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. Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke. There are a few times when her passion about women’s rights and the classics shine through, but for the most part, she’s a bystander in her own story. Annabelle is stupid and makes rash decisions constantly, not behaving as a woman in that time (even a “feminist”) would. I've said nothing about the plot, but I don't need to: you've read it all before, and as might be discerned from the hopelessly backwards language above, it all boils down to a Manly Male who knows better than the silly Feminine Female.

I can count on one hand the number of romance novels I've read, and this is actually my very first historical romance novel. 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. She is self-righteous and quick to judge, and has a MUCH higher opinion of herself than is warranted. i am really impressed with this debut novel and i am very much looking forward to reading more about other extraordinary women in the upcoming books for this series.I think this book needed a more headstrong heroine because Annabelle was too much of a pushover for someone as entitled as Montgomery.

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. Thus she is thrust in the path of the Duke of Montgomery, hoping to win his vote to reform the Women’s Property Act. It is 1879, and the over educated, beautiful but destitute 25 year old Annabelle, inveigles her way to study amongst the first group of women at Oxford University after gaining a modest scholarship, for which she must support the radical political suffragettes led by Lady Lucie Tedbury, and their campaign to recruit powerful men of influence to champion their cause. However, looks only go as far, and his personality really distracted from the hotness, in my opinion.But he’s totally okay with her throwing away her reputation and her chance for a university education so she could be his mistress.

Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for. The attraction was now firmly back in place, yes, she was beyond denying it: she was hopelessly preoccupied with the grim-faced aristocrat across the footwell. Both have been burned in love before, and this influences how they approach each other, both equally cognizant of the attraction between them yet also wary of once again making the wrong decision in romance. I appreciated how female problems and suffragists' struggles are complex and layered in the story, and how those women are described as various types of women and not some carricature of feminism, like it often turns out. 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.the writing was incredible, the characters had so much depth, and talk about feeling the story: this was impossible love at its best! Things do not go to plan as Annabelle becomes ill and a surprisingly strong attraction between the two of them grows . Annabelle cares about women’s rights because she cares about herself and doesn’t want to be the property of some ugly idiot.

Inspiring in them even just a kernel of that same passion for evolving, improving, changing that has led and sustained her during these difficult first months in Oxford. I really loved the relationships that Annabelle formed with the women involved and hope they each get their own stories. Annabelle is smart and competent, and she's not afraid to work hard to make the best of her meager situation.Full of witty banter, rich historical detail, and a fantastic group of female friends, the first installment in Dunmore's League of Extraordinary Women series starts with fireworks as Annabelle and Montgomery try to find a path to happiness despite past mistakes and their vastly different places in society. No decent woman would talk to a stranger in the street, certainly not while brandishing pamphlets that boldly declared The Married Women’s Property Act makes a slave of every wife! Therein lies the conundrum here: this book certainly entertained me, even if it annoyed me equally as much, and so I'm struggling with how to rate it. And the time they did spend together they spent thinking about how much they wanted to jump each others' bones?