Brazen and the Beast
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Brazen and the Beast (2019) Sarah MacLean
Set in London in 1937
Lady Henrietta Sedley is turning 29 and is done with waiting for things to come to her. She is going to go out and seize what she wants–including the business she should be the one to inherit, instead of her wastrel younger brother. Finding a bound man in her carriage is not the start she wanted–especially since her brother is probably behind the mess she finds.
“This is really just awful timing.”
Nora cut her a look. “Is there a good time to find a man bound and unconscious in one’s carriage?”
Hattie imagined there wasn’t, but, “He could have selected a different evening. This is a terrible birthday gift.”
Beast is one of the Bareknuckle Bastards–one of the illegitimate half-brothers who were taken as children to fight for the seat of the dukedom. But someone has stolen from him, and he will take his revenge.
Let’s get something out in the open first off: I downed this book in a single sitting. I finished it hours past my bedtime.
Emotionally, this book was incredibly satisfying.
“Am I to think it noble that you ascribe to some nonsensical view of women as doe-eyed chattel who cannot make their own decisions about their bedmates?”
“He didn’t send me anywhere. I am the heroine of my own play, sir.”
No, seriously. I wanted Hattie to destroy EVERYTHING>
“Who’s made you feel this way?”
The question came like a threat, and it was one. Whit wanted a name. And she gave one, as though he were a child and she were explaining something as simple as sunrise. “Everyone.”
And I completely and utterly adored Hattie’s best friend, Nora. One can only hope she gets her own novella, for she is AMAZING.
Hattie cut her friend a look. “I thought you were the brave one.”
“Nonsense. I’m the reckless one. That’s a different thing entirely.”
Beast is a broken man, which is my catnip. He and two of his siblings have built lives for themselves–built more than lives for themselves. But it has only made him strong–it hasn’t made him whole.
A personal irritation–there is a LOT of boinking in this story, and personal history and stories were shared during those intimacies. Which is, you know, how things happen, but it meant there was minimal skimming of the boinking bits, because then I’d miss something relevant to the story. But that is, I’m certain, not going to be an issue for most people.
But the emotional satisfaction of Hattie claiming her life for herself–it was everything I could have wanted.
Oh, one last note.
This cover on my book is the one at the top of the post. Which matches all the other Sarah MacLean covers in this series, as well as her Rules of Scoundrels series.
It’s fine. I don’t have a problem with it. But the alternate cover I found online–here at the right–is AMAZING. That’s how I imagine Hattie to look, and it’s gorgeous and beautiful and I am in love with it. I get why it couldn’t be used on American release, since it doesn’t match the rest of the series–or her books–but it is utterly lovely, and I wanted to share it.
Publisher: Avon
Rating: 8/10
Categories: 8/10, British, Female, Historical, Romance, Sexual Content
Tags: Boinking, Romantic Era, Sarah MacLean
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