I loved Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean so much. I laughed. I cried. Then I cried some more.
This book wraps up the Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy. The first two books, which I posted about here and here, were good. Daring and the Duke is the best a Regency romance can be. (Actually a post-Regency romance, as it takes place just as Queen Victoria ascends to the throne.) A compelling hero who claws himself out of mental illness and into society for the sole purpose of winning the love of his life. A heroine who runs a high-end brothel devoted to female pleasure, and can also throw a mean punch. Relatives who are loving and kind of hilarious. An absolutely fitting, fantastic, unexpected, and cathartic ending (not that they got together -- it's a romance, duh -- but how one of the central conflicts was resolved).
Of course the book had flaws. My main nitpick was the sex. Yes, it was hot, but if hero Ewan has been a reclusive misanthrope since he was a young teen, where did he learn his oral sex skills? At least MacLean didn't make heroine Grace an unexpected virgin (thank you for that), but given what she does for a living is good sex really going to be such a new experience for her?
That said, this is a book you don't want to pick up when you have anything important going on in your life, because you won't be able to put it down.
Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
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