In 1335, Lady Katherine McKenna is a very rare woman indeed; beautiful, rich and the daughter of a powerful laird, she nonetheless has her father’s ear and his promise that she may choose her own husband. Even with this promise, at age 22 she’s feeling the pressure and finally chooses one of her many suitors. It’s not until after the betrothal contracts are signed that she realizes she’s made a dreadful mistake, at which point she makes a really stupid mistake and tries to go home with only a small guard of trusted retainers instead of the might of her whole clan around her.
This was kind of the point at which I rolled my eyes. I liked Katherine, I really did, but there comes a point at which ‘bold and independent’ veers over the line into ‘too stupid to live’.
Considering how much common sense she displays where literally everything except her personal safety is concerned, it feels out of character and lazy writing on the part of the author to get her heroine into contrived situations from which she has to be rescued. Which happened CONSTANTLY; even when Katherine managed an escape, she still got wet through and fell ill and had to be rescued from THAT. Honestly, being a damsel in distress must be exhausting.
Even though the contrived rescue situations annoyed me, I still enjoyed most of the read. Lachlan was a really delightful hero, not too full of himself and willing to stand up and own up to mistakes, even when they weren’t his and he has to pay the price for them. His love for his family was obvious even though his brother Aidan was an ungrateful little beast who caused him no end of trouble.
I did buy into the love story between Lachlan and Katherine fairly quickly as they seemed well suited to each other, and I’d definitely read the next book in the series because I was fascinated by Katherine’s brother Graham who married a girl he’d never seen by proxy to secure a clan alliance!
Four stars for a solid read, but I admit the heroine had some out of character TSTL moments which set my teeth on edge.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.
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