Hello book lovers! I hope you’re all enjoying the last bit of 2023. Are a historical romance lover? I’ve got the book for you!
✔️Scottish fmc
✔️Lebanese mmc
✔️historical romance
✔️suffragettes
✔️forced proximity
✔️found family
The Gentleman’s Gambit by Evie Dunmore
3.5
I’ve been expecting Catriona’s story for so long, and I’m so happy it is finally here! But I’m also a bit sad that this series is ending and that we won’t see these characters and found family anymore.
What is it about?
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. (Goodreads)
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Catriona’s story and personal journey were truly beautiful. I loved that she got a man like Elias Khoury, who was so perfect for her. He was the colours Catriona was missing in her life; she was the home and heart he had been looking for so long.
As always, I love how Evie Dunmore perfectly mingles romance with history, politics and social issues. Evie excels in writing beautiful romances with wonderful characters and meaningful plots.
However, I fell short of their story. It ended so abruptly that I needed a bit more for it to feel like the perfect round ending I expected. I loved the epilogue, but I would’ve liked it more as an extended epilogue and not Catriona and Elias’s. Because even though this was their book, at times, it didn’t feel as such, and that epilogue showed that it was more a series finale than their story. I also sort of expected a more significant love declaration. It was such a monumental moment for Catriona to finally confess her love, yet it passed almost inadvertently.
Nonetheless, it is a truly enjoyable story and series. I think Elias is my favourite man in this series, only second to Sebastian. And I know many people will love this story.
* This is the fourth book in A League of Extraordinary Women but it can be read as a standalone, though you might be a bit spoiled for the previous books. I recommend reading them in the order they were published:
Tell me, would you read this book?
love, Lin
