Radwa's Reviews > Bringing Down the Duke

A historical romance novel with a big touch of feminism and focus on the Women Suffrage Movement in England. It was delightful, empowering, swoony AF, and featured one of my favorite romance troops: enemies to lovers.

Our love interests are Annabelle, the commoner who gets introduced to the suffrage movement as the patron of her studies in Oxford and starts helping them as a way to repay them for supporting her tuition which lands her in the way of the Duke of Montegomrey. And Sebastian, the duke, is a seemingly cold-hearted man focused on retrieving his estate and rarely shows his true feelings or interests until he meets Annabelle.

Their courting was adorable and their intimate scenes were really swoony, and I liked the struggle Annabelle had between her desire for Sebastian, the societal norms, and her ideas and beliefs for women's rights and what her situation should be in their relationship. I also loved to see how she affected Sebastian, in more than on way, from becoming a soft man not afraid to show his feelings to becoming an ally to the movement. Some of the things I also loved: her friend group, her portrayal as an intelligent woman, and him not being intimidated by her intelligence.

I would say that the book was a bit slow at times, but I read the last 30% in one go, because I couldn't sleep without knowing how its going to end. But I was pleasantly surprised by the ratio of sexy times and advocating women's rights and standing up to the movement, as there's no reason for these two not to exist side by side, right?

A delightful read and I can't wait for the next book that features one of the girls in the friend group and her story.