Daring and the Duke audiobook

I usually get something up about the book earlier than two months beforehand here on Goodreads, but it's 2020, so I'm taking everything as a win these days! Here we go! Grace and Ewan finally get their happily ever after in Daring & the Duke -- and hoo-boy do they go through the wringer for it. I hope you love their love story as much as I do, complete with angst, drama, dirty fighting, an endless grovel....and Whit and Devil grumbling about it the whole time. An incomplete list of stuff you'll find in this book: * Grace, aka Dahlia, former bareknuckle fighter, superior businesswoman and the proprietor of a women's pleasure club--and definitely the smartest of the Bareknuckle Bastards. * Ewan, aka the Duke of Marwick, returned to London to find girl he chased away twenty-years ago...and ready to do anything to win her back. * A pure grovel novel. If you like books where hero's hearts are yanked from their chests...this one is for you.* Bareknuckle boxing, rooftop shenanigans, a circus complete with magicians and aerialists, and a peek at Devil & Whit in domestic bliss. * A little look at what comes next! Daring & the Duke is coming July 30th to bookstores everywhere...I hope you'll add the book to your TBR shelf here at Goodreads, and preorder now. If you're interested, you can find signed copies at my local indie in New York City -- and support a local New York, woman-owned business while getting a signed book and some delicious swag (including this gorgeous laptop-or-anywhere sticker, featuring Grace's bare knuckles!) Amazon: https://amzn.to/36enOHtKobo: http://bit.ly/DukeKobo B&N: http://bit.ly/DukeBNApple Books: https://apple.co/394AXnZBAM: http://bit.ly/DukeBAM Your local indie via Bookshop.org: https://bit.ly/2Yycsx0My local indie, WORD in Brooklyn: http://wordbookstores.com/sarahmaclean

Full disclosure: I am a friend of Sarah's and her FatedMates podcast cohost! Hi, this book was my everything. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but this book DELIVERS. All the things you wanted from Ewan & Grace...and more! This book gave me things I didn't even know I wanted. I just thought it was magnificent and subversive in the best way. I'm not even coherent right now because I don't know how to talk about it without spoilers, but this book is just perfect. fucking perfection.

Gosh, that was so good.I'm just going to sit here with my feelings.(April 2020)2nd read - audio & print (my own copies) - July 4 - July 13 2020It is truly difficult to write a coherent review for a book you adore I've discovered. Let's just mash some keys on the keyboard and call it done? No, I cannot do that! Plus I had to review the audio book for my Library Journal gig and I don't think lkjsdflkjakjl would work.Mildly spoilery and if you haven't read the other books in this series (or this book):Okay. So here goes. I have to admit I didn't worry about Ewan's redemption like I worried about Malcolm's from The Day of the Duchess. I felt MacLean deftly showcased Ewan as cold and calculating and completely without hope until he discovered Grace's existence. I fully believed he has ulterior motivations for attacking Grace and her brothers so I could sink into this story ready for his redemption.And oh Grace, she is so awesome. I connected with her tendency to give others the pleasure they seek without taking pleasure of her own. Her loyalty to her family, her brothers of her heart and her crew of women. I loved seeing her discover what would give her pleasure, going to seek it, but never compromising herself or her ideals. Duke was hers by right, and Duchess would never be enough, and finally seeing Ewan understand this and burn it to the ground was SO SATISFYING.Grace and Ewan also both have a past. So often in this trope the woman often remains unkissed, a virgin, and I'm glad Grace's past was not dissected but was presented in a way we know that she has taken lovers before. She is not shamed for living her life, but instead is glorified for who she has become. I want to revel in the world more, and will reread this series often. It is a true treasure.I'll post the LJ audio review when it is live.

4.5/5Oh, man! Daring and the Duke was so so good! Most fans of this series have been highly anticipating this book in particular because Ewan and Grace have such a tumultuous history together. For me, this book was everything I was hoping for them and I'm so pleased with how Sarah MacLean handled Ewan's redemption!Sarah MacLean always writes terrific female characters, but Grace is probably my favorite heroine from her. She was a badass young woman who had turned her life around and was considered a Queen in Convent Garden. She used to be a fighter and now ran a club geared towards women. She had a tough shell because life had forced her to grow up faster than most people. Despite that, Grace could be equally soft and vulnerable when it came to the people that she loved. Her loyalty towards her brothers, Devil and Whit, and her team of women was admirable. I liked the duality of her tenacious and sensitive sides. It made her very real to me and easy to connect with.Grace also had a weak spot when it came to the only man she has ever loved, Ewan. These two! My goodness, the chemistry and history between them made their relationship so intense. Ewan has gone most of his adult life thinking that his childhood love and the girl he hurt back in the day was dead. Ewan was a rather villainous/anti-hero character in the first two books of this series, so I was really curious to see how Sarah MacLean would redeem him. There were reasons why Ewan behaved the way he did. Underneath it all, he was a man madly in love with Grace and distraught from the grief of having lost her. That doesn't mean all his past actions were okay and neither the author nor Grace condoned his mistakes. He has to work hard to make amends and Grace (and Devil and Whit) put him through the wringer, rightfully so. He handled everything she threw at him with devotion and more. I think Sarah MacLean wrote his character arc so well and I could not have been more satisfied.Despite the many years that had passed between them, their chemistry and love for each other only seemed to burn brighter than ever. There were moments of heartache and misunderstandings, but more than anything this was a story of their reunion and how they had to overcome the numerous emotional obstacles in their way. It was a lovely journey, in my opinion, and I could not have asked for a more gratifying love story for these two characters that I grew to love so much.Daring and the Duke was a remarkable romance novel. I really did love this story to bits and this entire series holds a special place in my heart. I could not have been happier with this ending.

This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance Daring and the Duke is the finale of the Barenuckled Bastards trilogy by this author and I can't believe this delightful series is over already. I think I have been looking forward to Grace's story since the first book was read, she is such an iconic character that just builds the mystery and intrigue throughout the trilogy, so you just ache for her story and seeing more of her background, and there are so many facets to her character that I found fascinating and well worth the long wait for. And of course we have our anti hero(villain) who has just played the "bad guy" for the first two books and one wonders how on EARTH can MacLean redeem this soul? Well she does and its epically beautiful. Daring and the Duke starts off with a torture session with Grace and Ewan. This is quite shortly after "Brazen and the Beast" and where Ewan is captured by the three and Grace takes out her anger and feelings of betrayal and hurt out on Ewan and Ewan shocked to find her alive, is willing to give her whatever she needs, even if it means causing him pain. He doesn't fight her at all. And then he is tossed out and we jump ahead one year later where Ewan after disappearing for a year, returns to London and to Grace and is more than willing to fight for her, no matter what it takes. Grace knows that playing with Ewan, and sharing kisses with him is dangerous, but she senses there is something redeemable about him and wants to see what is possible with this Ewan who has seemingly changed from the man he once was. But Ewan is hiding a secret from all of them, and only once the secrets are revealed, can Ewan and Grace truly find a future together. Daring and the Duke was a delightful story that I fell so hard for and so quickly towards and I couldn't get enough of it. I was so captivated by this book and quite frankly READ these books in narration form. That is all I am going to say and you will adore them. I will be honest, I don't physically read this author anymore. I have just found it to be too slow at times and I can have the hardest time getting into them, but boy, Justine Eyre works her magic in narrating these books and probably a big reason why I have enjoyed them so much here. You are a queen....and tonight I am your throneI really fell in love with the story though, and even though the beginning scene is not my cup of tea (a heroine hurting the hero is NOT for me) and I almost set it aside because that scene did bother me. I understand the circumstances and why she was so angry, but it just turned my stomach seeing this scene. But then once we do the year jump, then the book turned into all that I hoped for. I loved the groveling but I also liked seeing the heroine see something more in the hero even if she doesn't fully realize it. And all the women in the family coming together and cheering her on in her pursuit of Ewan was AWESOME. We do get some good reconcilation between the brothers and even if it wasn't as much as I wanted to get, it was well done in seeing that friendship be able to rebuild its process. The three of us could have easily been broken. Separated. Manipulated,” he said. “It wasn’t blood that kept us together against him. It was you.” She caught her breath. “We all loved you. Whit and Devil like a sister—each of them willing to protect you without hesitation. And me . . .” He trailed off, and she reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his. “Like you were a part of me.The romance between Grace and Ewan was just beautiful. We do get some flashback to when they were younger, and seeing that bright young love blossom and then seeing what Ewan had to do to save all of them and it broke my heart seeing him make the difficult choice knowing it would make them turn against him. I found seeing that and seeing his devotion to Grace when he finds her alive and well, was stunning in its portrayal throughout the book. What he is willing to do to fight for her and support her is beautiful in every way. And seeing Grace fight for him, even if that means standing up for him against the two men that protected her all these years, was mind blowing. You see how much depth of love she contains for Ewan, despite all of his past wrongs, but sees the goodness still in him. I do not want to be Your Grace ever again. All I want is for you to be my Grace.” He kissed her again. “It’s always been you. Every day. Every night. Every minute. Since the beginning. This is the sum of my ambition: To be worthy of you. Of your love. Of your world. To stand by your side and change it.Overall I found Daring and the Duke to be a stunning story that won my heart with each beautiful chapter that charmed my soul in its depths of emotion and startling truths of love and growth.....STUNNINGLY EPIC

Review originally published at Romancing Romances.I received an eARC at no cost from the author, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.I can't express how happy I am to have received this book, and just before my birthday. What a wonderful gift.If you've read any of Sarah MacLean's books, you know she's great at turning a villain around. And this book is testament to that. Although I'll say, I liked Ewan from the first book, even though I didn't like what he did.The Bareknuckle Bastards series follows the life of four siblings. Three boys (Devil, Whit, and Ewan) born of the same man, but different women, and a girl with no blood connection to either of them, but family nonetheless. Devil and Whit's stories are the previous books in the series, and this one is the story of the girl. The girl whose name was given by Ewan, the fourth boy. Because she didn't even have that.Grace loved Devil and Whit as brothers, but with Ewan it was always different. And that's why it hurt so much when Ewan behaved in a way that made the Bareknuckle Bastards run away from him, scared and feeling as betrayed as possible. Their pain prevented them from seeing what was really happening.I absolutely loved this book. I read it in just a few hours. Sarah MacLean's writing is so compelling, and so sexy! Her characters come to life before your eyes and just amaze you with their behaviours and actions.Grace is this strong, independent woman. A queen in her turf. Covent Garden was her home, even though she was not born there. She knew it from Ewan's stories, and when the time came, Grace, Devil, and Whit all ran to it. And when Ewan could, the first thing he did was chase Grace and track her down. No, not chase. Search for her. And his heart and mind couldn't take it when his brothers told him she was dead. Because he knew he could feel her. And when he started to believe them, nothing could stand in his path to destruction for they had let the woman he loved die. Which is something Whit and Devil ended up admitting they would have probably done, if their loved ones had died in the same way.I loved the heart to heart talks between Grace and Ewan, and how their trust starts to rebuild, and how Ewan realizes it has to be Grace's choice. It could not be in any different way.The one thing I missed in the book was a reunion of the brothers at the end. Ewan told Grace what happened, but I would have liked a talk between the brothers. Devil and Whit learn the truth just as Grace, but if only we had a scene with the brothers being closer, or at least that open door...The way Ewan suffered broke my heart. And I have to admit I shed a tear or two when Ewan made his confession of what his dreams were: "“You, and me, here [Covent Garden]. With a collection of flame-haired babes.” She closed her eyes. “My brothers. Their children. A family.”".I am usually not a fan of second-chance romances, but this one... it's golden!In short, read this book. You won't regret it, and you'll love the Bareknuckle Bastards.

I am such a fan of this author and this series in particular. I love tortured heroes and all three of these books have featured them. Bastard sons who were gathered together by their father to battle it out in order to become the next Duke. Everyone thought Ewan won. What they never stopped to consider is that he really lost. Not only that, he did it for them.Readers of the series will recognize Ewan as the villain in the other two installments. After all, he went after Devil and Beast at every turn. But he did it because he blamed them for the death of the girl he loved. Grace was the illegitimate child of the Duke’s wife. When she was born, the duke claimed she was a boy, with the intention one day of substituting her with one of his bastards. He never imagined one of those boys would fall in love with her.So back to Ewan as a villain… in the set up, he was remembered as having tried to kill Grace and his brothers in order to gain his title. Suffice it to say without giving too much away, things were not what they seemed. True, he did do dastardly things in the first two books, but they were done out of grief. And now that he knows Grace is really alive, everything in his world is different.Grace has every reason to hate Ewan... and she does. But also, she loves him and no matter how hard she tries, she cannot shake that. I loved her as a character. Fully formed, strong and powerful. If I have any small complaint about this book, it’s that she could still love him and want him even before she knew the truth of what really happened. That’s a lot to overcome and while she put up something of a fight, it really wasn’t all that much.Still. This book made me feel for the characters, something which fewer and fewer seem to manage lately. I felt both characters’ grief profoundly. Their yearning for each other. Their conflict. Even though I gave Grace's capitulation a bit of the side eye, I wanted them to be together. I wanted to ease their long-suffering, and the only way to do that was to allow their reunion.There are some great sexy times. A solid plot. Some action. And love. not just lip service, but real deal feelings. And that is what makes Sarah Maclean a phenomenal author.A satisfying, fitting conclusion to an awesome historical romance series. Would recommend.*ARC provided by Avon

this book…sarah maclean is the moment

⭐4.5 stars⭐ "They don't want to scare us. They want to end us.""Why?""Because... They don't like that we are the future."

*4.5*This book was HOT. It was passionate, steamy, with a big dash of heartache, frustration and so many moments where I just wanted these two to be together already!! I really did enjoy this one, I’ve loved the previous two books and I was highly anticipating Ewan and Grace; like counting the days since I finished Brazen and the Beast last year! It definitely lived up to my expectations, especially the beginning and the second half. I really loved the masquerade and I loved 72 Shelton, what a beautiful and extravagant place! I fell in love with Covet Garden and all of its hidden treasures throughout this series and I loved getting lost in Sarah’s writing. That being said, it was a bit slow. I loved and was addicting while I was reading, but I was able to put it down and not have that yearn to pick it back up. But when I read it, I loved it. It was just SO ANGSTY and FRUSTRATING at points because I understood WHY Grace had to be that way with him, I loved her so much, she’s so amazing! But it drove me crazy that he waited until the end to explain his side of the story and his side just fell a bit flat to me. It was kind of predictable why he “betrayed” them. That’s why I knocked it down a star, and I wanted more scenes of Ewan with Devil and Whitt! I wanted more of reconciliation between those two and I felt it was missing it a little bit. But I did love all the steamy moments with Grace and Ewan!! Those two killed me in this book. Im sad to see the series end but I’m really excited to see what Sarah’s got in store with Hells Belles!