The Scottish Bride

Pretty good book. I have read it a couple of times and liked it. It is an "easy read". ( )

I was apprehensive about this one--it had been in my TBR pile forever, and the last book I read by Coulter was pretty much unreadable.

This one wasn't as bad, but you can see the development of the unreadable style--abrupt transitions and dialogue in which the characters don't seem to be actually speaking to each other, as their statements are unrelated (not an actual example, but this sort of thing: "Nice weather out today." "My dress is blue."). I wonder if it's her writing that's just continued along this path, or if it's always been like this and she has a new editor that doesn't keep it in check.

Anyway, despite it being more comprehensible, there's not much of a story. This is one of those rare occasions when a full-length book would probably work better as a novella.

It's ostensibly about a serious, widowed (widowered?) vicar who unexpectedly inherits a Scottish barony, travels to it, meets a woman who brings light and laughter back into his life, marries her, his congregation objects to the change in him, and he has to somehow reconcile his serious faith with his newfound happiness.

It's a good premise. But the story completely loses sight of the goal. Long, long passages, chapters even, are devoted to really dull minutiae, including visiting every single couple from what has apparently been a pretty long series, and listing every one of their innumerable offspring, while the plot's off in the corner somewhere taking a snooze. ( )

Mary Rose was pursued by a threatening man whom tried to rape her into marrying her. The Earl/Reverend, Tyson came to her rescue and married her. She was considered a bastard, as her mother never married her father. I loved Tyson's children. ( )

If only this book could have been written while being true to the series' earlier characterization of Tysen. Had Coulter been willing to write a priggish, bookish, weedy little man as a hero, The Scottish Bride might have been an original and clever tale. Unfortunately, Coulter's books only contain one hero-type. In order for Tysen to get his own book, he has to go through a major character transformation and become identical to his brothers. His priggish past gets retconned as the fault of his terrible (and now dead) first wife. ( )