Bringing Down the Duke/ Evie Dunmore/ 356 pgs

There was a lot of hype surrounding this book. It's very well written and I appreciate that the mores of the time were followed instead of playing fast and loose with the way things were during the Victorian period. Annabelle is a poor relation of an even poorer vicar. Her vicar cousin expects her to be a maid/nanny for his wife and five children. Annabelle would prefer to do anything else and when she's offered one of the first spots for women to attend Oxford, she talks her cousin into letting her go (for a price, of course). At Oxford, Annabelle is properly chaperoned and not really allowed to mix with the male students. She becomes involved with a suffragist group as they are providing her with a scholarship. As the group fights for changes to the rights of married women, Annabelle meets the Duke of Montgomery. He's very stuffy and unemotional but there is a spark between them. Of course they spend more time together and fall for each other, but Annabelle wisely refuses to become his mistress. He flat-out refuses to offer her marriage. Much angst ensues until Montgomery finally comes to his senses (a fall from a horse helps:-)). This is the first in a series and I am interested in reading the other stories as I loved the writing in this one as well as the historical authenticity.