Daring and the Duke : The Bareknuckle Bastards Book III
Author(s): Sarah MacLean
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.
Review(s):
“MacLean works magic, crafting a magnificent romance that’s as satisfying as it is subversive.”
In “Daring and the Duke,” Sarah MacLean’s final installment of the Bareknuckle Bastards we get to see Grace Condry finally get the epic grovel she deserves. This romance is stridently feminist from the first page….That sounds like a happily-ever-after the Chicks would probably write a song about.”
“MacLean engages with complex faults of the patriarchy throughout, interrogating women’s pleasure and the threat that men perceive when it is taken rather than given...she probes questions of identity and internalized misogyny, her writing ripe with lust, forgiveness, and the female gaze.”
"Visceral, gritty, and full of passion and angst, this romance mixes moments of emotional introspection with grand scenes of balls, fights, and scorching intimacy...While this story excels as a second-chance, redemption love story, what really makes it stand out is the unabashedly feminist exploration...Dark, daring, delicious, and absolutely delightful."
"The highly anticipated conclusion to the inimitable MacLean’s massively popular Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy delivers a satisfying emotional punch that fans will savor. It can be read as a stand-alone but is best enjoyed along with the rest of the series."
"Wrapping up the Bareknuckle Bastards series splendidly, RITA Award–winning MacLean reinforces her place as a master of historical romance with another exemplary, empowering love story that brilliantly showcases her flair for gloriously insightful characterization, grandly entertaining plotting, and gorgeously sensual prose."
“She’s my absolute go-to author for clever, sexy and fun historical romances.”
“Here [MacLean] kicks off a new series, The Bareknuckle Bastards, that promises her darkest take yet. But even when MacLean goes dark… the sparkling wit and essential goodness of her characters shine through.”
“[...] MacLean once again dazzles readers with her literary prowess by delivering another perfectly matched pair of protagonists, a surfeit of amusing secondary characters, stellar use of sensuality, and polished writing generously seasoned with her inimitable, irresistible sense of wit.”
“Funny, playful and vivid, Sarah MacLean’s latest romance samples the best of both worlds with the earthy vigor of the slum’s crafty, loyal lower classes and the juicy intrigue of high society scandal.”
ISBN: 9780063006492