Thursday, May 12

Audiobook Review: Daring and the Duke By Sarah MacLean




Author: Sarah MacLean
Narrator: Justine Eyre
Title: Daring and the Duke
(The Bareknuckle Bastards #3)
Genre: Historical Romance
Format: Audiobook
Published: June 30th 2020
Where I got It: Audible 

Summary: 
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.



Review:
Finally getting myself to read this. One...it is the last book of the series and two....Ewan is the hero here so it was a struggle to want to read it. The author did a great job making him a baddie in the previous books so I was worried about this one. 

Here we follow Grace Condry and Ewan the Duke of Marwick. Grace has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed by the only love she has ever had and was raised on the streets, she now hides her pain. She has become a queen of London's darkest corners. Life seems good in her world until the man she loved returns. Ewan is single-minded and ruthless. He spent decades searching for Grace after he made a terrible gamble to save her life. He learns she is still alive and wants to win her back. 

I feel so bad for Ewan and the other two boys. They were taken from nothing and forced to fight each other for the Dukedom. The old Duke wanted a boy but never got a son from his wife....his wife only provided a daughter that was not his. That old Duke was an evil SOB.  

When Ewan won he had to pretend to want to kill Grace so they had a chance to run away and save her life. However, that backfired on Ewan because the three really and truly believed he was aiming to kill them. And when he tried to track them down they told him Grace died. Which was a lie, but they were trying to protect her from him. BUT it all makes sense why Ewan freaked out and wanted blood. He lost the love of his life and his brothers "failed" to protect her after he made that sacrifice. It all made sense why Ewan wanted revenge. Can you really blame him? 

I'm glad that Ewan had to really and truly prove himself to Grace and the brothers. His actions caused the deaths of some of their people. Sure he didn't pull the trigger himself, but he made a piss poor decision. And yes, he deserved getting his arse kicked by the people and by Grace herself. 

I do wish that Ewan had told Grace the truth sooner. She would've forgiven him sooner. Yes, yes, it would've shortened the book, but I would've liked more time with them finding their footing with each other. I would've liked to see the wedding. 

Oh! There are some side characters I wish would get a HEA or even a brief mention on their fates. 

Ohhhh and I want to see the aftermath of what Ewan did at the very end. Curious how the ton truly reacted. 

I felt like this novel was def sadder than the others. There was a lot of history and a lot of bad blood and hurt feelings to sort through. We also spent the majority of the time down in Grace's world and I liked that. I needed a break from the petty ton.  And I loved, loved, LOVED Grace having a female brothel. Women deserve pleasure too. I would want to be an employee for Grace if I couldn't be rich in that time period. 

The narrator was good. I love her voices and you can't go wrong with Justine Eyre.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was a slow burn and the characters had a LOT of healing to do before they could rejoice in their love. I'm glad the author gave Ewan the redemption he needed and it was done right. I do wish that we had more time with them actually being happy and in love. I would've loved seeing them get married and the brothers being happy for them. I also wanted more info on some of the side characters. I enjoyed this series and I think it ended well overall. I think book 2 was my favorite. I'll give this 3 stars. 






Challenge(s):
- #22 for Audiobook challenge






6 comments:

Melliane said...

Too bad it's not as good as the previous one there

Carole Rae said...

Yaaaa it wasn't as good as the other two. Still good...just not as.

Jen Twimom said...

I read the first one recently and decided the series wasn't for me. But it's nice to hear that Ewan redeems himself and gets his HEA with Grace.

Carole Rae said...

Jen, awww sorry the series wasn't for you. But yes he does get redeemed and it all makes sense

Blodeuedd said...

I hve to check if she has something new out soon

Carole Rae said...

B, I don't think anything new for this series.