. I think this is only the beginning of a long and happy relationship.