During the last 16 years, his life has been devoted to duty and, at the age of 35, he has become the most powerful duke in England even the scandal of a divorce failed to mar his reputation. Sebastian Devereux was only nineteen when he assumed the responsibilities of becoming the Duke of Montgomery. 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. What she didn’t expect is to feel so attracted to a man who is everything she despises.

In return for the scholarship, Annabelle has agreed to support the society’s efforts to further the cause of women’s suffrage by infiltrating the home of the Duke of Montgomery. 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. The National Society for Women’s Suffrage has granted her a scholarship, and all she has to do is persuade her cousin to let her go. The ‘opposites attract across the social divide’ is one of my favourite tropes and she pulls it off brilliantly by pairing women’s rights advocate, Annabelle Archer, with the austere Sebastian Devereux, Duke of Montgomery.įor the past five years, since her father’s death, Annabelle Archer has accepted her narrow existence as her cousin’s general dogsbody, until she discovers that Oxford University has opened a women’s college. This delightful debut novel from Evie Dunmore is a perfect blend of a sensual romance and a well-researched historical backdrop. Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke…. But he wouldn’t be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn’t claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring…or could he? 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. Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford.

A Modest Independence by Mimi Matthews