Going toe-to-toe with a brooding Scotsman is rather bold for a respectable suffragist, but when he happens to be one’s unexpected husband, what else is an unwilling bride to do?
London banking heiress Hattie Greenfield wanted “just” three things in life:
1. Acclaim as an artist.
2. A noble cause.
3. Marriage to a young lord who puts the gentle in gentleman.
Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain’s peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she’s stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions….
When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old revenge, he has no room for his new wife’s apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her.
But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything—as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.
-Goodreads
I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Something that not many people know about me is that I am extremely picky with my historical romance reads. I have had the same few favorite authors for years now and rarely stray. I fell in love with their writing early on and few authors in the genre have struck my fancy in the same way. Literally there are four historical romance authors on my autobuy/pre-order list…and now there are five. Evie Dunmore has very rapidly moved to the top of my list of favorite romance authors. Not just favorite historical romance authors – romance authors, period.
I have to say, I think my favorite book in this series will always be A Rogue of One’s Own purely because I’m mildly infatuated with Ballentine. That being said, Lucian came very close to usurping Ballentine’s throne. I love a sexy, brooding Scotsman and Lucian certainly fit the bill. His backstory and the way that it impacted the relationships in his adult life made me all kinds of emotional and I think that overall his story and character growth were so well done.
While most of my reviews talk about the swoony male lead, the real star of this book for me was Hattie. That’s the point of the series though, right? The series is literally titled A League of Extraordinary Women and every woman in the series thus far has indeed been extraordinary. I related to Hattie in a lot of ways and was thrilled with the way she matured and came into her own over the course of this book. Every single woman that Evie Dunmore has written in this series has been one that I both admire and would love to befriend.
Basically, I can’t recommend this series enough. If I didn’t think I would get pepper sprayed, I would spend my weekend shoving these books into the hands of unsuspecting New Yorkers. (How else is a girl supposed to spend Memorial Day Weekend?) Since I can’t do that, please do me the favor of falling in love with this series so that we can gush over it together.
As The Book Ends 