Completely stupid. ( )

The story starts with a statue of a "beastie": an ugly thing passed down through the Lockhart family. Over the generations, its story has been turned into a curse on the statue. But when the Scottish branch of the Lockharts are on the verge of losing their land and livelihood, the money they could get for it becomes very appealing, and they decide to retrieve it from the English branch.

Older brother Liam, a captain in the Highland Regiments, goes to London to commit some espionage and larceny. While there, he meets and falls in love with Ellie, the daughter of his landlord.

Ellie and her daughter Natalie are virtual prisoners in her father's home--a result of the youthful love affair that left Ellie with a broken heart, a ruined reputation, and a highly imaginative daughter. She's falling in love with Liam, but her first concern is for Natalie, and she'll do anything to give her a better life.

I very much enjoyed Liam's fish-out-of-water antics in London. He was right on the verge of being too comical to be real, but never crossed the line--mostly because we're in his POV when he's doing something odd, and he makes perfect sense, given his character.

I likewise understood Ellie quite well: her fears for her child, and being torn by what she saw as a decision between Liam and Natalie.

What really interfered with my enjoyment of the story was the back cover blurb. I know, I know--I usually make it a point to avoid reading them, but for some reason I read this one. It gives away a plot point that happens well into the second half of the book, and as if that's not bad enough, it misrepresents it, so I spent over half the book waiting for an event that wasn't what I'd expected. Not that I wanted the story to go the way I was expecting--I love it when books surprise me--but if it's on the back of the book, you pretty much expect it to be true. Argh.

Anyway, I'll likely look up the next book in this trilogy. I'm not a big historical romance fan, but I do enjoy Julia London's writing. ( )

I just can't put my finger on why, but this book just didn't do it for me. I have a couple of ideas and reasons, and all tolled together, the book just didn't thrill me. For one thing, this takes place during Regency times - 1816. Why does it just seem so incongruous to have a Scottish Highlander in London during these times? I much prefer them on their own turf, and preferably earlier times. I guess I'm a Scottish Highlander snob. I'm happier with medieval highlanders or highlanders set around the time of the risings.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/11/h...

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Oh how I wanted to like this book. I did at first, and then I had to force myself to finish it. When I did I was...let's just say not happy. ( )

This was just alright for me. Nothing really special. I liked the story, but I think what ruined it was that halfway through, Ellie made a really idiotic mistake (which I won't go into detail about here, so as not to ruin the book). What she did seemed like a really dumb move, but then at that point, both she and Liam were being stupid, (in neither admitting their love for one another which would have just solved all their problems) and in a book like this, they've got to be stupid to keep the book and/or series going. I mean, had they solved their problems by confessing their love for each other halfway through the book, there would really be no book, and no way to continue the series. As it was, I just came away with a vaguely irritated feeling towards Ellie and the entire storyline.

Another problem for me also was that I felt absolutely no connection to "Grif" at all and so, given my feeling for this first book, and my complete ambivalence about "Grif," I just can't bring myself to want to buy his story. I just don't care. I really wish there had been more scenes with him where I could have worked up some emotion for him so that I could care enough about him to want to read his story, thus continuing on with the series, but there was nothing to draw me to him.

I do have a bit more of a curiosity about Mared and her story. Though, again, not enough to continue on, and I really feel that if the first book were stronger, if I was able to get to know the other siblings more and get a bit more emotionally invested in them, I might have wanted to go ahead and take a chance with Mared's story. As it is, this will be the first and only book of this series that I will be reading. ( )