Daring and the Duke

Daring and the Duke (2020) Sarah MacLean (The Bareknuckle Bastards)

Set in London in 1837 & 1838

I liked so much about this book, but the boinking parts were so not my thing the whole story ended up failing for me.

Let me clarify before you start angry typing at me.

Hate sex is something I utterly and absolutely do not and cannot grok. I am on the ace spectrum, and the idea of having sex with someone you despise is simply something I cannot wrap my head around. I can at least intellectually wrap my brain around the idea of casual sex, although I tend to DNF those stories, because they whole thing just doesn’t work for me at all.

But this is the third and final story in the series, and I really wanted to know just what had happened in the past that led to the events in the previous two books, so I kept reading.

And kept getting boinking scenes–and those scenes contained important dialog, so I couldn’t skip them.

I know that this trope works for lots of people, and I get that this is MY thing, not an issue the author needs to fix. But it was disappointing because I had wanted to know what had happened in the past, and I really did like Dahlia / Grace, and wanted the best for her, and loved how she took what she wanted and did what she was right.

But her anger at Ewan was so great (and so deserved) I just couldn’t wrap my head around the sex–in fact was horrified by the idea of it. And because the boinking was such an integral part of the story and their relationship, the whole book felt like work rather than the joy her stories usually are.

So essentially this is a heads-up for other aces who might have the same squicks and repulsions I do.

Publisher: Avon

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