The Gentleman's Gambit

This book took me places besides back in time. The story started in the Scottish Highlands, moved to Oxford, then London, and ended somewhere I didn't expect.I love all of [a:Evie Dunmore 18775709 Evie Dunmore https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1548783382p2/18775709.jpg] books in the four-book The League of Extraordinary Women (TLOEW) series, and [b:The Gentleman's Gambit 75293479 The Gentleman's Gambit (A League of Extraordinary Women, #4) Evie Dunmore https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677050625l/75293479.SX50.jpg 85846264] is no exception. I love that when the author writes historical fiction, she doesn't gloss over the historical part and yet still incorporates the sizzle I love. Catriona is not your basic Victorian-age, Scottish damsel in distress. She's a bright woman, easily speaking multiple languages, who can take care of herself. Her past experience with men has taught her that she's not the marrying kind. When the mysterious and exotic Elias Khoury happens upon her in an awkward way, it only affirms that her feelings about the male gender are correct.I love how a smart woman's dilemma was explained. In some ways, it's still true.“He wasn't the first to use her for her brains or connections; everyone she had fancied before him had done it and patterns were nothing if not consistent. There was a cruel irony in finding herself reduced to the very thing she had worked so hard to cultivate, her academic position. It was as though a woman could have either a brain or a heart, and whichever way, she was allowed only half a life.”I love the suffrage aspect in all the TLOEW books, but this one has an added dimension. The pilfering of Phoenician sculptures and what it might take to return them to their native lands. There were times I thought I couldn't keep up with the twist and turns of this book and the multitude of characters, but the author led me carefully by the hand through the story to its unexpected conclusion. It is interesting how Elias sneaks into Catriona's heart (and she into his) only to have their connection prohibited by social norms and timing. It seems they will have to be content with what little time they have together. And believe me, they make the most of it. This is another great tale and I'm so glad I read it.