I read a lot of historical romance and I have to say Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore is one of my favorite reads so far this year as well as at the top of my favorites for the genre. I devoured this in one day and couldn’t get enough of these characters.

Annabelle Archer is smart and while she has lived in the country and as a daughter of a vicar, she has earned a place as part of the first group of female students at the University of Oxford. The catch is that in exchange for her scholarship, she needs to support the women’s suffrage movement. That means she needs to get men of influence interested in championing their cause.

I loved Annabelle as a character. She is smart and she’s willing to put herself in an uncomfortable situation if it means she can make a difference. Her drive to want and be more than what society tells her she should be as a woman is something I love most about her, and I was so happy that Dunmore gave her a group of women to connect with through it. The friendships Evie develops not only help her in her mission, but also when she needs it most.

Sebastian Deveraux, the Duke of Montgomery, is driven to restore his family’s legacy and as a leader in Britain, he has the opportunity to get his ancestral home back as long as he agrees to be the chief strategic advisor for the election campaign of the Tory party…and keeps the current Prime Minister in power. Unfortunately for Sebastian, he really has no choice. Add to that the fact that the Tory party is against amending the Married Women’s Property Act and things are about to get really interesting for both Sebastian and Annabelle.

I do want to call out that I loved how Annabelle and Sebastian meet. Their immediate attraction and his willingness to dress down the guard who pushed her made me like him despite how he is described and the coolness with which he addressed Annabelle on the street. As Annabelle finds a way to infiltrate Sebastian’s home (along with her friends), their attraction only grows. I loved the banter and the fact that she is willing to challenge him.

Unfortunately for them both, once they do realize how much they are attracted to one another, they face the challenge of status and what that means in regard to a relationship between them. They both recognize that a vicar’s daughter and a Duke could never marry and Annabelle refuses to be his mistress. This leaves them in a place with no resolution and the only thing Annabelle can do is ask Sebastian to leave her alone but when the suffragist march on Parliament gets out of hand and Annabelle finds herself in a situation she can’t get out of, Sebastian is the one to save her but her actions do have consequences.

As everything comes to a head in this book, decisions need to be made both by Annabelle and Sebastian. I’m not going to tell you everything about this one so if you want to know, you will have to go get this book when it is released. Trust me, you will want to know ALL THE THINGS so if you don’t have this on your TBR shelf yet, go add it now. I will definitely be sitting back waiting for more books by Evie Dunmore as this debut has made me a fan. If you are looking for a historical romance with great characters, an interesting story, and slow burn romance you should definitely check this one out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review!