The Day of the Duchess

The Day of the Duchess (Scandal and Scoundrel #3) by Sarah MacLean (2017)

Malcolm Bevingstoke, Duke of Haven, hasn't forgotten about his wife since she day she left. He searched everywhere for her, and now she is back and she wants a divorce. But that isn't easy in Regency England and the only way Malcolm will consent is if Seraphina helps him find a new wife. So they're off to the country together to meet some eligible young women and determine which one the Duke should marry. Of course his only plan for the summer is to win back Sera, the only woman he truly cares about.

This is a great setup because the hero and heroine are already married. But boy did they both mess things up early in their relationship! They had been in love, but Sera wasn't certain he wanted to actually marry her because of her family's reputation so she tricked him into marriage. He was outraged, thinking this meant she didn't actually love him, and wanted nothing to do with her. They were brought together again briefly by an event that turned tragic, and that's when Sera fled to America and started a new life. But her goals now involve owning a business, and married women can't own property, hence her need for a divorce.

You might remember the Dangerous Daughters from my post about The Rogue Not Taken, the heroine of which was Seraphina's sister. In fact, during one memorable scene Sophie found Sera's husband, Malcolm, in a compromising position with another woman and pushed him into a fish pond. Now, Sera has brought all of her sisters with her as she undertakes the job of finding Malcolm a new wife. It's quite a support system too, especially given how much they all dislike him for making their sister miserable. Sera's sisters are outspoken and hilarious, though I keep confusing them all with each other since their names all begin with S.

Of course it all becomes obvious very soon that Sera is just as much in love with Malcolm as he is with her, despite all they've been through together. They both hurt each other in pretty intense ways and getting past that is difficult. In this way, this is probably one of the messiest and realistic romances I've read. The current story is alternated with flashbacks to their early relationship and all the events that surround it, so the full story is filled in as we go. This is pretty common in books these days, but I don't think I've read a romance structured this way, so that was a nice surprise as well.

As one would expect from any novel by Sarah MacLean, it's filled with cheeky humor. In the scene when Seraphina first meets Malcolm and addresses him as "my lord" he responds by telling her it should be "Your Grace." To which she replies: "How did you know how throughly women enjoy being corrected by men? And over forms of address, especially. It is a great wonder that none of us have ever fallen in love with you."

In another part, when Malcolm says he wouldn't trust Sera's sisters around unmarried men because of their reputations, she laments: "Oh, yes. Poor unmarried men, weak-willed, doughy boys with neither control nor intelligence. So easily marked and ruined by women-- ever more powerful...Poor, sad men, so kind and blameless, fairly wandering the streets in their impotent impressionability." I really enjoyed Sera a lot.

But her sisters were just as cutting. When a man tells Sesily what he thinks he wants, she responds, "I do like it when a man tells me about myself. It's positively aphrodisiacal." To which he says "I'm an American, my lady. Don't flummox me with all your big words." It was all so very satisfying.

When I began this series, I think I assumed there'd be a book for each of the five sisters, but then the second book was about someone outside of the family, and a couple of the sisters got married between books. I know MacLean has a new series coming out so this might be it for this series, except for what I think will be a novella about the relationship between Sesily and the aforementioned American. At any rate, I'm sure whatever she writes will be her usual mix of smart, feminist, fun and delightful.

A Scot in the Dark

A Scot in the Dark (Scandal and Scoundrel #2) by Sarah MacLean (2016)

Tragedy has struck the Dukedom of Warnick. In fact, sixteen tragedies, leaving the title to the seventeenth in line, a Scot named Alec Stuart. He hates the English and wants nothing to do with the title, wealth, or anything else that comes with it. He was very clear with his solicitor on this matter. So clear, that Alec only learned five years later that he was left a ward, a young woman named Lilian Hargrove.

The circumstances upon which he learned of her existence were scandalous. Lily had posed nude for a portrait that she thought was to be kept private by the artist, with whom she thought herself in love. The artist, Derek Hawkins, had no such illusions about their relationship and now planned on a public showing of the painting, which he considered a masterpiece. Lily would be ruined. Not only would she not be married to Hawkins, but the shame of the nude portrait of her would end her chances of making another marriage. Alec has come to London to try and rectify the situation by finding someone for her to marry. He is generous with his vast fortune, which should help secure a husband. But they have only something like nine days before the painting will be publicly revealed so a husband must be found before then.

The problem now is that Lily and Alec are very attracted to each other, but each of them thinks they don't deserve the other. Lily, because of the nude portrait; Alec, because of a deep-seated feeling of unworthiness for anything other than cheap sex, which is more fully explained late in the novel. Obviously the two should be together, and we know they ultimately will, but the getting there is a bit more torturous than necessary.

Alec is stupid and kind of a jerk. He kept denying Lily her happiness because he thought he wasn't good enough, which, honestly....come on, romance novels. I've never encountered so many people who denied others' happiness out of a twisted ostensibly-selfless feeling that the other person would be better off without them, even though they are both absolutely dying to be together. To make matters worse, Alec and Lily have had some sexytimes, which in those days pretty much meant you needed to marry. And she's already had something similar happen, so when Alec kept insisting they couldn't be together and taking off, I was finally like, if you're going to be this way then no, you don't deserve her, you lout!

Despite Alec's stupidity, the story was ultimately quite satisfying, but that's because Lily was awesome. She was smart and strong, and managed to overcome her feelings of shame at what she had done. Honestly, Alec didn't do a damn thing. She acted to try and fix the situation for herself, and then she changed her mind and decided to fix it a different way and she did it all herself. Well, she had some help from her amazing and wonderful new female friends. I loved this aspect of the story: Lily had never really had friends, and now that she is about to be the subject of public humiliation, a group of scandalous sisters take her right into their fold and help her out however they can. It was both touching and empowering.

This is the second in the Scandal and Scoundrels series (after The Rogue Not Taken), which is based on TMZ-like headlines, but Regency style. This book extended that theme even farther with the nude portrait plot, so similar to current situations involving released sex videos or photos. The chapter titles are all gossipy scandal sheet titles, which I find rather delightful. I was spurred to read this by the release of the third in the series, Day of the Duchess, which has gotten great reviews and which I'm quite looking forward to reading!

The Rogue Not Taken

The Rogue Not Taken (Scandal and Scoundrel #1) by Sarah MacLean (2016)

Lady Sophie Talbot and her sisters are known among London society as the Dangerous Daughters, or the Soiled S.'s (they all have names beginning with S), but Sophie has done nothing publicly scandalous herself - until now. At a party she happens upon her sister's husband in a compromising position with another woman and confronts him, pushing him into a fish pond. You'd think he would be the one publicly humiliated, but no, it's Sophie trying to sneak away and escape London. She ends up disguising herself as a footman and hopping on a carriage belonging to the  notorious scoundrel Kingscote, the Marquess of Eversley. They instantly dislike each other, he assuming she's trying to trick him into marriage and she having just seen him escaping from the bedroom window of a woman engaged to someone else. So naturally, they end up falling hard for each other.

My favorite thing about this story is Lady Sophie's disdain for the aristocracy and her lifelong dream of opening a bookshop in the little town where she grew up. Her family wasn't rich or titled when she was growing up, but when her father bought a piece of land that turned out to harbor a profitable coal mine, they became rich and he bought his title. Others in London society considered the family to be social climbers and didn't fully accept them. Sophie hated these snobs and hated that she had to live among them. When she fled London after the disastrous party, she could think only of going back to her hometown and marrying the baker she had promised herself to years ago.

King was also leaving London for the country, but for very different reasons. His father who hadn't spoken to in years sent a message that he was dying. King blamed his father for the death of the one woman he ever loved, and was only returning so he could have the pleasure of telling his father that he was the end of the line for their family. King was a bit of an alpha male, which is not my favorite sort of guy, but I found his story intriguing and he obviously cared for Sophie in spite of himself.

Their relationship had a number of stumbling blocks related to each other's reputation and the societal pressures facing the aristocracy at that time. Marrying as a means to secure a higher rank and greater wealth was common, and if you happened to love someone who was in a better position than you, the burden of proving you wanted to marry for love was a difficult one to overcome. Sophie was all too aware of her family's reputation, but no matter how much she protested, it was hard for others - like King - to believe she actually cared nothing for the aristocracy. Making things more complicated for the two, they were both stuck on an old love from the past. It was all fairly complicated, and satisfying to see them work through all their internal issues while contending pressures from their families and society.

Just like MacLean's other books, this one is filled with humor and witty banter and was a lot of fun to read. I first heard about it when the author was interviewed on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books a while back. She promised a new series based on TMZ-like headlines from scandal sheets, which totally piqued my interest at the time so I was watching for this book to come out. Satisfyingly, it not only begins with a brief scandal sheet article ("DUKE AT DEATH'S DOOR?"), but all the chapters have titles similarly sensational and gossipy: "SOILED S. STOLEN! SCOUNDREL SUSPECTED!" and "SPOTTED IN SPROTBROUGH?" and "ROYAL ROGUE AND SOILED SOPHIE - WAR? OR MORE?" It was all rather delightful.

Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover remains my favorite Sarah MacLean book to date, but I still quite enjoyed The Rogue Not Taken. The second in this new series, A Scot in the Dark, has just been released.