My Devilish Scotsman

The last thing the hero wants is to be saddled to another wife-even one as beautiful at the heroine. But when his dying friend calls in a favor for the hero to marry his youngest daughter, he can't refuse. Betrayed by his first wife and grieving his dead son, the hero is at first cold and standoffish. His deep distrust of women is justified but he's having a hard time disliking his new betrothed. The heroine really wants to marry the Earl for 3 reasons. First off, it's her dying fathers wish and she would do anything to please him. Secondly, she really wants to be a countess. And lastly, it's either the Earl or the Frenchman and there's no way she'll move to France. She's enraptured by her new husband. He's handsome and strong but cold show more and distrusting of everything she does. But when they travel to her new home, she begins to see a new side of him. He's soft and tender and begins to treat her with love. So when it becomes apparently that someone is trying to kill her, he must do what he can to protect her. Despite the fact that rumors still swirl around that he killed his first wife and that her family still think he trying to hill her, the heroine is never in doubt about his feelings for her. He doesn't believe in magic or ghosts-doesn't believe that his new wife is a witch- but what will he do if the supernatural is the only way to save her life? I thought this is be a great book. The heroine was horribly naïve and ignorant of the world around her. Her mother was burned at the stake for witchcraft but she insists on practicing her newly discovered magic at her peril. I found it frustrating that she would do such a thing-especially in a new place where people aren't so forgiving of witches. I could understand that hero's irritation at her insistence to blame everything on the supernatural when there are very real dangers in living people. But in the scheme of things he was tolerant of his wife's quirks because he loved her, only wanting what's best for her and getting angry when she puts her life in danger. I thought this was a good story albeit slow at times. The ending kicked it up but until that point I found the plot and the over all slow pace of your typical historical romance to be lacking in excitement and conflict. The hero sort of faded off for me during the middle, losing, I felt, a bit of his charisma. The major lack luster factor about this book was that there was very little tension between the characters after the married and slept together. Over all, I enjoyed this book but thinking back to My Shadow Warrior (Rose's story) and remembering the passion and the excitement of that story and how much I loved it, sort of put a damper on this story. I don't feel it measured up to the next book in the series. But, this was still a lovely book. Just less grand. show less

if you like witchy romances, you'd probably like this book (I'm not into witches). I found the outcome predictable and guessed who was behind the mysterious deaths and poisonings and I'm pretty positive I know what is the mysterious illness that is killing their father.

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-devilish-scotsman-by-jen-holling.html