AN ESCAPIST LOVE STORY

The last thing Catriona Campbell, an avid reader and suffragist wants is to fall in love with her father’s young colleague (Elias Khoury). But love always tip toes and leaves with a bang when you are least expecting! Bestselling author Evie Dunmore’s The Gentleman's Gambit (A League of Extraordinary Women Book 4) is an outstanding bold finale to her swooning romance series. Dunmore’s characters jump out of the hallowed Oxford corridors and beautiful rolling hills and lakes of the Scottish countryside.

Catriona is an intellectual introvert, who dives into her books, feminist rights, and scholarly works at Oxford. Her father (Professor Camp-bell) is a top academician in study circles of Oxford. Her attempts at love and relationships have failed miserably in the past. Life is harmonious in the idyllic Scottish countryside loch, where she often goes skinny dipping in a nearby loch. However, her idyllic life takes a drastic turn, when Elias comes on the scene. One day when she surfaces from the lake stark naked, she finds Elias standing and staring at her. The young scholar has managed to impress Professor Campbell and wriggle his way into the inner circles of Oxford academia. But nobody knows his real intentions.

Professor Campbell thinks very highly of Elias. He asks Catriona to accompany Elias to Oxford so that he can examine and jot down notes of some Middle Eastern antiques. The attraction between Catriona and Elias is obvious. But neither Catriona nor her father knows that Elias plans to steal the ancient artifacts and return them to their rightful place.

The author manages to weave in the suspense, suffragette history, romance, and seductive meet-cute moments brilliantly in this love story. Elias is Lebanese and a practicing Maronite Catholic. Dunmore does not shy away from highlighting and condemning the atrocities committed by the British Empire and the colonial mindset. Elias and Catriona are a perfect match, but there is a lot at stake. The plot moves seamlessly through Catriona and Elias’s romantic rendezvous. Elias is the one who can truly see her and understand Catriona’s fears. Till the end, the reader is left guessing whether Elias will risk everything for love or stick to the gentleman’s gambit.