Title: No Good Duke Goes Unpunished Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #3
Author: Sarah MacLean
Published: November 26, 2013
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 384
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:He is the Killer Duke, accused of murdering Mara Lowe on the eve of her wedding. With no memory of that fateful night, Temple has reigned over the darkest of London’s corners for twelve years, wealthy and powerful, but beyond redemption. Until one night, Mara resurfaces, offering the one thing he’s dreamed of... absolution.
Mara planned never to return to the world from which she’d run, but when her brother falls deep into debt at Temple’s exclusive casino, she has no choice but to offer Temple a trade that ends in her returning to society and proving to the world what only she knows... that he is no killer.
It’s a fine trade, until Temple realizes that the lady—and her past—are more than they seem. It will take every bit of his strength to resist the pull of this mysterious, maddening woman who seems willing to risk everything for honor... and to keep from putting himself on the line for love.
Sarah MacLean is a consistently readable author (however, she’s not, as I found re-readable). Her stories are fluffy and light and full of drama and grand gestures and corny soliloquies. If that’s your brand of romance, MacLean is the place to go. But readable as her books are, MacLean’s brand of romance isn’t my brand of romance, typically. When you add into the fact that No Good Duke Goes Unpunished features an absolute heinous, HEINOUS, female lead…I say eh. The book is compulsively readable, but that might be one of its only positive attributes.
So let’s talk about the female lead, Mara Lowe. At the ripe young age of sixteen, she “accidentally” framed a kind, innocent man for her murder. She ran away from her old life, happy as can be, and never once attempted to go back and explain that the socially reviled “Killer Duke” was actually a very nice person who’d never kill anybody. So right off the bat, we have issues. In No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, MacLean is stretching her readers’ forgiveness by expecting us to root for a relationship between a wronged man and the woman who oh-so-selfishly wronged him. Uh huh. I honestly don’t think the author realized how serious Mara’s actions were. She let an innocent man go down just so she could live the kind of life she wanted to live. That is abhorrently selfish.
But apparently we’re supposed to feel that these actions are okay. It’s okay that Mara ruined his life because it was twelve years ago—the past is the past. It’s okay that she framed him for murder because, actually she only meant to frame him for rape (yeah right, Mara, because rape is so much more palatable). It’s okay that he’s been hated and reviled and pushed out of the life he wanted to live, simply because Mara’s own life wasn’t everything she wanted it to be. It’s okay that she did this awful thing to a completely innocent person because “just didn’t realize what the consequences would be”… It’s all just okay.
So, basically, the duke in this story got treated abominably by a woman because…because she was an idiot who, yeah, maybe had her reasons, but there is no POSSIBLE excuse for ruining another person’s life and then waiting twelve whole years before you step forward. Especially when you’re not even stepping forward because you feel bad, but because you intend to blackmail this person. WHOSE LIFE YOU HAVE ALREADY TURNED INTO A LIVING HELL.
Mara Lowe is a senseless, self-centered, unthinking, stupid child. She doesn’t even apologize for her actions until the end of the book, by which point it’s all rendered moot because she and her duke are so “in lurv” that like…ugh. ALSO, what kind of romance is it where people are all OMG I HATE YOU, proceed to have sexytimes, then are all I REALLY HATE YOU, and more sexytimes? What is that?
Like I said, I think MacLean just didn’t understand what she was doing. She expected true love and some witty banter to erase the horridness of Mara’s actions from her reader’s minds. Well, I’m sorry, but it didn’t work. The only way I could have believed in this romance is if No Good Duke Goes Unpunished had opened with Mara showing up, abjectly apologizing to Temple, and then spending the remaining 300 pages proving how sincere her remorse was. Does she do that in the actual book? No, of course not. She blackmails him, drugs him, lies to him, and runs away when he demands answers, even though she “feels guilty” about her actions. Okay, so you “feel guilty”, then stop acting like a spoiled child and freaking apologize and become a better person.
So, by the end of this, MacLean manages to make Mara and her duke fall in love and get married and blah blah blah. This is achieved by said duke (AKA Temple) taking some of the blame. Excuse me? What did he do wrong? Nothing! It is in no way HIS fault that she freaking let him think he was a MURDERER for twelve whole years. So dumb.
I can’t even with Mara. I just don’t understand what Sarah MacLean thought she was doing. A romance where one person made a huge mistake, is genuinely sorry about it, and proves their feelings? FINE. A romance where one person made a huge mistake and CONTINUES to treat the other person like crap? NOT fine.
So I’m sorry, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, you freaking suck. I can’t buy your romance because it doesn’t even make sense. Why did Temple even fall in love with Mara? How am I supposed to feel that Mara genuinely regrets her actions toward the duke? What a shameless, stupid mess this book is.
