An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Summer!
An Amazon Best Romance of July!
An iBooks Best Romance of June! 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 … 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 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
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I recently hit a deadline and rewarded myself with a book…AND WHAT A REWARD it was!! My gosh, Sarah MacLean’s The Day of the Duchess ripped my heart out and put it back together, which is absolutely everything I yearn for in a historical romance novel! The opening of this book…just…wow! The heroine is a woman of strength. And the groveling hero? Sarah MacLean masters the groveling hero in this tale. Highly-recommend!
This book broke me a little, but the ending fixed me right up.
GOD this book! I’m so over the moon it’s not even funny. This book will definitely go down as one of my top favorites. Haven was … everything. To see a man that far down on his knees was amazing. Reality is, this is how things work in life. To see him love her enough when he knew he wasn’t deserving about broke me.
I can’t rave enough about this series. I love the Spoiled S sisters and I swear, if I were alive in this time, I would be hanging out with them.
I listened to the audiobook, and loved this sweeping romance packed with strong women and the men who have learned to respect them. MacLean manages to remain true to the restrictions of the time period, while assigning thoroughly modern attributes to her heroines. They are feminists They are strong-willed. They maneuver their way around the systems that would suppress their spirit and their dreams. Mal was a great groveler! I love a hero who gives good grovel after he’s made an a$$ of himself. His love was unwavering, even though, in the beginning, he didn’t understand or respect Sera like he ought to. I loved that he leveraged his privilege in the end to assist his wife, who didn’t have privilege and was left vulnerable by a biased system. Such a great “right now” lesson embedded in a “that was then” novel. Excellent and masterful.
I love the Scandal and Scoundrel series by Sarah MacLean. Having said that, this was probably my least favorite of the bunch. I listened to all 3 books on audio and this one was just really hard to follow with all the jumping back and forth in time. I found myself having to pause and rewind to figure out when we suddenly leaped to the past. It was confusing at times.
Now, to the things I did enjoy because there’s far more likes than dislikes: the story itself is a marvel like any MacLean book. I love her feisty heroines and Sera is perhaps one of the strongest I’ve ever come across. I loved her strength and her determination. I loved the heartache of this book. Yes, I know, heartache you say? Really? But I did. My heart broke for these characters and all they went through, the ways they were ripped apart and forced to rebuild themselves alone.
I’m not usually a fan of books where the main premise is a misunderstanding that could’ve been solved with nothing but a simple (or in this case very long and detailed) conversation and this is definitely part of my problem with this book, but in the end the couple works through their issues and they’re both better off for it. If you want to see a grown man grovel, I highly recommend.
I love-love-loved The Day of the Duchess. I listened to it entirely on audiobook and I had a really tough time forcing myself to stop listening, to draw it out longer. I’m not exaggerating when I say I spent at least four hours one afternoon reorganizing my closet and cleaning everything in sight so I could keep listening. If I found more audiobooks I loved as much as this one, I’d have the cleanest apartment in the state.
I’m a sucker for a second chance romance and when it’s as swoony and romantic and as full of feels as this one is, it’s no wonder. It also had quite a bit more angst than I’m accustomed to in historical romance and that’s one of the reasons I loved it as much as I did. FEELS. FOR. DAYS. I was an emotional wreck, totally invested in Malcolm and Sera’s story. Without getting too far down in the weeds and ruining the story for you, Malcom’s determination to win Sera back is what I want from all heroes in every book. Forget alphaholes and manwhores, I want a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and is all in for the woman he loves. That’s what does it for me.
The Day of the Duchess is one of my new favorite historical romances and probably my favorite Sarah MacLean book to date. (Which is saying something because I love her books.) There was just something about this one that was so real and raw that it go under my skin and into my heart.
FAVORITE QUOTES
The only woman he’d ever loved. The only woman he’d ever hated. The same, and somehow entirely different.
“I shall have you. I shall love you. And I shall grow old in your arms.”
Those who follow Sarah Maclean’s Scandal& Scoundrel series will be very familiar with the characters of Sera and Malcolm. If you haven’t read any of the previous books, fear not for it will not lessen the wallop of the emotional impact it can give a reader. I did not like the character of Malcolm, Duke of Haven, in the beginning. Although the first few pages will give the impression of a husband pining for his runaway wife, he was not a very nice guy to Sera at all. Sera was grace personified, despite the hurt and the trauma of her life with Malcolm, in the two years she was away she was able to rise above it all and survive. To be honest I did not see this relationship working at all. If it was set in modern times these two would have divorced a long time ago and probably lived a life full of regrets and what ifs apart. But this is where the talented Ms. Maclean weaves her magic, she basically puts back a relationship, piece by piece, emotions on top of emotions, faith on top of mistrust, together. Malcolm learned to trust and let go, Sera learned to go for what she really wanted again. Trust and love reborn despite the very emotional odds of not working at all. The Day of the Duchess is a work of art, the art of making a relationship work despite all the odds, to fighting until the last hurrah for what you hold dear and in the end to make true that old adage, that love does conquer all. Bravo Ms. Maclean!
This book is more bittersweet than most romance novels. The time slip storytelling beautifully weaves together the rise and fall of Sera and Malcolm’s marriage. Watching the characters grow through love, loss, grief, and pain is worth the read. Sera’s sisters are a hilarious bunch that wonderfully counterpoint the heartache of Sera and Mal.
Read my full review:
https://rebeccasreadingcorner.blog/review-sarah-maclean-the-day-of-the-duchess/
This book was an emotional roller-coaster. I both loved and hated the Duke. I loved the second chance but found the events leading to the end of the first chance so sad.
A must
Great reading
I had trouble following the jumps back and forth.
I randomly grabbed a book by this author when I was at Target one day. I was just getting it to make sure I had something to read while I killed time that day. That started a free fall into this author’s world. I’ve read all of The Bareknuckle Bastards series, all of The Rules Of Scoundrels series, and now all of the Scandal & Scoundrel series. It’s only been a couple weeks too. They have all been flawless, full of feeling, and just outstanding. I pretty much devoured most of each book in one sitting, if not just 2. I couldn’t put them down. I do not know why I haven’t been reading historical romance before.
This particular book was phenomenal. It’s so much that I felt it in my soul. It’s heart-stopping and tugged on my emotional heartstrings. I don’t cry very often from books, but this one tore me up. There is so much intense scenes and dialog that I was consumed. It takes a lot to make me this tore up over a book. She just delivered everything and checked every box of mine. The way she blended enemies to lovers and 2nd chance romance was effortless. I am obsessed with her and the way she weaves greek mythology into her books. The one in this story, well I died at that part, but nowhere near as much as I did during the last couple of chapters. It couldn’t have been more perfect and yet more devastating at the same time.
I need more from this author. SO.MUCH.MORE.
Haven is one of my favorite Dukes of all time. This one is the best of a great series.
This is an ugly cry book. Have lots of Kleenex handy.
One of my favorite books of all time. Sarah did a masterful job with Sera and Mal.
Nice fun read.
It’s possible that every new Sarah MacLean romance I read becomes my favorite, but right now, this is my favorite of hers. Swoony and wonderful, with a hero and heroine who have serious obstacles to overcome, with a cast of characters providing both humor and heat. Love!
I really loved these characters. They both were the victims of a ton of misperception and lack of communication. The setup is a little hokey- but the way the two main characters come together is awesome.
This book took me from heart rending to joy and every emotion in between. It addressed women’s rights of the times. It was an excellent read.