The Day of the Duchess

Sarah MacLean may officially be one of my favorite authors. One of those "buy a book just because she wrote it" authors. I've read three so far (with two more sitting on my shelf), and I'm in love.

This one wasn't about new love, but rather a second chance at old love, after everything went wrong. It's about Sophie's older sister, Sera, who went missing after a traumatic stillbirth. She shows up years later to demand a divorce from her husband, the duke. The only problem is that the minute she disappeared, he realized how much he loved her, and now the last thing he wants is to divorce her. So her sets about planning to win her back.

This book is filled to the brim with sweet, sweet angst. Sera and Malcolm have a wealth of issues to work out. Flashbacks help fill in how things went so very, very wrong. And the question hanging over the whole book is whether love is enough.

It's a romance novel, so of course love wins the day. But what I appreciated was that this did require more than just love. Malcolm behaved rather abominably, and he really has to come to terms with that and figure out how to make it right. It's not enough that he loves Sera. He has to apologize and change and prove to her that he deserves her now.

On top of their incredible chemistry, this book is filled to the brim with side characters. I knew Felicity would be in it (that's why I went to this one next), but she ended up with a much larger role than I expected. And there was a delightful side plot featuring another sister, Sesily, and Sera's friend Caleb. I hope they get their own story at some point.

And that's really what I'm loving about these books: there's a whole world here. The characters keep showing up in each other's books. I don't know yet whether this is common to all romance series (I suspect it is) or just something MacLean is particularly good at. But it definitely has me hooked. I have to read more of her books, just to get a glimpse of my favorites again.

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