He remembers hearing a shot and then a shout from one of his injured outriders, stepping outside the carriage to check on the boy, and then everything went black after he was hit from behind. Expecting an ambush, he accompanied the shipment – but he isn’t sure how he wound up trussed in a luxurious carriage with a sweet smelling woman muttering to herself. (As one does.)Īfter the last three Bareknuckle Bastard shipments of smuggled goods were ambushed, Beast (brother of Devil, Wicked and the Wallflower), is determined to find out who dares to challenge them.
After confirming he’s still alive (and that he’s beautiful), Hattie tells Nora to carry on – they’ll drop him off somewhere along the way. Hattie isn’t willing to let three months of planning for this night go to waste. They’d left the hitched – and most definitely empty – carriage in the dark rear drive of Sedley house not three quarters of an hour earlier, before hiking upstairs to exchange carriage-hitching dresses for attire more appropriate for their evening plans. Unfortunately, the clandestine plan hits a snag when Hattie steps into the carriage and discovers a strange man, bound and unconscious, within. Her co-conspirator and driver for this adventure is her best friend Lady Eleanora Madewell (Nora). When Brazen and the Beast begins, Hattie is ready to depart for a rendezvous at a discreet and upscale bordello wherein she will lose her virginity and with it, the possibility of marriage. Before she can undertake The Year of Hattie, she’s made arrangements to remove one last possible obstacle to her plans – marriage – by ruining herself. Business: Owning/running Sedley Shipping (despite her father’s plan for older brother August to inherit) Home (one of her own – although, she seems to have complete freedom to come and go from the one she currently inhabits) Fortune (presumably from said shipping business) Future (to live life on her own terms). She’s traded her dreams of finding true love or marrying and having children, for a much different future altogether – a four point plan to captain her own fate. On the eve of her twenty-ninth birthday, Lady Henrietta Sedley is looking forward to The Year of Hattie. Brazen and the Beast is an enjoyable and entertaining continuation of The Bareknuckle Bastards series, but like its predecessor, it failed to live up to my (admittedly high) expectations. These factors detract from this entertaining and romantic story featuring a non-traditional heroine you can’t help but like. I was completely absorbed in the romance, which is perfectly paced and gets off to a good start, but unfortunately, not everything else is as good and the villains (except one, who features in the next book) are underdeveloped, underutilized, and not very villainous. Brazen and the Beast is vintage Sarah MacLean.
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