The Gentleman’s Gambit by Evie Dunmore

SYNOPSIS

Deeply introverted Catriona Campbell wants the right to vote and a professorship at Oxford. 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 face-to-face with a stranger… who turns out to be her father’s attractive new colleague.

Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell’s circle under false pretenses: he did not come to claissfy ancient artifacts; 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 cooly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself, and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing.

Forced into close prosimity in Oxford’s hallowed halls, Elias and Catriona begin to play a risky game that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake.

Note: There may be spoilers for previous books in this series as this is the finale novel.

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A touching conclusion to the League of Extraordinary Women romance series that highlights the importance of equality across all walks of life and the preservation of culture in a world that tries to make that impossible.

Catriona is a gifted scholar who feels too greatly. After various heartbreaks she works to distance herself from making connections yet cannot help her kind, helpful, and empathetic nature. Her relationship with the other women of the League have slowly opened up her heart but she still struggles with control when it comes to romantic attachments. After an embarrassing encounter with a visitor to her father’s estate (catching her skinny dipping) she’s at great risk of losing herself to this intriguing stranger.

Elias isn’t what he seems to be. Posing as an academic wanting to work with Catriona’s father on some ancient artifacts, he’s actually a hired businessman working to send these artifacts back to their homeland with no one being the wiser. His connection with Catriona poses a problem as, if he succeeds in his mission, he will not be allowed back to Britain, where she calls home. Struggling with belonging, Elias is pulled between his deep love for his home in the mountains near Beruit and the new life he has started to envision with Catriona in the highlands of Scotland. He is deeply empathetic, similar to Catriona, and is able to read people quite easily yet she continues to evade him which makes him all the more curious.

Evie Dunmore is so good at character building and growth that I can’t help but enjoy all her books no matter what the plot may be. I did find I had a more difficult time connecting the Catriona’s character than I did the other three. I don’t know if that was intentional to portray how much her walls are up and how much she closes off or if I just struggled to understand her reasoning on relationships sometimes being a very relationship oriented person myself. I do think Catriona is an autistic character and I think the hints towards this were extremely well done, from her sensory overload in overwhelming situations, to her gifted mind that evades the understanding of so many of those around her. I think it was great representation that we don’s usually see in historical novels let alone historical romance.

Elias is probably the most romantic character Dunmore has created to date. I couldn’t help but swoon every time this man opened his mouth (or dialogued on the page?). We didn’t get too much of his background which disappointed me a little bit but I do think we seen enough of his character on page to understand the values he was raised with. This is the first romance I’ve read personally that had such a great, gentle, and positive Arab male lead. His introduction to this world allowed Dumore to further expand past women’s rights and the unfairness of classism to the impact of colonialism and the struggle many colonized countries face when trying to preserve their culture and history when everyone feels they have the right to plunder their artifacts. Given the current genocide happening in Palestine I think this was such a timely and positive message as well. Elias has set the standard for fictional men going forward and I’m so happy we got to meet him. He perfectly offset Catriona’s cautious heart with his unbending dedication and love.

This book did have a lot more history than the previous books in this series, leaning a lot more towards historical fiction than towards historical romance. I really liked the history, I think it was covered in an intriguing enough way that I wanted to continue reading, however it did make the first half of the book a much denser read than I had expected which in turn made the pacing feel a little off. The front half of the books was very history heavy and the last half a lot more romance heavy and I felt there could have been a more equal balance.

This being the conclusion to the series, we did get a lot more cameo’s from our old favourites and some fantastic closure on those characters’ stories. It was such a touching conclusion to the series and a tribute to all the work that has been put in through history to reach the levels of equality we currently have today while still highlighting that there’s still work to be done. I absolutely loved this conclusion, it lived up to expectations, and I’m devastated that it’s over now. 5 stars.