Tuesday, July 14, 2020

DARING AND THE DUKE (BARENUCKLE BASTARDS #3)

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the much-anticipated final book in her Bareknuckle Bastards series, featuring a scoundrel duke and the powerful woman who brings him to his knees.

Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London’s darkest corners. Grace has a sharp mind and a powerful right hook and has never met an enemy she could not best...until the man she once loved returns.

Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back…and make her his duchess.

Reconciliation is the last thing Grace desires. Unable to forgive the past, she vows to take her revenge. But revenge requires keeping Ewan close, and soon her enemy seems to be something else altogether—something she can’t resist, even as he threatens the world she's built, the life she's claimed…and the heart she swore he'd never steal again. 


Release Date: June 30, 2020
Avon Harper Collins
Historical Romance
Barenuckle Bastards #3
Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's Review:

I wanted to read Daring and the Duke from the moment I finished reading Brazen and the Beast. I needed to see how Ms. MacLean could possibly redeem Ewan, as I had serious doubts at that point. Daring and the Duke has absolutely become one of the best books I've read all year!

Grace Condry and her brothers Whit and Devil are known as the Barenuckle Bastards of Covent Garden and they rule the Garden together and protect all that reside in the Garden. Ewan, Duke of Marwick has wreaked havoc on the Gardens because he had been told Grace had died. He absolutely went mad and attached everything and anyone who were important to Whit and Devil. He was absolutely horrible, and in the first 2 books in the series, I wanted him to absolutely lose everything.

Grace on the other hand still had feelings for Ewan even after all he had done to hurt them. I loved this tough as nails woman had been in love with Ewan since they were children. I honestly never thought at the first of the book Ewan deserved the love Grace still felt. However, with each passing chapter we discover just a bit more about the past and all Ewan did to protect not only Grace, but his brothers as well. I found myself loving Ewan every bit as much if not more than his brother as each new fact from the past was brought to light. 

I absolutely adored Grace and Ewan as a couple and had all the happy feels once they started to spend more time together and Grace started seeing all that Ewan was willing to do to make everything right. Their chemistry was fabulous and only grew hotter the more time they spent together. I loved how protective they were of one another. As Grace is one of the Barenuckle Bastards, she has no problem protecting herself and all those she loves. Ewan would do absolutely anything within his power to make sure Grace was always protected. 

Daring and the Duke was everything I wanted in the end of this fabulous series from Sarah MacLean! The entire series is sublime and I can't wait to go back and re-read it again and again to revisit characters I absolutely adore. Somehow the Barenuckle Bastards series is the first I've read by Ms. MacLean, and I can't wait to devour her back list in the near future.



Rating: 5 Stars (A+)

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