I cannot tell you how I came upon this book, and I usually like to start with that; the origin story. But this one sort of just popped up in my wishlist, which likely means I found the recommendation somewhere online.
Either way, I like to clean out my wishlist from time to time, and I do that by reading the free samples and deciding whether these books are really for me or not. And this one’s free sample totally hooked me, more than I expected, and it worked out perfectly that I started reading it very close to my period, so I was emotional and ready for some angst.
And, to be perfectly honest, I did enjoy a lot of this book. It was fun, and it made me tear up a few times, so kudos for that. However, at around 60 to 70% I got really tired of the drama, the back and forth, and the heroine too. So, I’m here to give you my honest, spoilery thoughts!
But first, let me give you a spoiler-free overview: The Day of The Duchess is full of angst and drama and it will make you tear up, but there’s a point at which the drama becomes a bit too much. Sera is an excellent heroine, and I loved her sisters, but the hero? Not so much. He needed to repent more and much better. Grand gestures are nothing compared to putting some actual work into a relationship. The prose was okay, but it reminded me of the way Sarah J. Maas writes, and becomes rather grating by the end too. Overall, I’m not mad that I read this, I’m just disappointed in how it all worked out.
- Heat level: It’s spicy, several scenes throughout.
- Standalone or series? This is a part of the Scandal & Scoundrel Series, but I read only this one and didn’t have any issues. You’ll get snippets of the sisters’ stories, but again, I wouldn’t call these spoilers as we all know how romance books end.
- Content warnings: Ugh, a ton. There’s loss of child, almost death, abuse, cheating, drinking, and more.
- Page count: 405 pages
- Read if: You really want a marriage in trouble story with lots and lots of drama, don’t mind cheating or historical innaccuracy and want something that’ll keep you glued to the page.
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Thoughts and Feelings
First, let’s get the prose out of the way! I really didn’t mind it at first because I was so into the story, but the more I read and the more disinterested I got in the plot, the more it annoyed me. It’s extremely repetitive, to the point where it would pull me out of the book.
For example, the “even as” thing. “He kissed her passionately even as he ripped her bodice apart” and then one or two sentences later “He held her gently even as he pushed her against the door”. These are not exact quotes, to be clear, but sentences like this do happen so, so much, especially in intimate scenes. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
Then there’s this sort of structure: “Fear. Fear of losing her. Fear of never finding love again. Fear of her finding love instead.” → like that type of stuff, everywhere. In dialogue (really, this is how they speak to each other), in internal monologues, even in the sisters’ banter.
And I understand it’s a literary device, but the fact it’s used so many times renders it pointless. These sorts of things are meant to be used sparingly.
As I mentioned in my overview, it reminds me of the way Sarah J. Maas writes (heh, two Sarah’s), to the point where I wondered for a second if it’s maybe the same author with different pen names. But no, it’s two different authors with very similar styles. This one, a bit better though.
Then there’s the historical inaccuracy of it all. And look, I’m not against wallpaper historicals; in fact, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, a lovely fairy-tale. Like Birdgerton! Like Tessa Dare! But I was hoping this wasn’t that because I love it so much when authors work within the constraints of the time period and it makes for such interesting stories.
For example, in Ravishing The Heiress by Sherry Thomas (which I reviewed here) the heroine can’t run her father’s business herself because that’s not acceptable in the society, so her husband runs it for her, while she makes marketing and business decisions in the shadows. See — we’re feminist, but we remain historically accurate.
What I like about this is that it respects the historical struggles of the women who came before. And women have always found ways to get what they want out of life, to achieve happiness, but in ways that wouldn’t also ruin their lives and make them outcasts. So, when we apply these modern sensibilities to historical romances, it feels very disrespectful to the women in history who have paved the way for it to be the way it is now.
For instance, Sera enters the Parliament and petitions for divorce, which is just not something she would be able to do at the time. She’d need a solicitor, and even then, it would take years and tons of money to get. Then there’s the way her sisters behave, which, while fun, is also quite outrageous for the time and in fact, resembles the way these women would act now rather than in that historical period.
And I get skipping over some historical accuracy for the sake of a good story, but we didn’t get a really good story, did we?
Take the premise — Malcolm makes Sera pick his next wife, Bachelorette-style. Which, for one, is a hare-brained scheme if I ever saw one, and two, it defeats the purpose of getting Sera back. Instead, he could have just asked her to spend the summer with him, and she would have had to because she’s his wife — also, because she really wants her freedom, would do anything for it, and she’s still desperately in love with him.
And then we would actually get some on-page time with these two people, some honesty and conversations perhaps?
Instead, we linger on this competition way too much and whenever our two leads interact, it’s to have physical intimacy and talk in circles without ever being honest or open about what they want and need.
There’s so much hurt, so much anger, betrayal and pain between these two, that the plot really needed to focus on the two of them rather than everything else, to make me believe by the end that they should be together. As it is, I was left wishing Sera would actually get her freedom and that Malcolm would languish in his dukedom for all eternity, simply because I didn’t see how all of these issues could be worked out without any big talks about it.
Like, a lot has happened between them: Malcolm treating Sera as a toy (not intentionally, but still), then Sera “trapping” Malcolm in the marriage, him ghosting her and never treating her as a wife, her hiding the pregnancy, him cheating to get revenge for that, her finding him cheating, him trying to ruin her entire family because her sister embarrassed him, her almost dying and losing their child, her running off — all of this will never be resolved by just one grand gesture.
They really needed a softer, quieter storyline, with more tenderness and less physical intimacy because that’s never been a problem. They’ve always worked together that way, but having good chemistry in bed does not equal love for all eternity, and the author needed to work a lot harder to convince me they can be a good, healthy couple moving forward.
Malcolm is a nothing burger of a man, and while Sera starts off strong and determined, we get a serious case of “oh, I can’t resist him” which just defeats the purpose of making her so strong. By the end she comes off as vapid and wishy-washy.
There’s also the lost baby plot, and if you have triggers, I would recommend you skip this one, because the child loss happens on page and it’s pretty important to the whole tale. And as someone who had a pretty awful miscarriage, it really hit me hard and I sort of wanted Sera and Malcolm to have another child.
However, Sera was also told she wouldn’t be able to have another. Spoiler: yes she is, and she does have one by the end. And I know people hate whenever this happens, so a bit of a warning for that too. Some people find it comforting, some hate it, I was mostly okay with it because again, my own experiences with child loss.
Other than that, a lot of their history (Sera and Malcolm’s) wasn’t explained in this book. I found out through other reviews that some of it happens in other books in this series, which I guess is fine, but it really needed to be covered here too. A lot of it was kind of unclear to me and only hinted at. The cheating situation, for example; the fact he tried to ruin her whole family (how?), etc. So just be warned that you don’t get the full story here.
Kind of married to that is the fact that you get the beginnings of a lot of other stories in this book, which takes away from Sera and Malcolm’s time on page. For instance, you get the beginnings of Sesily and Caleb, and what I think are the beginnings of Felicity (one of the bachelorettes) and the Duke of Montcliff. This is just what I noticed, but there could be more.
Would I continue this series? Perhaps. I am curious about Sophie’s story, as well as Felicity’s (if it, indeed, does happen), but I’m in no rush to get to those. This writing style requires a palette cleanser, but the premise of the book left me wanting an actually good “marriage in trouble” story, kind of like what I wanted this one to be. I heard Sherry Thomas might have one, so you may see a review for that soon.
Overall, as my first Sarah MacLean book, this was an okay experience (despite everything), and I’m not giving up on this author the same way I’m definitely not interested in, say, Maya Banks (who wrote Never Seduce a Scot, which I hated).
I did have a good time too, as in — I couldn’t stop reading, so there’s also that. So, if you’re in the mood for an angsty, dramatic “marriage in trouble” story with some humor but not a lot of historical accuracy, I would suggest this one for sure!
But if you do need that historical accuracy (or at least the appearance of it), plus a less contrived plot, maybe skip this one?
