Daring and the Duke: The Bareknuckle Bastards Finale—A Duke Returns to Reclaim His Old Love, the Betrayed Queen

I have read the entire series and at the end of the previous books I had closure for the characters, but so many questions… Finally, I have answers and OMG, Ms. MacLean has done what I would have bet was impossible – turned the villain into the best hero of the series (maybe even the best hero she has written)!! Thirty-five years ago the Duke of Marwick set a plan in motion, when a baby girl was born to the Duchess of Marwick, but not of his blood, he christen her Robert Matthew Carrick, Earl Sumner and heir to the Duke of Marwick. Years later, he then gathered up his bastard sons – all born on the same day as the girl and hid them all away at his estate – trying to set them against each other, to decide which will be his heir. The girl was nothing, her mother died and she lived at the Duke’s mercy, but to his sons, she was everything, Whit and Devon aka Devil, loved her like a sister, but to Ewan, she was the other half of his soul, she was his Grace. Love blossomed and plans were made, they would outwit the Duke and be happy – but one night of betrayal changed everything, Ewan became the heir and Grace, Whit and Devil fled to London. They became the Bareknuckle Bastards and over the next twenty years, they fought their way to the top and ruled the “Garden”, but they were never free of Marwick and when Ewan inherited and was told Grace was dead, he made it his mission to destroy the men he entrusted her to… After an explosion on the docks, Ewan wakes and instantly knows that Whit and Devil lied to him, his Grace is not dead, she is now the queen of the Garden and known to one and all as Dahlia – the owner of the club and pleasure house at 72 Shelton Street. But his joy at learning she is alive is cut short when she fights him and tells him to leave and never come for her again. A wish he seems to grant, but a year later his name is on everyone’s lips, Mad Marwick is back and he is no longer mad, he has changed and is looking for a wife. Grace shouldn’t care, she should be happy that he has honored her wishes and stopped chasing her, but she can’t, she justifies seeing him as a chance to remind him of vows he made about not marrying and letting the line die with him – but his kisses are intoxicating and she tells herself it will just be this one time… Ewan is playing a deep game, for him there is only one woman who will be his wife – Grace and she has commanded him to stay away from her, so he will need to be get her to come to him and succeeds – but when she walks away, he just can’t let her go and is willing to do whatever it takes to gain her forgiveness and win her love. What an amazing story, I never wanted it to end and even now that it is done, I want more! More Ewan and Grace, more Devil and Felicity and more Whit and Hattie!! This was a well written, incredibly emotional story that answered all my questions, blew my mind and made me fall in love with Ewan – a feat I would have deemed impossible at the end of the last book. This book has it all, betrayal, a bit of humor (thanks to Devil and Whit), heartbreak, steamy love scenes, surprising revelations, a love that is inspiring, some of the most romantic declarations I have ever read (seriously – they gave me goosebumps and made me teary!) and finally a very hard won HEA and a sweet epilogue. This was definitely my favorite in the series and while you could read this as a stand-alone, I would highly recommend reading this series in order for the best understanding and most reader enjoyment.

This third book in the Bareknuckle Bastards series absolutely must be read in order to fully appreciate the story. The other two books, as brilliant as they were in their own right, were setting the stage for this final story in which the villain becomes the hero. Fans of the other two books were concerned about how author Sarah MacLean would pull that off. As a faithful fan, I trusted she would do it and she did not fail. The relationship between Grace and Ewan is everything you could want from a romance. They are magnificent characters with a gripping, gut-wrenching story – both past and present. Childhood sweethearts in horrible, hopeless circumstances, he turned himself into her enemy, threatening her and their two brothers for 20 years and the previous two novels. The presumption was that he did it for greed and a title, but the reality is that he did it for love. Even before you know his whole story, however, you are willing to forgive him his transgressions because it is so obvious that his whole being is devoted to her. Although he was the villain for two books, I immediately fell in love with him and wanted him to have everything. And Grace, against her better sense, cannot separate herself from him. They simply belong together for all time. It’s an amazing story full of moments to make you sigh. The heart of the story was simply brilliant. That she was able to pull this off after the hero had been the villain makes it even more remarkable. What didn’t work for me – and why I broke with tradition and gave the book only four stars – is the rest of the story. I understand that the author has taken on a seedier side of London and is trying to present something edgy, but I think it went too far with most of it gratuitous, distracting, and inappropriate. Yes, Grace owns a brothel, but I have read other books that didn’t go into so much detail about the goings-on of brothels. The sex scenes were just short of erotica and, in my opinion, not in keeping with the characters. And Grace’s outfit of choice was modern steampunk rather than something appropriate for the time period, even accounting for the idea that she was intentionally trying to be bold and different. Even the final conflict at the end seems to have been written simply to make a political point (which she follows up with in the author’s note) rather than because it was necessary to the story. It was rather anti-climactic. All-in-all, the romance was the heart of the story and it was brilliant and lovely and everything I wanted and hoped it would be. But it almost got lost in the muddle of everything else written more to assert the power of women than to support the story itself. It was definitely my least favorite of the three books, but you can’t miss it after you have invested in the other two.

This book the Daring and the Duke is a fantastical book. Please read this one, it's book three in the Bareknuckle Bastards series by Sarah MacLean. It's a story of redemption reunion and love. It's amazing

I loved this book. MacLean is as usual a master at depicting conflicts and difficult relationships. She had a great challenge in making us forgive and redeem Ewan, but she did it! I love how Ewan is not afraid to admit that Grace is his only weakness and how his love for her develops once he knows her as Dahlia too.

Ótimo livro, amei o desenrolar da história. Totalmente apaixonada e encantada por esse lindo casal Sarah MacLean sempre nos surpreendendo com seus livros e deixando um gostinho de quero mais

Though this story is not as formidable as the previous two in the series, it is still an excellent and enjoyable story. However, I did tire of the constant references to the past in most of the chapters. I wanted the story to move into the closer relationship between Ewan and Grace. This did happen towards the end. Overall a satisfying read.

Den letzten Teil las ich mit Wehmut. Vielleicht gibt es ja noch einen Teil mit der Geschichte von Nora und Nik?