My Thoughts On How to Marry a Royal Highlander

How to Marry a Royal Highlander
By Vanessa Kelly

SYNPOSIS:
At sixteen, Alasdair Gilbride, heir to a Scottish earldom, fled the Highlands and an arranged betrothal. Ten years later, Alasdair must travel home to face his responsibilities. It's a task that would be much easier without the distracting presence of the most enticing woman he's ever met…

After one escapade too many, Eden Whitney has been snubbed by the ton. The solution: rusticating in the Scottish wilderness, miles from all temptation. Except, of course, for brawny, charming Alasdair. The man is so exasperating she'd likely kill him before they reach the border—if someone else weren't trying to do just that. Now Eden and Alasdair are plunging into a scandalous affair with his life and her reputation at stake—and their hearts already irreparably lost…

MY REVIEW:
I really liked the story of Edie and Alec and thought they had a wonderful relationship, but I felt like the book relied too much on establishing their feelings for one another on the previous book in the series. As I hadn't read it, I was left to automatically jump into their romance without seeing any of the slow burn that I so love to follow as a couple come to realize how they feel about one another. I don't blame the author for this, but rather find that it's a genre flaw that is being trotted out more and more, making most books not a standalone read. Not a bad business practice, but sometimes frustrating as a reader.

This would have been a five star read for me if we were going on story alone, I liked the premise that much. There were a number of things however that dropped this book down a star for me.

1. I didn't feel like this was a Regency novel. The behavior and speech of all of the characters very much felt like late-Edwardian/pre-Jazz age with their quips and colloquialisms. I've read well over 200 Regencies and I've never heard anyone talk quite the way these characters do. Compare it however with the way the characters on Mr. Selfridge and it fit right in. This didn't make me like the story any less, mind you. It just took me out of the historical setting. I would have loved it just as much were it set in that period.

2. This one might have passed through every edit and ARC review the novel received because it's something I don't think everyone would know. Whisky in Scotland is not spelled with an e. This is something that is very easily learned by doing a Google search for "Scotch Whiskey" - the first hit, and all thereafter, drop the e.

3.  I felt like Donella was a fully flushed out character, and I knew straight away that she was going to decide to go into a nunnery. Knowing this did not ruin her declaration in the least; rather, it made me glad to know that the characterization and description of her rang true throughout. The person who DIDN'T ring true was her mother. I felt like the author wanted her to be crazy the whole time but she was written as supremely grasping and snobbish right up until the moment when she tried to kill Edie. I wasn't surprised by this twist, only its motivation. One minute we think she'll stop at nothing to have her daughter be the countess, and the next she's ranting and raving about how she doesn't even want her daughter to marry Alec. And then she's back to trying to force the marriage. Yes, she was not emotionally competent by this point, but her motivations just seemed unresolved. It would have worked better for me as a reader if the author had stuck with one and rode it out.

4. I realize the character is a twin, but calling them Edie and Evie was VERY confusing in all of the scenes they were together. Then there's Alec and another guy whose name starts with A and has four letters and for the first several pages of the book I was trying to figure out who was who and it was frustrating because I wanted to pay attention to the story, not trying to keep people straight in my head.

I know this seems like a lot of nits, but I only point them out because I think with some fine tuning this could have been a truly excellent story.

** I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review **
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on June 19, 2015 12:46
No comments have been added yet.