Scandal & Scoundrel Books In Order

Publication Order of Scandal & Scoundrel Books

Scandal & Scoundrel by Sarah MacLean is a series of novels by the author that the New Yorker described as having reignited the romance genre with a bolder edge. Maclean is a USA Today, Washington Post, and New York Times bestselling author of young adult, historical romance and contemporary romance novels. She made her name when her second novel “Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake” stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks on its debut. Since then, she has gone on to win the Best Historical Romance for “A Rogue by Any Other Name”, which won the Romance Writers of American RITA Award. She also works for the Washington Post where she has a monthly column reviewing romance novels. She has been called the “utterly intoxicating and elegantly fuming queen of historical romance” by Entertainment Weekly, and appeared on the Sheroes list on Jezebel for her work on feminism and how it intersects with the romance genre.
Sarah Maclean was born to a British mother and an Italian father in Rhode Island. According to her website, her mother worked as a spy for MI6. She got into reading since her older sister loved romance novels and by the time she was in her teens knew she wanted to become an author. With her love for historical fiction, she went to Smith College where she got her degree in European History. She then moved to New York, where she worked as a literary publicist while working on her master’s in Education at Harvard. After getting a Master’s, she moved to New York to pursue a career as an author publishing “The Season”, a novel set in Regency England that was a huge success. She currently lives in New York City with her husband, daughter and huge stack of romance novels.

The Scandal & Scoundrel series of novels tell the stories of the so called Dangerous scandalous daughters and the dashing rogues they are paired with. The first novel of the series is about Sophie Talbot, the youngest of the Dangerous Daughters. She is a somewhat plain though opinionated and smart woman that the other sisters call the boring “unfun” one. However, she is quite feisty and stands up for herself though she can also be kind. Her love interest is the dashing rogue and Marquess of Eversley, Kingscote. He has a reputation with the ladies, though he can also be one of the most thoughtful and sweetest with the people he loves. The second novel of the series “A Scot in the Dark” features Lilian Hargrove, who has spent much of a life pining for companionship and love. But then she finds love and soon after heartbreak, which brings out the beast in her that she becomes a scandalous siren. She is paired up with the brawny highland devil that is the Scottish Duke, Alec. Like Lily, he had been rejected for most of his life with most women only wanting him for a night since he was a good lay. The lead in “The Day of the Duchess” is Seraphina Duchess of Haven one of the scandalous Dangerous daughters that had never been one to care for what society thought of her. She had left the proud Duke of Haven who had spent the past three years pining for her. Despite his previous infidelities, he is now a remorseful and loving man who wants his wife back.

The “Rogue Not Taken” introduces Sophie, a woman from recent nobility with new money. They traverse their society’s outer edges as they are scorned for their humble roots and wild ways, though they are to some extent accepted for their wealth and titles. Sophie is the least scandalous of the sisters until she finds her brother in law cheating on her sister. She embarrasses him in public calling him out and in the process ruining her social status too. She does not care anyway as she never wanted to be part of that world. She tries to get into King’s carriage to escape her embarrassment, oblivious of the fact that King too is running away from an assignation. But the wild Marquess is not interested in offering any assistance in her escape. But she is not one to give up so easily as she takes matters into her own hands. She somehow manages to blend in with the servants and gets into the carriage and gets a ride out of town. When he finds her, he is convinced she is trying to trick him into marriage though all she desires is her freedom. As their journeys converge, their fervent dislike soon turns into desire that even the wild King has never experienced before.

In “A Scot in the Dark”, Lilian Hargrove had made the mistake of falling for an egotistic and complete bastard that had convinced her to pose nude for him. She realizes what a huge mistake she had made when the Royal Academy Exhibition of Contemporary Art announces that his painting of her nudes will headline their upcoming exhibition. She is immediately and naturally the center of all kinds of unpleasant gossip and her character is destroyed. But then Alec Stuart her hitherto absentee guardian who also happens to be the oblivious first Duke of Warnick sweeps in to her rescue. He has just learned that he had acceded to the title five years past, and has come to London to find his charge in dire need of rescue. She is nearly at the point of utter ruin and he needs to do everything in his power to protect her. But she is bent on running away and does not want to be rescued though Alec would have none of it. He decides that he is going to marry her off to someone that can protect her reputation. Marriage is out of the question for Lily who wants to marry only for love. But then the Scotsman finds that there is one thing in London he loves to be with all too often.

“The Day of the Duchess” is the third novel of the series featuring the Duchess of Haven Seraphina Bevingstoke. She just made a dramatic entrance in parliament with a petition to divorce the Duke of Haven Bevingstoke. She had left her home and been away for nearly three years after a miscarriage that had led to the revelation that she had trapped him into marriage, She had come to love him over the course of their marriage but then he had become a philanderer soon after the revelations, which had changed everything and left her bitter. But now she is back and wants a divorce though he never stopped loving her and has other plans for their marriage. He had been searching for her for the past three years after realizing how much he still loved and wanted to be with her. Now that she is back, he is willing to do anything to convince her to give their marriage one last go. She wants nothing to do with him of course but he has an ingenious plan – blackmail her to help him find a new wife in exchange for a divorce. He tells her that she has to spend time at his country estate helping him in his quest. This is very convenient as it gives him a chance to seduce her. But Sera will not be so easy to trick as she brings along her four dangerous sisters for moral support, which just makes Malcolm’s quest harder.