This was such an incredible ending to The Bareknuckle Bastards series. I was skeptical that Ewan would be able to redeem himself, but redeems himself he did. Not only that but I think this is my favorite book of the trilogy.

The chemistry and connection between Ewan and Grace jumps off the page. Their history together is strong and emotional making their time together extra intense. The sex is hot and I think the theme of women finding and taking their pleasure is particularly important. Even though this story takes place more than 150 years ago the lessons still feel relevant and timely to today.

DNF at 10%. This is me and my reading brain right now. I can’t get into this but that doesn’t say anything about the book. Thank you to Avon for the free review copy.

The conclusion to Sarah MacLean’s Bareknuckle Bastard series delivers everything readers could want and more. Grace and Ewan loved each other as children, but an unforgivable betrayal from Ewan tore them apart and sent Grace into hiding. Years later, Ewan arrives in London as the eligible Duke of Marwick and Grace, who is the true heir to the title Ewan claims, reigns over the kingdom she’s built in Covent Garden. Ewan is a villain in the first two books in this series, but he is determined to win Grace back. MacLean puts him through the wringer in Daring and the Duke—giving readers a grovel novel unlike any other as Ewan lets go of the power he once used to try and find her and instead works to transform himself into a man worthy of her. I hardly have the words for Grace, who is tough as steel and uses her fierce strength and fearlessness to protect those she loves. She’s equally protective of her heart, and won’t dare let Ewan back in if he cannot show that this time he’s chosen her above all else. Though Grace and Ewan are both known for their hard edges, the love between them is unbelievably tender, and the quiet vulnerable moments between them make this book shine. TLDR: Perfection.

I have been dying for Ewan, the Duke of Marwick, and Grace’s story ever since I read the last book, Brazen and the Beast. There was so much hurt and emotions, you could feel it through the pages.

Ewan’s father was an evil man. He forced Ewan to make decisions that changed Grace and his brothers’ lives forever. So my stomach was in knots most of the time. The Bareknuckle Bastards have created this life for themselves, without the Duke’s help. They don’t need him or want him. They don’t want the heartache again, especially not for Grace. The brothers have protected her from him and they don’t want to see her hurt again.

No matter 20 years or 20 days, being separated from Grace has taken it’s toll on Ewan. He’ll do anything to find her and explain what happened all those years ago.

Grace has learned to live without him. She’s had a lot of experience making due. But she’s merely surviving, not living. She fulfills everyone’s dreams but her own. When the Duke finds her, her world is flipped. Everything she thought she knew about that night long ago, was wrong.

I loved these characters. They grew up together and know when to push each other and when to hold back. Watching them find their HEAs was definitely not easy, but in the end all things worked out.

My wish was granted (Thank you!) and I was able to read an ARC and this is my honest review.

I’ll caveat this review by saying that I read maybe 20 romance novels a year. I’m not an entry-level reader, but I’m not completely fluent in the community either. Also, I read this book without having read the previous two in the series, largely because this particular volume was recommended to me by Adele Buck, and I was able to get an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book, and I can tell it’s definitely one of the more carefully crafted romance novels I’ve read. The hero of this book has been the villain of the last two, which can get tricky, but MacLean makes sure everyone gets painted with a complex brush (eh, well, except for the ogre of a father, but… I’ll let it slide).

I enjoyed reading about Grace/Dahlia’s role in London’s criminal underworld, and actually I wanted more of it. We mostly stay in the women’s club she owns, and while there is a good amount of boxing I wanted to hear more about the three Bareknuckle Bastards growing up fighting (I expect this is in book one). I also appreciated that the sex scenes spend a LOT of time on communication and enthusiastic consent—I don’t think I’ve seen that done this well before.

There were a few scenes that felt a little disjointed to me as I was reading them, but I think this was me and my mindset coming into it, not the book itself. The tone of this book is flirty, teasing, a chase. Every now and then I thought I saw action and fighting coming and then… it would dissolve into a flirty chase. There’s nothing wrong with that—I think my wires are just a little crossed by a little too much Dungeons and Dragons and quarantine action movies. Go into it with the idea that the characters here don’t actually want to hurt each other, they just want to make others work for it a bit.

I have to say, I was very disappointed in this final installment of the Bareknuckle Bastards series.

I had a hard time connecting with many of the characters, who all seemed very self-involved and oblivious to the needs of others. The writing was repetitious and, frankly, boring -- which is completely unusual for Sarah MacLean. I typically love her books, and enjoyed the prior two in the series.

What really did it for me though is that I never felt that Ewan was actually redeemed. He killed five people and terrorized the three Bastards for years, and yet, we're supposed to forgive him.

Sarah MacLean’s Daring and the Duke (Avon) is the last book in her Bareknuckle Bastards series and focuses on 19th century London’s “seedy underbelly” through main characters Grace and Ewan. This highly anticipated romance touches on more than just love. It explores women’s roles in the patriarchy, defines the concept of dukedom, and shows how close (and yet how far) the rich and the poor are from each other.

If you’re new to the series, the Bareknuckle Bastards are sons and a daughter of the old Duke of Marwick. Because the Duke’s only true heir is a girl (and can’t be duke), the Duke brings his three illegitimate sons from lower-class Covent Gardens to his estate and pits them against each other for the title, with the losers slated for death. The siblings, however, don’t know that. They grow close, the boys linked by blood, all of them linked by secrets and circumstance.

In the end, Ewan becomes duke, and the others, Grace, Whit (the Beast) and Devil (Devon) barely escape with their lives. The three survivors head to Covent Gardens, growing up in its gritty streets becoming bareknuckle child street fighters to earn money. Book one showcases Devon — better known as Devil, while book two’s focus is Whit — nicknamed the Beast. This book highlights Grace, known now as Dahlia—the queen of Covent Gardens.

Having prevailed in the child street-fighting rings, Dahlia is now the owner of a women’s pleasure club, one of the most popular in London, with many women of the aristocracy on its membership rolls. The club scenes and interactions are fascinating, showing the reader a world that they may have never seen before — one where sex work is decriminalized, and women enjoyed brothels as much as men. While Dahlia and her club are fiction, this era — just before Queen Victoria’s reign — and the fact that these women’s clubs existed is historically accurate. It also shows how resourceful women had to be (and still have to be) just to live in a strictly patriarchal society. The fact that Dahlia mastered traveling by rooftops and led the finest spy network in London is no coincidence.

But when Ewan shows up twenty years after the thrown-together group split, it brings up all kinds of loose ends. There are questions to be answered, wrongs Ewan has to atone for, and ultimately thwarted love and broken promises of a future together.

As kids, Ewan vowed to make his step-sister Grace his duchess once he became duke. Now that Grace has grown into Dahlia, she wants nothing to do with dukedom — which Ewan technically stole from her. What used to represent money and freedom for all of them, now is the worst thing that could happen to any of them. But being a duke cannot diminish the connection and attraction Ewan and Grace have for each other.

Daring and the Duke is full of action, loaded with spectacle and steaming with rekindled love between its hero and heroine. Arguably the best of the Bareknuckle Bastards series, this historical romance is one exciting page-turner.

I usually enjoy a good 'bodice ripper', but unfortunately this book did not do anything for me.

I loved that Grace was such a strong character - a strong, fearless woman that made her own place in the world and her own 'kingdom' to rule over. She surrounded herself and ran her empire with more strong women. Her main goal was to give women the power that they were robbed of in their own lives.

I just never felt a strong connection between Grace and Ewan. I can't really out my finger on what was missing for me. I really do wish that it had captivated me more, as I usually love historical romance and have enjoyed other book by this author.

Thank you to Avon books and NetGalley for my copy of the book to read and review.

Spectacular! Powered by MacLean's brilliant prose and perfect pacing, Daring and the Duke is a locomotive from the start that keeps gaining steam and barreling forward to the heart-breaking, heart-mending end. Ground-breaking, idea-shaking, this series upends what has always been typical of historical romance while keeping all we love about the genre, all that is possible, at the core. This story was at turns fierce and tender and poignant and funny, and I gladly lost myself in this world of MacLeans's careful making."

The culmination of the Bareknuckled Bastards series does not disappoint. As expected, the villain of the first two books is redeemed, with a satisfying resolution to the book and to the series about the power of love to overcome traumatic pasts.
Grace, queen of the Gardens, is used to fulfilling desire. Ewan is an angsty duke looking for a second chance with his childhood love. Their reunion is steamy and immediate, but complicated by their complex past.
The book is the last in a series; the first two are Wicked and the Wallflower and Brazen and the Beast.

I was a huge fan of the previous book in this series (Brazen and the Beast) -- it might be one of my favorite Sarah MacLean books -- so I had very high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, I don't think it hit the mark for me. Truthfully, I think the hero was set up as way too much of a villain in previous books, and he doesn't adequately atone for his past transgressions in this book. The romance was sweet, and I'm a sucker for second chances, but honestly, this one just fell sort of flat. The writing grew very repetitive, and the relationship between Grace and Ewan seemed to lose tension around the halfway point. Overall, it was not unpleasant, but it definitely is not one of my favorites of the author's books.

I am a huge Sarah MacLean fan and I was waiting for the ending for this series, however, I felt bored and disinterested while reading. I love the premise of the series, the Bareknuckle Bastards and as a precurser, reread Wicked and the Wallflower and Brazen and the Beast. However, I.felt that it was a forgone conclusion that Grace and Ewan would end up together so the plot just didn't do it for me. I enjoyed the glimpses of their shared past and those of the other brothers but it seemed like the central conflict could have been solved if the characters just talked to each other!

The third book in the Bareknuckle Bastards series reunites Grace and Ewan after years apart. The end was satisfying. ARC from NetGalley.

Daring and the Duke was the book from this series I anticipated the most. After Ewan was the villain for the first two books I was so curious how MacLean was going to end the series. The first part of this starts with such a bang, I honestly could not put it down and read 50% in one sitting. But the second half fell flat? I lost interest in Ewan and Grace at some point and put the book down for almost a month. I did enjoy the ending but I was hoping the pacing would be as good as the first half. Seriously I loved the first half so much.

I did really enjoy how Ewan’s character evolved. I love a redeemed groveling hero and Ewan gave great grovel. Grace was a fantastic character throughout the series and I loved her in this book. This would have been a five star read if the second half held my interest more.

Love this book! Thank you so much to Avon for sharing it with me.
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Review posted on BookBub.

This was an amazing conclusion to The Bareknuckle Bastards series! This book has it all - childhood sweethearts, second chances, enemies to lovers, a bit of mistaken identities (sort of), redeemed hero...

Ewan has been an antagonist in the past two books in the series, so I was really looking forward to seeing how Sarah MacLean would turn him into a romance-worthy hero. Wow, am I ever impressed at what an amazing job she did getting me on board the Ewan Express right from the get-go. I really can't say more without spoilers, but this book had my clutching my chest trying to keep my heart from hurting so much, and it was mostly because of Ewan's sections. I love a good anti-hero/redeemed villain story and wow, Ewan. *fans self*

Grace is also amazing. The previous books had her sort of flirting around the edges of the stories, and it was awesome to finally get to really know her as a character. My only regret is that the cover of the book shows her in some floofy yellow dress. I really wish we'd gotten her in one of her gorgeous tailored jacket with brightly colored silk lining to match the corset underneath and tailored trousers. She wears a dress literally like ONCE in the book, come on. Grace is this amazing, strong, independent woman with this deep well of strength, and I adore her.

Daring and the Duke is the third and final book in The Bareknuckle Bastards series. While it could technically probably be read as a stand alone, you're really better off if you read this one in series order. You really won't get the full emotional punch of this one if you read it out of order.

I have enjoyed all of Sarah MacLean's books. I enjoyed learning more about Ewan and what happened to cause the rift between him and the BareKnuckled Bastards. I also enjoyed the ties to the Fallen Angel from MacLean's other books.

I wasn’t sure how Sarah was going to make me fall in love with Ewan, but she did it! This was just the feel-good HEA book I’ve been needing.

Sarah MacLean once again gives us a story that keeps me guessing and characters I absolutely adore. This is my favorite of her series, and my favorite historical romance series ever. The tension and chemistry between these two characters sizzles on the page. I loved reading about their lost love, finding hope again, and then trying to find the courage to be vulnerable with their love again. The characters from the other two books were featured and I enjoyed seeing them again. This band of ruthless heroes is just the friendship I want in romance. I loved this book and can see myself returning to these characters again and again whenever I need their hope.

Saying goodbye to this series wasn’t easy. But as we return one last time to the dark, criminal underworld of Sarah MacLean’s nineteenth-century London with what is nothing short of a subversive feminist masterpiece that gloriously demolishes sexist tropes and stereotypes, we are reminded once more what a rare gem in the Historical Romance genre this author truly is. A rapturous tale of redemption, forgiveness, and second chances, this is the book that we’ve been waiting for from the very start of the series—the story of the villainous third bastard son of the late Duke of Marwick, and the woman he’s spent half a lifetime searching for—and it was everything I never even knew it could be.

CONTINUE READING REVIEW » https://natashaisabookjunkie.com/2020/07/03/review-daring-and-the-duke-by-sarah-maclean/