The Bride of Black Douglas

Mackinnon-Douglas #1

by Elaine Coffman

Set against the dramatic backdrop of 1785 Scotland, Elaine Coffman delivers her most breathtaking novel ever. In this unforgettable romance, a marriage that starts off to defy fate, just might end in love…Lady Meleri Weatherby is desperate to escape the marriage to a man she does not love, a man she knows to be unspeakably cruel. In a bold move, she breaks off her betrothal to Lord Philip and flees her home in Northumberland, vowing to marry the first man she meets, never considering the consequences of such a show of independence.Robert Douglas has been dealt an equally dark hand by the proud Scot must take an English bride or lose his ancestral home and noble name. It seems an impossible situation, until destiny puts him in the path of a strong-minded English lass with a will to survive that equals his own.Marriage is an ideal salvation for both. Meleri will be safe from her vengeful fiancé in Beloyn Castle with the Douglas clan, and Robert will be able to keep all he holds dear. But neither has bargained on a heartless man who will go to any lengths to seek revenge, the tenacity of a stubborn ghost and the most powerful force of love.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Medieval, Scotland

561 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Barbara Elaine Gunter was born in San Diego, California, to William Samuel Gunter, Jr., a naval officer and Edna Marie (née Davidson) Gunter, a homemaker. From the age of three she lived in Midland, Texas and graduated from Midland High School. After she received a degree in elementary education from North Texas State University, she taught elementary school in Midland, Texas, while working on her Master’s Degree and certification for Language and Learning Disabilities at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Elaine currently resides in Austin, Texas, where her son, Chuck, also lives. She has two daughters, Lesley who resides in Raleigh, N.C. and Ashley, who lives in San Diego, California.

Elaine Coffman is a New York Times bestselling author with a large international following. She has penned novels in both the historical romance genre and suspense. A lover of history, she has penned several novels set in Scotland, Regency England, Italy and the American West. To date, she is the author of nineteen novels and five novellas.

While writing her first novel, My Enemy, My Love, she found herself inspired by a letter her great-great grandmother, Susannah Jane Dowell Shacklett wrote in 1920, telling about her journey from Brandeburg, Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas, and then going with an army escort to El Paso, Texas, where her brother, Ben Dowell, a veteran of the Mexican War, was El Paso's first mayor.

Elaine continued to write best-selling, award-winning books until the publication of her eleventh novel, If You Loved Me, which was the last book of her beloved Mackinnon series and her first book to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Her first suspense novel, Alone in the Dark, was published by Pocket books in 2006.

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Booklikes review reposted here at GR per Sandi's request :)

The storylines in this book take some erratic twists, with some plot points being dropped without conclusion. This review will discuss those in greater detail than I would normally do, so I am erring on the side of caution and marking portions of this review as containing spoilers.

The girl: Lady Meleri Weatherby has been engaged since childhood to the son of her aging father's good friend, but she now sees the light and realizes Lord Phillip is a cruel, cruel man. She knows she needs to end the engagement, but her father's mind is in the clouds, and her much older half-sisters are miles away in London (the Weatherby estate is in Northumbria).

"What she had once adored was nothing more than a thin veneer, cracked and peeling away."

The guy: Robert Douglas (he's the earl of something-or-other) is the latest head of the verra old Douglas clan. Things haven't been so good for this branch of the Douglases, and the ancient Beloyn Castle is falling into disrepair and there's no money to fix it (and it's mortgaged as well). Worse yet, Robert gets a letter from King George ordering him to marry an Englishwoman (being a Scot he hates the English), and he's got three weeks to find one. So, he sets off with his younger brother and they're on horseback trotting through the wilds of Northumbria looking for an heiress to marry. You would think he'd have better luck in London socializing with the swanks, but no...

The baddie: Lord Philip Waverly (I could have that wrong, the book's at home) is as bad as bad can be. He beats animals, grooms and has a mistress in London, and would really rather marry the mistress than Meleri. Meleri and Phillip even agree to end the engagement, but the Waverlys are in a financial pinch and they need Meleri's dowry something awful.

Sooooooo, Meleri knows she needs to escape, but there's no safe place for her to go outside of her old nanny who lives over the Scottish border in Gretna Green. She gets on her horse with nothing but the clothes she's wearing and heads north. All alone. She eventually *bumps* into Robert and younger brother Hugh who are camping out in the woods during their search for an English heiress (yes, I know that's stupid), and we get this:

"Let me see if I have this right. You did not need an escort because it was daylight when you left, yet you were upset because you were afraid of the dark, which caused you to make a wrong turn and get lost."

*head desk*

One things leads to another and it's decided that Robert and Meleri can solve both their problems by getting married. Robert's got an extra perk in the deal, because evil Philip and his chums are the ones who gang-raped Robert's twin sister and left her for dead. Robert doesn't tell Meleri about any of this, even though he knows she'll hate him for using her to get revenge.

K...are your eyes glazing over yet?

Robert, Hugh and Meleri head for the castle and they put off the wedding for a bit so she can get adjusted. There are then pages and pages of Meleri settling in and cleaning house. Mops, soap, buckets of hot water kind of stuff. Robert sees the light and it's insta-love so the revenge plot is dropped. Philip loses his three chums in Gretna Green (we think they were the rest of the gang-raping gang, but that is dropped and never resolved).

More pages of endless house cleaning with an occasional break for the horizontal mumbo-jumbo whilst we wait for the evil Philip to finally find his way to the castle and do his worst. Oh, and there's a twist with a ghost of a Douglas ancestor and a mystery about some buried jewels.

My final thoughts? A convoluted mess of a book with storylines dropped left and right, a ditz of a heroine who is much too chummy with the staff, all wrapped up in a way too many descriptions of every single thing. Like this:

"Far as the eye could see, everything looked gray and grumpy, nothing but miles and miles of bleak landscape and angry gray clouds that were determined to drop their wet burden on anyone foolish enough to be out on such a drizzly day."

"She needed to know he belonged to her and no other but she could not claim him any more than wax can hold feathers fast near the sun....She looked up at him, his proud, dark head hovering like a bird of prey over her."

And when Philip finally does get his hands on her and she regains consciousness to find herself bound and gagged she has the presence of mind to notice the "rainbow-hued ring" encircling the full moon and the "silver-dusted moonshine" doing more flowery shite like that.

All in all a very overblown bit of a wallpaper romance - and if you think there's a bunch of hot sex to make up for the plot holes and silliness think again - there's not very much of that to speak of. No velvet spears or heroine's love juices to be found here, pretty much all behind closed doors.

Off to the charity box with this one.

Edit. I almost forgot, I'm supposed to find something good to say. I love the stepback, courtesy of saturnalia:

[Sandy Ⓢ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado. Muy buena narración y trama.

[Miranda Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Natural enemies, a Scots nobleman and an English lady, meet by chance and must marry for each's own purposes, yadda yadda yadda.

Couldn't stomach the writing. So did not finish.

"She sat stock still, as if enchanted. Around her a breeze stirred...Still she did not move. Transfixed, she was motionless with surprise." Ok, still, not moving, transfixed, motionless...I get it. She's dead?

"Strangely, she felt an odd sort of curiosity about him, which she tried to quell..." Argh. Oddly, strangely curious...and catatonic. Why would her curiosity be strange? He's unfamiliar, possibly dangerous, to her, she's bound to wonder about him. And what is 'odd' curiosity versus the regular kind of curiosity? It's just awful, pointless over-writing. Compared to the best writers, authors like Loretta Chase, Julia Quinn, Mary Balogh, Judith Ivory -- this is just swill. Those authors make every sentence carry clear meaning, if they add emphasis it's for a purpose, and they don't write things that beggar commonsense. 'Odd' sorts of curiosity just don't come up. They write what they mean and I can understand what they mean. This dross makes me love their work that much more.

Perhaps the issue is an egregious lack of editing. The last example of this twee sort of over-non-writing to curdle my whey like this was The Bride and the Brute, which was abysmal. I cannot read this sort of thing and enjoy myself. But rather than get grouchy, I put it in the giveaway pile and will re-read The Proposition by Judith Ivory. She writes with clarity, wit and great style.

[Anja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook (abridged due to a lying book vendor that deserves a nastygram for wasting my money but won’t get one because I should’ve noticed the running time).

CON:
Plot holes, continuity errors, historical wallpaper you can see through, lack of adherence to social strictures, weak dialogue, absurd love scenes, unfocused plot, changeable character motivations, no chemistry, and no romance.

PRO:
The only good to come of reading this book is my discovery of one of the elusive 3 star reviews from Harriet Klausner. I even saved a screenshot because I didn’t believe they existed.

[Romanticamente Fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inutile dirvi che in questo periodo sono fissata coi romanzi ambientati in Scozia. Outlander sta creando dipendenza.
Per questo motivo ho deciso di riprendere in mano uno dei primi romanzi storici che mi regalò mia zia.
Ambientato nel 1785, il romanzo spazia tra Inghilterra e Scozia. L’autrice descrive in maniera dettagliata tutti gli ambienti e, da appassionata della terra scozzese posso dirvi con assoluta certezza che sono perfetti, in particolare il castello di Beloyn.
Ma andiamo con ordine.
Protagonista del romanzo è Lady Meleri Weatherby che decide di andare dalla sua vecchia balia in Scozia per sfuggire al matrimonio con l’aristocratico Lord Philip.
La giovane però non può di certo immaginare di incrociare il suo cammino – o forse dovrei dire il suo destino – col Conte Robert Douglas, laird del clan che aveva combattuto contro gli inglesi per difendere le proprie terre.
“La Scozia aveva perso la propria indipendenza. Adesso era il re d’Inghilterra a regnare sulle terre che un tempo avevano visto i Douglas come loro padroni. L’intera Scozia era sotto il tallone degli stranieri, dei tiranni che dominavano la patria dei suoi antenati.”
Ora però, per non far cadere il clan in disgrazia, Robert deve trovare una ricca donna inglese che può risanare la perdita di patrimonio.
Entrambi concordano sul fatto che un matrimonio potrebbe essere vantaggioso da ambo le parti.
Quello che però inizialmente doveva essere solo un “accordo di affari”, ben presto si rivelerà qualcosa di più, anche grazie all’aiuto del fantasma di Black Douglas, che solo Meleri può vedere.
Lei infatti è la predestinata in grado di poter trovare l’antico tesoro perduto dei Douglas.
«È tornato per qualcuno che ha il cuore di un vero scozzese, che sia scozzese o no. La tua futura moglie ci ha dato prova, nel breve tempo in cui è rimasta qui, di essere davvero degna del nostro nome e della nostra storia.»
Fin dalle prime righe possiamo capire il carattere di Meleri: nonostante sia una nobildonna, difende i suoi diritti con le unghie e coi denti, senza peli sulla lingua.
Indomita e coraggiosa è differente rispetto alle donne frivole che la società inglese di fine Settecento aveva imposto loro di essere e Robert lo scopre a sue spese lasciandosi rubare a poco a poco il cuore da quel demonio dalla capigliatura di fuoco.
D’altro canto, il protagonista maschile, Robert Douglas, è il classico scozzese dal carattere forte, in alcune occasioni oserei dire rude.
Essendo il laird del clan ha il compito di proteggere tutto ciò che è suo: i territori, il castello, la famiglia e, ovviamente, Meleri, sua promessa sposa.
La tensione sessuale tra i due protagonisti è evidente sin dal loro primo incontro e, nonostante non ci siano scene esplicite, l’autrice è riuscita a farmi palpitare il cuore col suo linguaggio semplice, senza troppi fronzoli.
Mi è piaciuto il mondo che è riuscita a creare attorno ai due protagonisti, aggiungendo come ciliegina sulla torta quel tocco paranormale che non guasta mai.
Perché ammettiamolo: non esiste castello scozzese che non abbia qualche fantasma al suo interno.
Consiglio vivamente a tutte le fan di Diana Gabaldon di leggere questo libro e di riuscire a prendere gli altri due della serie anche se li troverete solo in inglese!

[Katrina Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing isn't wonderful in this book. There are a lot of continuity issues (facts from one part of the book that don't match with another part). Also, sometimes, the reader may feel like a whole conversation was missed, and we were supposed to know something the characters had never discussed. But, I have to admit, it could've been something I missed when I skimmed or skipped whole pages because the author just copied and pasted family histories from another text. One final issue was how the author resolved the situation with the villain, which was pretty disappointing.

The redeeming grace of this book was the hidden jewels mystery. That kept my attention and made me want to follow the story through to the end. I hovered between 2 and 3 stars for that reason alone. I'd give this 2.5 stars.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trite and ridiculous.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story had some interesting ghost sidelines but over all I kept wincing--predictable, stilted and odd. The book just didn't flow. I kept thinking it would get better. I liked the story concept but the dialogue was awkward.

[Rainz ❤️rainnbooks❤️(on a break) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soo much descriptive details which hampers the story telling, however simple romance and enchanting ghost!

[LadyAileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho preso questo libro perché la trama mi ha immediatamente colpito soprattutto per la presenza di un fantasma, un tesoro da scoprire e un castello.
Il romanzo non fa parte di alcuna saga e confesso di non aver mai letto nulla di quest'autrice per cui con grande trepidazione ho cominciato e il mio giudizio finale è: non sarà uno dei miei libri preferiti ma nel complesso sono rimasta soddisfatta.
Uno stile scorrevole con una sensualità appena accennata, una trama fantasiosa (mescola eventi storici con la fantasia) anche se per certi versi non è originalissima e anche nella caratterizzazione dei personaggi non ho riscontrato grandi cose.
La storia è ambientata dapprima in Inghilterra per poi concludersi in Scozia, siamo nel 1785 quando Lady Meleri, una donna coraggiosa e indomita, decide di scappare per evitare un uomo violento che vuole sposarla solo per la sua dote. Sulla sua strada appare Robert, un nobile scozzese povero che per di più viene costretto dal Re a sposare un'inglese ricca entro tre settimane altrimenti la sceglierà lui. Entrambi hanno dei caratteri forti per cui sono scintille fin dal loro primo incontro in più ci si mette il fantasma di Black Douglas (un antenato di Robert) che sembra aver trovato nella donna la prescelta cioè colei degna di avere il tesoro di famiglia nascosto ormai da tanti secoli.
Sicuramente una caccia al tesoro che si dipana soprattutto nelle ultime pagine del libro mentre per la maggior parte domina la vendetta del duca (l'ex di Meleri).
Un romanzo con un tocco di paranormale senza però elementi horror, infatti è tutto raccontato con eleganza e semplicità.

[Mesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Coffman book. She's very articulate and I liked this book a lot until the first love scene. I had to re-read just to make sure that's what had taken place. So vague. All the romantic scenes had no flourishes at all in comparison to the rest of the book. Additionally, it turned out to be way more of a ghost story than a romance in my opinion. I still enjoyed it... but it's more of a 3.5 stars really.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

While, i did finish. It was a hard read because it felt like three people wrote it. Or the author started it and put it down for a few years then stoped and wait afew more years. The editor or proofreader should have raised a red flag when the book takes such liberities with pacing and dropped storylines.

[JulianneWells · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I had written a review when this was fresh in my mind, I seem to remember really hating it.

A month later, the only thing that sticks out is the quirky aunt and the ghost. I guess that says a lot about the lack of interest in the main characters. 🤷

[Amanda Speiller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it, no matter how hard I tried

[Diletta Brizzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inutile dirvi che in questo periodo sono fissata coi romanzi ambientati in Scozia. Outlander sta creando dipendenza.

Per questo motivo ho deciso di riprendere in mano uno dei primi romanzi storici che mi regalò mia zia.

Ambientato nel 1785, il romanzo spazia tra Inghilterra e Scozia. L'autrice descrive in maniera dettagliata tutti gli ambienti e, da appassionata della terra scozzese posso dirvi con assoluta certezza che sono perfetti, in particolare il castello di Beloyn.

Ma andiamo con ordine.

Protagonista del romanzo è Lady Meleri Weatherby che decide di andare dalla sua vecchia balia in Scozia per sfuggire al matrimonio con l'aristocratico Lord Philip.

La giovane però non può di certo immaginare di incrociare il suo cammino - o forse dovrei dire il suo destino - col Conte Robert Douglas, laird del clan che aveva combattuto contro gli inglesi per difendere le proprie terre.

"La Scozia aveva perso la propria indipendenza. Adesso era il re d’Inghilterra a regnare sulle terre che un tempo avevano visto i Douglas come loro padroni. L’intera Scozia era sotto il tallone degli stranieri, dei tiranni che dominavano la patria dei suoi antenati."

Ora però, per non far cadere il clan in disgrazia, Robert deve trovare una ricca donna inglese che può risanare la perdita di patrimonio.

Entrambi concordano sul fatto che un matrimonio potrebbe essere vantaggioso da ambo le parti.

Quello che però inizialmente doveva essere solo un "accordo di affari", ben presto si rivelerà qualcosa di più, anche grazie all'aiuto del fantasma di Black Douglas, che solo Meleri può vedere.

Lei infatti è la predestinata in grado di poter trovare l'antico tesoro perduto dei Douglas.

«È tornato per qualcuno che ha il cuore di un vero scozzese, che sia scozzese o no. La tua futura moglie ci ha dato prova, nel breve tempo in cui è rimasta qui, di essere davvero degna del nostro nome e della nostra storia.»

Fin dalle prime righe possiamo capire il carattere di Meleri: nonostante sia una nobildonna, difende i suoi diritti con le unghie e coi denti, senza peli sulla lingua.

Indomita e coraggiosa è differente rispetto alle donne frivole che la società inglese di fine Settecento aveva imposto loro di essere e Robert lo scopre a sue spese lasciandosi rubare a poco a poco il cuore da quel demonio dalla capigliatura di fuoco.

D'altro canto, il protagonista maschile, Robert Douglas, è il classico scozzese dal carattere forte, in alcune occasioni oserei dire rude.

Essendo il laird del clan ha il compito di proteggere tutto ciò che è suo: i territori, il castello, la famiglia e, ovviamente, Meleri, sua promessa sposa.

La tensione sessuale tra i due protagonisti è evidente sin dal loro primo incontro e, nonostante non ci siano scene esplicite, l'autrice è riuscita a farmi palpitare il cuore col suo linguaggio semplice, senza troppi fronzoli.

Mi è piaciuto il mondo che è riuscita a creare attorno ai due protagonisti, aggiungendo come ciliegina sulla torta quel tocco paranormale che non guasta mai.

Perché ammettiamolo: non esiste castello scozzese che non abbia qualche fantasma al suo interno.

Consiglio vivamente a tutte le fan di Diana Gabaldon di leggere questo libro e di riuscire a prendere gli altri due della serie anche se li troverete solo in inglese!

[ShyAnn64 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set against the dramatic backdrop of 1785 Scotland, Elaine Coffman delivers her most breathtaking novel ever. In this unforgettable romance, a marriage that starts off to defy fate, just might end in love…

Lady Meleri Weatherby is desperate to escape the unthinkable: marriage to a man she does not love, a man she knows to be unspeakably cruel. In a bold move, she breaks off her betrothal to Lord Philip and flees her home in Northumberland, vowing to marry the first man she meets, never considering the consequences of such a show of independence.

Robert Douglas has been dealt an equally dark hand by fate: the proud Scot must take an English bride or lose his ancestral home and noble name. It seems an impossible situation, until destiny puts him in the path of a strong-minded English lass with a will to survive that equals his own.

Marriage is an ideal salvation for both. Meleri will be safe from her vengeful fiancé in Beloyn Castle with the Douglas clan, and Robert will be able to keep all he holds dear. But neither has bargained on a heartless man who will go to any lengths to seek revenge, the tenacity of a stubborn ghost and the most powerful force of all: love.

[Lire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Au tout début du roman, il est question d'un fantôme, celui de la famille Douglas. La légende dit qu'il reviendra quand le "sauveur" de la famille sera là. Je trouvais cette "intrigue" intéressante, ça rajoutait quelque chose à l'histoire. Mais, malheureusement, ça n'a pas assez été exploité. Dommage !

On a donc surtout l'histoire de Meleri et Douglas. Elle est promise à un marquis horriblissime, il doit se trouver une femme anglaise, de bonne lignée, pour obéir aux volontés du Roi. Il déteste les Anglais, elle a de gros préjugés sur l'Ecosse. En gros, tout les oppose, et pourtant, leurs chemins vont se croiser. Elle verra en lui, l'homme qui peut lui permettre d'échapper à son fiancé, et lui, se verra contraint d'admettre qu'elle est un miracle, et un beau miracle.

Alors, évidemment, ce n'est pas le grand Amour tout de suite. Loin de là. Si physiquement ils se plaisent, on ne peut pas dire qu'ils s'entendent bien. Du coup, ça ressemble beaucoup aux histoires contemporaines avec deux protagonistes qui se vannent et qui refusent de voir que ça le caractère de l'autre leur plait, et qu'ils ont envie l'un de l'autre. Il y en a un qui flanche avant l'autre, je ne vous spoilerait pas ;) Et, comment dire ? Ce n'est pas que Meleri et Douglas ne soient pas attachants ou pas intéressants, mais il manque quelque chose. Ce petit truc qui fait qu'on est à fond dans l'histoire.

Si on a bien la description de l'Ecosse, ses paysages, le coeur de ses gens, ça manquait de kilt :p

La fin est baclée. Ca se passe trop vite, trop facilement. Je suis restée sur ma faim. J'attendais certaines discussions, j'aurais voulu plus de moments autour du fantôme, et non.

En gros, l'histoire est sympa, les protagonistes appréciables, parfois drôles mais je n'ai pas été emportée par l'ambiance au point de vouloir à tout prix la suite.

Bisous !


Casting ? http://lireoudormir.blogspot.fr/2015/...

[Chandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

AUTHOR: I found Elaine Coffman a long winded writer. Too much description slows down a book when there is very little dialogue and interaction between characters.

SETTING: 18th century, Northumberland England, Beloyn Castle Scotland

GENRE: Historical romance

CENTRAL FEMALE CHARACTERS: Meleri has a temper. She speaks her mind and maybe criticizes too much. She sees and hears things that no one else can see or hear.
CENTRAL MALE CHARACTER: Robert is a man of very few words and blames the English for his misery and the death of his beloved sister.

SYNOPSIS: She is engaged to Phillip, a man she does not want due to his violent tendencies. She must escape before he gets a hold of her dowry. The King of England has given Robert little time to find an English wife. She stumbles over him while making her escape and he realizes that she will resolve his dilemma. She is taken to his castle in Scotland where she meets one of his haunting relatives. Phillip is hunting her down.

WHAT I LIKED: The plot would have made a great story if there was more interaction between characters.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE: Boring reading. By the time that I got to page 192 I thought to myself, “Please hurry up and get married and put me out of my misery”. Marriage issue was overkill

I give this book (2) stars for author effort.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'histoire est assez classique:elle, jeune anglaise, fiancée depuis sa naissance à un marquis anglais, découvre petit à petit le caractère mauvais, cruel et intéressé de ce dernier. Elle décide alors de tout faire pour éviter cette union. Lui, lord écossais ruiné et sous le coup d'un ordre du Roi d'épouser une anglaise comme " punition" va trouver sur son chemin une fiancée porteuse d'un destin qui changera à jamais le sien.
Je n'ai pas trouvé dans ce roman le même attrait que dans les A&P chez J'ai Lu. L'histoire est assez plaisante,pleine d'aventure et d'amour mais reste néanmoins trop "harlequinesque". Par contre,les personnages sont assez attachants: Mêle ri est un mélange de Scarlett O'Hara par son côté parfois capricieux, audacieux et ensorcelant, et une jeune fille douce et généreuse qui aurait même tendance à trop frôler la femme parfaite et à être jalousée pour cela par les lectrices! Robert est bien sur charmant, charmeur, ténébreux, rustre et courageux. Son côté "âme blessée et hantée par sont passé" n'est,à mon sens pas assez exploité ce qui enlève un peu de rudesse au personnage.
En bref, c'est un roman qui se lit très bien. Il ravira les fans de Highlanders mais ne vaut qu'un 3/5 pour moi car le côté historique Highlanders/Anglais n'est pas assez présent.

[penelopewanders]

Ironically I started reading this on Tuesday, on my trip to Edinburgh, and finished it in Glasgow. I hadn't really reflected on the fact that this is set in Scotland. It was an entertaining read. I had never read anything by this author, and she writes well, especially in terms of descriptions. There was the teeth-grinding moment when the feisty heroine is going to fix it all herself - Those plot lines always irritate me no end, in the too stupid to think clearly way - part of intelligence does includes knowing when to enlist help, I think. Nonetheless a fun read, especially when in Scotland.

[Slayermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story, the characters where very likable and the ghost story woven into the romance was a nice touch. The reason I only gave it 4 stars out of 5 is because I found parts of the story where either rushed or lacking for explanation, and sometimes I found the main characters relationship would go from hot to cold without really any good reason or explanation as to why. All in all I really enjoyed the story though, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good historical romance.

[book_luv_r · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended because of my love of highland romances. All was going pretty well until exactly the 50% mark on my Kindle. Out of the blue there is a sort of steamy scene. Maybe it was the way it was worded, but at no time did the description lead me to believe that she had lost her virginity. Several chapters later it was mentioned she had lost it. Say what?! Went back and re-read the passage again and still felt like nothing got out of hand. Completely ruined the rest of the story for me.

[Tammy]

Well at least I finished this one. Which is more that I can say for the last 4 books I started. I am in a serious reading slump and I hoped a return to Historical Romance would do me some good. I suppose it has, thought I found myself more interested in the ghost story than I did the love story. Also, I think the author was getting paid by the descriptive word. Goodness. It wasn't bad I suppose. It was what it was suppose to be -- atmospheric, fluffy, and all tied up with a neat little bow.

[Kaori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book that started it all... When I was about12-14, this book popped my romance novel cherry. Since then I have read countless books… but I always remember this one and I read it so many times it fell apart and I could not save it so I have got to buy a new one… i love, love, love this book...

[Rebecca Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, quick reading story about a match-making ghost in 18th century Scotland. This author gets her period details right and resisted the urge to over-do the flowery prose, though she could have toned down the Scottish speech inflections a bit. There are a couple love scenes but nothing too graphic.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It has a funny ghost in it that really makes things fun in the castle for the heroine.

[Vivisection · Rating 3 out of 5]

While utterly charming--including the ghost, it was low on smutty sex scenes. Character development, however, was much appreciated.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very. Disappointing.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice love story......without the usual romance cliches.....refreshing

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book. This one kept me interested the whole way through, not one boring part!