A love that neither can deny…
THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS
Scandal & Scoundrel #3
Sarah MacLean
Releasing June 27, 2017
Avon Books
The
one woman he will never forget…
Malcolm Bevingstoke, Duke of Haven, has lived the last three years in
self-imposed solitude, paying the price for a mistake he can never reverse and
a love he lost forever. The dukedom does not wait, however, and Haven requires
an heir, which means he must find himself a wife by summer’s end. There is only
one problem—he already has one.
The one man she will never forgive…
After years in exile, Seraphina, Duchess of Haven, returns to London with a
single goal—to reclaim the life she left and find happiness, unencumbered by
the man who broke her heart. Haven offers her a deal; Sera can have her
freedom, just as soon as she finds her replacement…which requires her to spend
the summer in close quarters with the husband she does not want, but somehow
cannot resist.
A love that neither can deny…
The duke has a single summer to woo his wife and convince her that, despite their
broken past, he can give her forever, making every day...
THE DAY OF THE DUCHESS is a beautifully written romance with many-layered characters and a complex story line of redemption and forgiveness. I heard the refrains of Pat Benatar's Love Is A Battlefield through a lot of this book. Haven and Sera were a couple basking in their new love and then whoosh! It was gone. In the aftermath was anger and pain over the next few years. You first meet the couple in the first book of the series, A ROGUE NOT TAKEN and let's face it, the Duke didn't come out looking too well before or after Sera's sister Sophie accidently knocks Haven into a fish pond. While the first story had a lighter feel, Sera's tale really upped it on the emotional scale.
This story takes place three years after Haven told Sera to get out of his life just when she needed him most. Ms Maclean doesn't write wimpy and needy heroines and Sera is one of her strongest heroines yet. Heartbroken, she left and became successful in a man's world. Now she has returned and demands a divorce. Haven sees his chance to try to win back his wife, so he makes a deal with her. He will set her free after she finds a woman to become her replacement, a duke needs an heir you know. Malcolm betrayed Sera and she doesn't make things too easy for him while he tries to win her back. Neither do her sisters. Some of their actions and their banter are hysterical.
On the other side of the coin, you see a man who truly realizes what he has absurdly tossed away. I remember how much I disliked him in the first book. The growth and change in him is something to behold as he tries to win back his wife. Neither Sera or her sisters made things easy for him, but he took things like a man and I felt his sincerity in his pursuit of Sera. There are a few moments between them as they piece together what went wrong that really wrench at your heart. I don't want to give anything away, but you should keep some tissues handy.
I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite books of the year so far and I am fussy when it comes to reading historical romance. This story has so much depth and heart. I loved Sera's strength and I felt her pain and anguish after her marriage fell apart. I also admired how the talented Ms MacLean redeemed the now repentant Haven. Add Sera's protective sisters and some reluctant replacement wife candidates to the mix and you have a colorfully written romance that will end up on a lot of reader's Keeper shelves. My only problem with the series...is the wait for the next story.
Chapter 1
DESERTED
DUKE DISAVOWED!
August 19,
1836
House of
Lords, Parliament
She’d
left him two years, seven months ago, exactly.
Malcolm Marcus
Bevingstoke, Duke of Haven looked to the tiny wooden calendar wheels
inlaid into the blotter on his desk in his private office above the
House of Lords.
August the
nineteenth, 1836. The last day of the parliamentary session, filled
with pomp and idle. And
lingering
memory. He spun the wheel with the six embossed upon it. Five. Four.
He took a deep breath.
Get out.
He heard his own words, cold and angry with betrayal, echoing with
quiet menace. Don’t
ever return.
He touched the
wheel again. August became July. May. March.
January the
nineteenth, 1834. The
day she left.
His fingers
moved without thought, finding comfort in the familiar click of the
wheels.
April the
seventeenth, 1833.
The way I
feel about you . . . Her
words now—soft and full of temptation. I’ve
never felt anything like this.
He hadn’t,
either. As though light and breath and hope had flooded the room,
filling all the dark spaces. Filling his lungs and heart. And all
because of her.
Until he’d
discovered the truth. The truth, which had mattered so much until it
hadn’t mattered at all.
Where had
she gone?
The clock in
the corner of the room ticked and tocked, counting the seconds until
Haven was due in his seat in the hallowed main chamber of the House
of Lords, where men of higher purpose and passion had sat before him
for generations. His fingers played the little calendar like a
virtuoso, as though they’d done this dance a hundred times before.
A thousand.
And they had.
March the
first, 1833. The day they met.
So, they
let simply anyone become a duke, do they? No
deference. Teasing and charm and pure, unadulterated beauty.
If you
think dukes are bad, imagine what they accept from duchesses?
That smile. As
though she’d never met another man. As though she’d never wanted
to. He’d been hers the moment he’d seen that smile. Before
that. Imagine,
indeed.
And then it
had fallen apart. He’d lost everything, and then lost her. Or
perhaps it had been the reverse. Or perhaps it was all the same.
Would there
ever be a time when he stopped thinking of her? Ever a date that did
not remind him of her? Of the time that had stretched like an
eternity since she’d left?
Where had
she gone?
The clock
struck eleven, heavy chimes sounding in the room, echoed by a dozen
others sounding down the long, oaken corridor beyond, summoning men
of longstanding name to the duty that had been theirs before they
drew breath.
Haven spun the
calendar wheels with force, leaving them as they lay. November the
thirty-seventh,
3842.
A fine date—one on which he had absolutely no chance of thinking of
her.
New York Times, Washington Post & USA
Today bestseller Sarah MacLean is the
author of historical romance novels that have been translated into more than
twenty languages, and winner of back-to-back RITA Awards for best historical
romance from the Romance Writers of America.
Sarah is a leading advocate for the romance genre, speaking widely on its place
at the nexus of gender and cultural studies. She is the author of a monthly
column celebrating the best of the genre for the Washington Post. Her work in
support of romance and the women who read it earned her a place on
Jezebel.com's Sheroes list of 2014 and led Entertainment Weekly to
call her "gracefully furious." A graduate of Smith College &
Harvard University, Sarah now lives in New York City with her husband and
daughter.
That's so wonderful that it's your favorite book so far this year. I love when that happens. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThank you! This book had all of the right notes for me!
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It was my pleasure!
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