Berkley, $18.00, ISBN 978-1-9848-0568-3
Historical Romance, 2019
At the risk of sounding like a Booktube shill, allow me to say that if Julia Quinn and Amanda Quick had a love child that grew up to lead a feminist book club, you’d get Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke. It’s a Victorian cocktail of swoony romance and suffragist rebellion, shaken not stirred, and garnished with enough societal scandal to make Queen Victoria clutch her pearls.
Meet Annabelle Archer, a scholarship student at Oxford in 1879—think Hermione Granger with a corset and a cause. This bookworm on a mission is tasked with persuading the British aristocracy to support women’s suffrage. Her target is Sebastian Devereux, the Duke of Montgomery, a man so emotionally frozen he makes the Arctic look tropical.
Annabelle is what happens when you stuff a Molotov cocktail of independence and political passion into a corset. She’s constantly torn between shouting “Votes for Women!” and “Why is this duke so infuriatingly handsome?” It’s like her heart and her brain are engaged in a Victorian cage match, and we’re all here for it.
Sebastian is your typical romance novel duke: tall, dark, and handsome, with a side of emotional constipation that would make Freud weep. Watching him resist Annabelle’s charms is like observing a man trying to stop a tsunami with a teacup—adorably futile and endlessly entertaining.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the drawing room: Dunmore occasionally makes our feisty Annabelle go weak-kneed in Sebastian’s presence, presumably bowing to romance novel conventions. It’s like watching a lioness suddenly turn into a kitten—cute, sure, but what happened to all that roar? This tendency is more annoying than a corset on a hot day, as it sometimes paints Sebastian as a pompous peacock strutting his stuff.
Come on, Annabelle, where’s that suffragette spirit when His Grace flexes his ducal muscles? It’s a bit of a letdown when our sharp-tongued heroine loses her edge faster than a debutante loses her fan at her first ball.
Still, Ms Dunmore doesn’t just give us fluttering fans and heaving bosoms (though there’s plenty of that). She serves up a hefty slice of historical context, reminding us that in 1879, women were fighting for more than just a happy ending—they were battling for the right to have any ending at all.
However, let’s not kid ourselves—you’re here for the romance, and honey, it’s hotter than a copper bathtub full of Earl Grey. The tension between Annabelle and Sebastian sizzles like bacon on a griddle. There’s enough witty banter to fill a season of Downton Abbey, and the classic “Oh no, we must pretend to be a couple!” trope that we all secretly devour like it’s the last scone at teatime.
Sure, Sebastian’s emotional constipation occasionally reaches levels that would impress a marble statue. There are moments when you want to grab him by his perfectly starched cravat and yell, “Feel something, you aristocratic iceberg!” And yes, sometimes the feminist message is as subtle as a suffragette chaining herself to the palace gates.
These are mere crumbs in an otherwise delicious Victorian sponge cake, however. Bringing Down the Duke is a rollicking good time that’ll have you cheering for women’s rights and steamy makeout sessions in equal measure. It’s perfect for readers who like their historical romances with a side of social justice and a generous helping of “will-they-won’t-they” tension thick enough to spread on toast.
So, grab your smelling salts and prepare for a romance where the heroine’s goal is to change the world, and the hero’s mission is to remain as grumpy as humanly possible while falling head over polished boots in love. In this story, the only thing falling faster than societal norms are inhibitions!
