Argh! Sarah Macleans No Good Duke Goes Unpunished could totally be 5 stars. So close! And for many, it probably is. I love Sarah Macleans writing, and I feel like you get what you love and expect from her; the longing, the steam, the emotional aspect. You get lots of time in both characters heads, and I love getting the hero’s perspective. However, the second half of this book was slowly, but certainly, ruined for me by the heroine.

The hero, Temple, is one of the main 4 of the Fallen Angel club. He is known as the killer duke, because of a night 12 years ago he has no memory of. He was accused of murdering his fathers soon to be bride, Mara Lowe.

Mara, our heroine, comes to him, to offer him a trade. Her family’s money for his reputation.

I really liked the first 2/3 of this book. I enjoyed Mara, loved what she had done with her life since her disappearance. I liked her independence and how she didn’t back down. I loved Temple. I loved his interactions with Mara, his fierceness and his pain.

As the book went on though, Mara, and her lack of communication with him about what happened, her lack of truth, her lack of any kind of remorse and empathy, made me want to shake her. To smack her. There is a scene just over halfway through the book that I thought was really really good. And utterly heartbreaking. And I thought it would be enough for Mara to come around and make good on her promises. Become a heroine worth Temple. But, she didn’t. She continued down her dumb path that just kept getting more and more frustrating.

Personally I felt like Temple deserved way more than Mara.

Also I’d like to complain that the only full love scene you get is like 30 pages before the end of the book. And I also thought it was a letdown with Mara needing to be “in control” and yeah basically she ruined that for me too 😂

3 1/2 stars