BOOK REVIEW: Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.


Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore is a delightful historical Romance that manages to spotlight the “historical” as well as the “romance.” It is set in 1879, during Queen Victoria’s reign, rather than the typical Regency period, but many of the same society customs and restrictions apply.

Annabelle Archer is the twenty-five-year old, impoverished daughter of a deceased vicar, forced to live with a cousin as a drudge because she has no other options. She is a commoner. She is too beautiful for her own safety/reputation. And she is extremely intelligent, not just intelligent in a witty, able-to-fend-for-herself way, but academically intelligent, intelligent enough to be frustrated by the lack of opportunity available to studious women and the inevitable “blue-stocking” label. If all this isn’t bad enough, she has a scandalous past.

When an opportunity arises for her to leave her cousin’s household to attend Oxford College with a stipend, she finds a way to do it. There is a condition on the stipend, however. It is provided by an organization of suffragists, and she is expected to take part in the women’s lobbying efforts. She immediately inadvertently lobbies the wrong man: the duke of Montgomery.

Sebastian, the duke of Montgomery, is known to be a cold-hearted efficient Tory who gets things done. A favorite of the queen, he has been tasked with ensuring the election of Prime Minister Disraeli in the next election. In truth, Sebastian has Liberal leanings, but he serves the queen with unquestioning determination because she is the only person with the authority to grant what he wants most: the return of his ancestral seat. The previous duke, Sebastian’s father, lost it in a card game. An ineffective duke, he frittered away much of the Montgomery holdings by neglect, drink, and gambling. Sebastian has spent his life trying to rebuild the legacy his father lost.

Annabelle’s assignment from the suffragist leader is to follow up on the initial encounter with the duke. Annabelle, desperate to avoid further scandal, is reluctant but complies. Typical developments for the genre--mistaken identity/motivations, miscommunication, prideful rebellion, and simmering passion--propel the story along as the two learn to understand one another and then fall in love.

Annabelle’s strength as a heroine is not simply her striking beauty and strong personality. Annabelle is a fascinating character because of her intelligence. She challenges the men around her with a brain and an education that more than equals theirs, despite all the advantages of their situations. Sebastian’s character impresses because even though he is a snob, his privilege has not blinded him to the plight of those lower in the pecking order. Even more importantly, he is not threatened by or made uncomfortable by Annabelle’s intelligence. He is able to recognize her as an intellectual equal and that doesn’t bother him. (What bothers him is her social inferiority.)

The two lovers have a number of hurdles to overcome. Each has to learn what is truly important to them and what goals can be sacrificed. It makes for a page-turner of a Romance.

BOOK REVIEW: How to Cross a Marquess by Jane Ashford

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence my review.

I’ve been following Jane Ashford’s Regency Romance series: The Way to a Lord’s Heart. In these novels, an older gentleman, the Earl of Macklin, uses his experience with grief to aid younger lords who have lost someone dear to them.

In How to Cross a Marquess, Macklin’s current project is Roger Berwick, Marquess of Chatton, whose wife died from a fever a year earlier. (The story behind the fever is complicated and drives the plot.)

Roger returns to his ancestral home in Northumberland where he meets up with his old neighbor, Fenella Fairclough. They had been children together. He was a few years older, a mischievous boy much admired by the others in their gang. Fenella was a smitten, shy, insecure girl. Their lands abutted and their fathers argued over boundaries until they hit upon the idea of marrying their children to each other. Roger had rebelled at the thought; he rebelled against any project of his father’s. Fenella, humiliated, also refused – by running away to her grandmother in Scotland. There she grew into a mature, self-confident, and beautiful young woman.

Roger went to London where he met and married a young beauty (Arabella) whom he accidentally compromised, at least according to the girl’s mother. The mother arranged the whole embarrassing charade in order to see her beloved daughter make a grand match.  The marriage was a disaster. When Arabella died after an ill-advised outing in the rain (one that Fenella had tried to talk her out of but could not), Roger was more relieved than saddened, which led to a tremendous burden of guilt. In response to the guilt, he tended to blame everyone involved, including Fenella.

When Roger returns, he and Fenella are frequently thrown together by circumstance. Macklin arrives to see how Roger is faring and watches with benign amusement as the two find their way to one another. Macklin takes a more passive role in this romance than he has in previous stories, because the two don’t need much help. They just need time and proximity.

The plot is well-constructed and the characters pleasant. Fenella is a particularly level-headed heroine. It isn’t my favorite story of the series but Ashford’s Romances continues to entertain.

BOOK REVIEW: The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore

I received this book free from Netgalley. That did not influence my review.

The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore is a beautifully written, atmospheric, gothic historical novel set in mid-eighteenth century New England. Unreliably narrated by the protagonist, Lucy Blunt, from the New Hampshire State Prison where she is being held for a double murder, the story moves back and forth through time to explain how she ended up with a death sentence hanging over her. She insists that she is innocent, but is she?

Lucy Blunt is not a likable character but she is sympathetic. Her life has been one of almost unrelenting misery. The book is pretty dismal because of this. At times I had to put it down to take a break from all the despair. The one bright spot in her life is her love for her employer, Eugenie Burton. The lady of the house also loves her, maybe. At least, they begin a torrid affair. Lucy is promoted from kitchen maid to Eugenie’s companion. (Eugenie is blind, and pretty much confined to the house by her possessive, overly protective husband.) This causes a good deal of friction with Eugenie’s current companion, Rebecca.

Things go from bad to worse for Lucy. Her backstory is a nightmare that keeps creeping up on her. She makes some bad decisions, but her options are so limited she doesn’t really have any good decisions available.

There is a mystery wrapped up in the story as well. If Lucy didn’t commit the murders, who did? Despite the downward spiral of misery, I had to keep reading to confirm the true culprit and learn how Lucy’s story would end.