Bringing Down the Duke: swoony, feminist and romantic, perfect for fans of Bridgerton (A League of Extraordinary Women)

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Plus on the very last page, when our happy couple have overcome what we are told is crushing societal disapproval and scandal concerning a duke's decision to marry a mere gentleman's daughter (uh huh) and are making out on a yacht in the Mediterranean (sure), the verb used in Sebastian's inner monologue to describe having sex with his wife? A steamy, intelligent and feel good historical romance, set in Victorian England at the time of the Suffragette movement! Now mind ye the only reason Annabelle is involved with the political movement is exchange for them paying her tuition. There was a finely calibrated intensity that never lapsed into self-indulgent drama and an underlying opposites attract scenario able to go beyond the well-worn trope while renewing it through an intelligent and rounded leading couple. While their initial attraction to each other felt forced at first, I enjoyed their intelligent conversations - they felt genuine and showed the characters making real connections over important topics.

He is emotionally abusive towards his younger brother in a way that the narrative never recognises—and yet the narrative would have us believe that Sebastian is one of those good feudal overlords who only ever has the best interests of his tenants at heart. It certainly got me a little hot under the collar in parts, but I loved their emotional development as much as their romantic.It always really annoys me when the attraction between two people is wholly centered on lust and sex, because it seems like a really fraught foundation for a relationship, and because I just get really annoyed when characters think with their genitals all the time.

Their attraction was so palpable, so passionate and there were times I wanted to smoosh their faces together and tell them to get it over with. But you could just tell from their first meeting that this was going to go off with a bang, a boy did it.I think if she were more adamant in her values and individuality, and if he were served a bigger slice of humble pie and sacrificed more to meet her in the middle, the story would have been more impactful and he would have had more satisfying character development beyond a grand gesture at the end. No easy task when, like most men of the time, he believes that ‘too much education derails the female brain’, but Annabelle cleverly manipulates him into agreeing, with certain conditions attached. Though if it is as they say that the personal is also a little bit political and vice versa, in this case a battle of wills, wits, hearts and souls is inevitable, or to put it in Annabelle’s own words: “Perhaps this is not a question of staying out of trouble, Your Grace. Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke. The romance between main characters is developed in a way that feels natural and in accordance with how both of them are described.