The Day of the Duchess By, Sarah MacLean - Review

Let’s just lay all of our cards on the table and admit that The Day of the Duchess is my favorite book I’ve read so far this year. Admittedly, I’m unabashedly obsessed with all of Sarah MacLean‘s books, but in The Day of the Duchess she has outdone herself. This book is heartbreaking, smart, moving, funny, so so sexy, and feminist AF.

Yes, I just described a regency romance novel as feminist.

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.

You’ll remember the characters in The Day of the Duchess from the rest of Sarah MacLean’s Scandal & Scoundrel series about five sisters who don’t quite fit in with the rest of society. It was once implied that the women in these books are loosely inspired by the Kardashian sisters. Think brash, hilarious, confident, and completely loyal to one another. Everyone should have sisters like these.

More significantly, you’ll remember Malcolm Bevingstoke, Duke of Haven, as the husband of Seraphina who was caught copulating with another woman at a party in The Rogue Not Taken. He definitely deserved worse than being pushed into a pond by her Seraphina’s youngest sister.

We hate the Duke of Haven….until we don’t.

I don’t know how Sarah MacLean managed to make me forgive and fall for Malcolm in a matter of minutes, but I wish she could teach my husband that trick.

Without giving away the story, because you’ll truly want to experience this one firsthand, Sarah MacLean has managed to write a straight up feminist regency romance novel.

The Day of the Duchess is about a strong woman who has fought her way through loss and betrayal to come back stronger than ever and the man who loves her because of that, not in spite of it. This is a love story that doesn’t fall into the traps of male/female or Duke/Duchess power dynamics. Each of their encounters are respectful and consent is demonstrated at every turn. At one point Seraphina tells a story that ends with the quote, “And so, I persisted.”

Elizabeth Warren would be proud.

The Day of the Duchess releases Tuesday, June 27th. Do yourself a favor and buy it here immediately. You can thank me for the romantic underwater ballroom or that one scene in Parliament that is giving me a wig fetish in the comments.