The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore
Title: The Gentleman’s Gambit (A League of Extraordinary Women #4)
Author: Evie Dunmore
Publisher: Berkley 2023
Genre: Romance
Pages: 432
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Book Club - Academic Thriller (stretching I know, but I think it is)
Spice Rating: 5
Bookish suffragist Catriona Campbell is busy: An ailing estate, academic writer’s block, a tense time for England’s women’s rights campaign—the last thing she needs is to be stuck playing host to her father’s distractingly attractive young colleague.
Deeply introverted Catriona lives for her work at Oxford and her fight for women’s suffrage. She dreams of romance, too, but since all her attempts at love have ended badly, she now keeps her desires firmly locked inside her head—until she climbs out of a Scottish loch after a good swim and finds herself rather exposed to her new colleague.
Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell’s circle under false pretenses: he did not come to Oxford to classify ancient artefacts, he is determined to take them back to his homeland in the Middle East. Winning Catriona’s favor could be the key to his success. Unfortunately, seducing the coolly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing...
Forced into close proximity in Oxford’s hallowed halls, two very different people have to face the fact that they might just be a perfect match. Soon, a risky new game begins that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake.
One last book in the League of Extraordinary Women. We finally get to see Catriona get her HEA. Throughout the series, she has been coded as autistic and we continue that in this volume. She doesn’t quite fit in even amongst her friends. She has very specific needs and ways of looking at the world. Enter Elias Khoury, who also doesn’t quite fit into his world. I loved seeing these two character learn to see each other and find a way to connect. I really enjoyed the stolen artifacts storyline and wanted more of it than we got. I very much enjoyed touching base with the other characters without shifting focus from Catriona and Elias. And those steamy scenes were definitely steamy enough for me. Overall a decent ending to this enjoyable historical romance series with a message. My biggest complaint was the epilogue. It was unnecessary and brought a level of saccharine to the series that I did not enjoy.
A League of Extraordinary Women
#4 The Gentleman’s Gambit
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