I freaking loved Izzy in the last book because of her sarcastic and dry humor and I loved her in this book too. She had me cracking up at some of the things she said.

In the last book, there was a part where she and her cousin Elizabeth, along with others, had traveled to Edinburgh to meet the knight with whom her brother had been negotiating Elizabeth's betrothal. Sir Thomas Randolph, who has a reputation for being one of the most gallant, honorable and heroic knights in Scotland, rides up on a grand steed with his armor gleaming in the sun like from a faerie tale. He whips off his helm to reveal a gorgeous face. Izzy asks, “Is he for real?” I thought she was enchanted until the king says something about his nephew not being known for being humble. Then Sir Thomas Randolph walks over to Elizabeth, gets down on one knee and takes her hand. Izzy says, “Good grief.” I lost it and rolled around my bed laughing.

Isabel Stewart thinks Randolph is the most shallow and fake man alive. It's not that he isn't a true hero or gallant or honorable. It's that he seems to say whatever everyone wants to hear and he is arrogant and full of himself. He cares too much what others think of him and about looking good in front of the king and other nobles.

Randolph finds Izzy to be frustrating. She is probably the only lass in the world, besides maybe his aunt, to not fall all over him and hang on his every word. It's almost as if she is laughing at him but that's ridiculous, women love him. They don't laugh at him.

They keep getting thrown together because Elizabeth is busy doing other things (namely, Thom MacGowan). On one outing, Randolph and Izzy kiss and their relationship gets more awkward when they realize they are attracted to each other. But will Randolph choose Izzy?

This is such a good series. I love the recurring characters and the romances. Oh, and I can't forget the history. I like how the author writes how she came up with the story and cites her historical research at the end of each book. It's an added bonus. ( )

Monica McCarty's heroines tend to ruin her books for me, (terribly immature, demanding, daft, etc.), but both of the men in her novellas in this series (James Douglas in The Knight, and Thomas Randolph in this one (as well as Isabel)) are real people and actual great-grandparents of mine, so of course I had to read theirs! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Knight, (the heroine was even believably reasonable), and similarly I enjoyed about the first 1/2 to 2/3s of this one (til about the time they take the castle). The inconvenient but inevitable romance was developed well and both characters were pretty likable. The second part though, the hero just continued to be SO resistant to acknowledging his feelings, and the heroine became considerably less and less reasonable as well. =/ Events went sort of haywire also. Really, *back-to-back abductions*?? Publicly broadcasting *her* dishonor along with his own without even blinking?! Without the ending portion I might have given it 4 stars, but as it is, 3 stars seems slightly generous. Still, I'm happy someone wrote a couple stories based on my distant ancestors and that I read them! ( )