A Rogue of One's Own (League of Extraordinary Women #2) by Evie Dunmore (2020)

Synopsis:

A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution—but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans…and her heart.
 
Lady Lucie is fuming. She and her band of Oxford suffragists have finally scraped together enough capital to control one of London’s major publishing houses, with one purpose: to use it in a coup against Parliament. But who could have predicted that the one person standing between her and success is her old nemesis and London’s undisputed lord of sin, Lord Ballentine? Or that he would be willing to hand over the reins for an outrageous price—a night in her bed.
 
Lucie tempts Tristan like no other woman, burning him up with her fierceness and determination every time they clash. But as their battle of wills and words fans the flames of long-smoldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.
 
As Lucie tries to out-maneuver Tristan in the boardroom and the bedchamber, she soon discovers there’s truth in what the poets say: all is fair in love and war…

Review

Continuing with the characters we met in ‘Bringing Down the Duke,’ we follow fearless leader Lady Lucie in her further efforts to get the Married Women’s Property Act amended. She and some other Suffragists have created an investing consortium with the purpose of buying a publishing house so they can publish their report detailing how it’s not just poor women like Nancy in ‘Oliver Twist’ who are abused and misused in their marriages. Lucie’s plans are complicated by the rogue Lord Tristan Ballantine when he buys the other 50% share of the publishing company and seems bent on impeding her just for the fun of it.

Bringing Down the Duke (League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore (2019)

Synopsis

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics at the Queen's command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can't deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn't be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn't claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring...or could he?Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke...

Review

She is Annabelle Archer, a ‘country woman’ who wants to study Greek and Latin at Oxford University and to escape the indentured nature of her life in Kent. At present, she is dependent upon the whims of her cousin, an uptight noddy clodpole who fears that such an education would be a waste and rather unseemly, not to mention how it would unduly inconvenience his life, were she no longer available to serve as free labor in his home. But Annabelle is not deterred and maneuvers him into consenting to her plan - as long as she sends him 2 pounds a month to pay for an additional servant. Annabelle agrees to this burden, even if it is exorbitantly more than he pays for any servant in his employ. The agreement is worth it to get away from a man who can’t manage his money enough to make it last through the month but still seems bent on creating more heirs to feed. Freedom from being under the man’s thumb and to have a room of her own is worth the burden that extra work as a tutor will entail.