ARC Review: Daring and the Duke (The Bareknuckle Bastards #3) by Sarah MacLean
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Series: The Bareknuckle Bastards #3
Author: Sarah MacLean
Published June 30th 2020 by Piatkus
Goodreads Synopsis
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.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via Edelweiss. This in no way impacted on my view.
After binging the two previous books in this series, as soon as I was able to, I had to finish with my ARC of Daring and the Duke. This time around, we see Grace and Ewan's story, from their time at the country estate when they were teens, to his betrayal of his brothers, and Grace becoming one of the most feared bareknuckle fighters in Covent Garden, and owner of one of the most exclusive bordellos in London. After the explosive conclusion to Brazen and the Beast, Grace has had Ewan prisoner in her office, but can't stop herself from caring and healing him. Devil and Whit find out, and want to get their revenge, but they know the person who was hurt the most by Ewan's actions nearly 20 years ago was Grace, and leave her to it. Now that Ewan knows Grace is alive, and living in London, in Covent Garden no less, he can't keep himself away, and wants to atone for his sins in whatever way possible. But having the allusive Duke of Marwick spend time in a rookery is bound to cause attention, attention none of them need, especially when female led businesses are being targeted in the Gardens. Will Ewan ever be redeemable, or is the past too much for Grace to overcome?
I've been wanting Grace and Ewan's story from meeting them for the first time in Wicked and the Wallflower. Their love affair and betrayal was so well done, that you are just hooked from the get go. Grace had to fight, quite literally, for her life after the three Bastards fled Marwick, and she was finally starting to heal. However, there had always been a hole in her heart from where Ewan hurt her, and she needed closure if she was to move forward. Collecting an unconscious Ewan and healing him in order to fight was part of the way to recovery, but she could never be free of him. I never thought I would feel sorry for Ewan, not with how awful he had been in the previous books, but this instalment definitely paints a picture that helps us to understand his actions. The power that the late Duke of Marwick had held over all four of them when they were children was immense, and once he had found out Ewan's weakness, he wasn't afraid to use it to break him, and break him he did. This book shows him healing, and trying to make amends, and just prove to Grace and his half brothers that he's not the villain they think, and his actions had a purpose previously unknown. I think that his and Grace's love story was my favourite, and the way it was concluded and resolved was perfect! I've already requested all of Sarah's other books that my library has, and will be waiting impatiently for her next book!
Dates Read:
May 30, 2020
Rating
4 Stars
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