thesiege_208 's review for:

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

3.0

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Hmm. I enjoyed this but perhaps it's my modern sensibilities getting in the way of liking this book more. For all that it's about feminism and fighting for women's rights and not-like-the-other-girls characters who are intelligent and therefore also radical outcasts, in the end it's about finding a man powerful enough to make all your problems go away. As most historical romances tend to be, regardless of how thematically relevant feminism is to the story itself.

Annabelle is rescued by and submits to Sebastian a number of times, and yeah it's romantic because they're ~in love~ but is it really? I mean, I know, what can they do in that era.

Spoiler

I do like that Annabelle rejects both his proposals and sticks to her decisions, even the respectable one, until of course he tarnishes his own reputation enough that she feels like it doesn't matter so much to just marry him. I know it was only reasonable in those times for him to at first proposition her to be his mistress, even though he couldn't understand that she could only be the loser in such a relationship even if the two of them knew they were in love, but I'm still offended by it on her behalf! And also that thought she had, that he never would've propositioned her had she been an innocent; though she probably wouldn't have caught his interest if she had been?? Ugh I don't even know anymore! This is the problem with reading historical romance as a contemporary woman.