Redemption Arc

These men identify as A Problem

It’s my birthday next Wednesday! As such, this roundup is my treat. The most common reason I interrupt my husband from whatever he’s doing while I’m reading a romance novel is to tell him, with stars in my eyes, how terrible a hero is at the start of a book. I LOVE a problem man in need of a swift kick in the pants. I love a man who truly needs to WORK for it (“it” being not just his eventual romantic partner, but also his own self respect). Yes, yes, Bri, we all know about your daddy issues, we get it.

Anyways, this roundup is men who, at the start of their books, do NOT deserve happiness. They are dangerous, they are assholes, they have done harm to the people in their lives (and, more importantly, in their love interests’ lives), and yet… these three authors manage to make them believably redeemed by the end. These books are complicated, and might not be to everyone’s comfort levels because they sit firmly in their grey areas, but in my opinion are all absolutely worth the read.

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. I’ve been hearing a LOT about this book since I started my romance romp in 2022, and I finally read it last year after a very long waiting period at the library. Y’all… it was worth the hype. I almost don’t want to tell you too much about this book (if the best part of it hasn’t been spoiled for you yet, I sure as hell won’t spoil it for you here) but to give you a brief overview:

Sebastian Ballister, Marquess of Dain, is the absolute worst. Just a rotten, no-good guy (a scoundrel, you might even call him) whose influence, incidentally, is leading Jessica Trent’s no-good brother to certain ruin, which the Trents just can’t afford. Literally. So she does what she does best- confronts him. Unfortunately, because Dain is the WORST, he’s more challenging than she expected, and fights dirty. Like… really dirty. Like she’s definitely gonna be ruined dirty. Maybe she should have stuck to her antique appraising and begging her brother privately to see reason.

Then again, where’s the fun in that? 

The redemption arc, such as it is for Dain, is both believable, deeply funny (in that “oh you idiot” way), and heartbreakingly romantic. I love Jessica, I love the rapscallion Sebastian, I just think they’re so great and reading their relationship was a genuine delight I will absolutely be returning for again and again.

Rating: 5/5

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. MA’AM? Are you sure this is the hero of this book? The guy who, in the book previous in this series, kidnapped the last book’s heroine at the end with the plan to marry her by force? 

What’s funny is that I read Lisa Kleypas’s Ravenels series first, which means the first time I encountered Sebastian, St. Vincent, was when his son fell in love with Pandora Ravenel in Devil in Spring (also- adorable naming convention for a father-son). That book actually starts with Sebastian and Evie in their 40s/50s having a cute moment discussing that a scandal has befallen their son and setting up the story for us, so consider me flabbergasted when I went back to their continuity and discovered that their sweet domestic moments were not at ALL predictable based on how they began!

This is one of those series where you really do need to read them in order (I kinda think all of LK’s books should be read in order, she frequently doesn’t just set up future romances in early books, but actually starts the stories then too). But it’s worth it, because after reading It Happened One Autumn, you’ll be certain St. Vincent deserves nothing, let alone the sweet Evie with her stutter and her heart of gold.

And yet. And yet. This book starts with Evie, desperate. Her father is a legendary gaming hell owner, but he’s dying, and is already no longer strong enough in constitution to protect his daughter from the controlling and abusive relatives on her mother’s side who she lives with in order to be accepted in society. Evie has a stutter and a lot to lose if her father dies and she’s left alone in the world, so her only solution is to find a powerful man to marry her to protect her. That powerful man might be a problem as well, but, hell, at least he’ll be a NEW problem. And who’s more powerful (and less likely to care about marriage for real) than the guy who kidnapped her best friend Lillian recently? Lol

Sebastian, who’s broke, and Evie, who’s desperate, after a bit of quick negotiation set off for Gretna Green to get speed-married at the very start of the book, and then return to the surprise and horror of their shared friend group (though Sebastian is… less of a friend at the moment whoops DON’T KIDNAP). The bulk of this book takes place at Jenner’s gaming hell, where Sebastian gets to work reviving the flagging business now that it’s his after Evie’s father passes, and Evie gets to work finding her strength as a human, as a woman, and, well, for better or worse, as a wife. 

I was skeptical, despite knowing that future Seb/Evie were incredibly happy together, but dang, did this book not pull punches about Sebastian needing to get his shit together. Redemption arc, indeed!

Rating: 4.25/5

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean. The culmination of the Bareknuckle Bastards series finally has us seeing up close the dastardly Duke who’s been plaguing our Bastards for two books now. It’s gotten pretty dark up until now, with him attempting to ruin, maim, or possibly straight up murder the boys we love from books 1 and 2, and yet, love is just around the corner.

We know the Bastard’s side of the backstory with Ewan, Duke of Marwick and Evil Bad Guy, from the earlier series: after the four of them (MMCs from the first two books, Grace, the heroine of THIS book, and Ewan) grew up under the tyrannical rule of the former duke, Ewan betrayed his two half brothers and Grace (whose relation to all of them I can’t remember, but it’s not blood) and they had to run away and raise themselves on the rough streets of London. The three of them, the titular Bareknuckle Bastards (of which Grace is absolutely a member), learn the hard way how to rule the dark and dirty streets, and have put as much distance as they could between them and Ewan, but he’s found them and, in particular, he’s looking for Grace, his one true love whose brothers won’t give up the location of. 

Grace eventually reappears herself, set on revenge because she no longer wants to live in fear of what Ewan is capable of. Of course, revenge requires proximity, and proximity has a way of revealing hidden truths. 

I love Sarah MacLean and I loved the first two books of this series, so I was really excited for this book. Unfortunately… it lagged a little under those high expectations, for the simple reasons that no shit was Ewan’s “betrayal” an obvious self sacrifice, considering everything we know about the former duke. Ewan’s been an asshole for two books, for sure, but he was also very clearly never the villain everyone acts like he obviously is, and it made for the “redemption” part of things a little unsatisfying (especially since it wasn’t a surprise twist when we learned the Real Story about The Incident). I think he should have actually done something truly, irredeemably terrible and been redeemed anyways through dedication to justice and love. 

I still liked this book, obviously, and it’s absolutely a requirement for closure since the first two books of this series were so excellent, but SM could have made this man way worse, just saying.

Rating: 4/5

How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

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Next week, I’ll be recommending books where our characters wake up married in Vegas, a thing I find horrifying on multiple levels (chief among them that they’re in Vegas in the first place).

What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!

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