Series: Castles Ever After, #3
Traits & Tropes: fake relationship; soldier; bluestocking; hero who's never known love; hero has abandonment issues; Highlanders; marriage of convenience
Publication Date: 08.25.15
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Inverness, Scotland, 1817
Heat Level: 5
Rating: 4.5/5
Narration Rating: 3.5/5
When it came time to have her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch realized that her social awkwardness portended disaster if she attempted the London marriage mart. Rather than put herself through that, Maddie invented a fiancé, a soldier who was handsome and loyal but conveniently off at war. Maddie spent years writing letters to the made-up Captain Logan MacKenzie, then pretended to be distraught after telling her family he’d died in battle.
This way, Maddie was able to completely avoid London society and wound up rusticating with her aunt in a castle in the Scottish Highlands, left alone to pursue her illustrations in peace. Until, after several years, Captain Logan MacKenzie, the flesh and blood man, arrives on her doorstep ready to take his place as her fiancé and then her husband. He’s just as handsome as she made him up to be, but he’s got his own motives for calling her bluff. But since he has her letters in his possession, Maddie has little choice but to follow through on everything she wrote in them.
This story was absolutely hilarious, but it tugged on my heartstrings at the same time, especially Logan’s character and his development. I’m an absolute sucker for a hero who’s never been loved, and he fit the bill in spades. Add in the fact that he was a Highlander, and I was completely sold on team Logan. Maddie had to grow on me. She frustrated me greatly at first with her bullheadedness and seeming inability to see how her rash actions might’ve affected Logan and not just herself and her family. Thankfully, this improved as she got to know Logan and his men, and she began trying to know the real man beneath the brusque exterior. I absolutely adored it when she said he was nothing but squish on the inside. Perfect characterization, plus hilarity. I liked that, though the attraction was there between these two from the beginning, they took a bit to really get to know one another before deciding to take their relationship further. That definitely made for a slow burn, but once they did finally come together, it gave things a feeling of rightness, of completeness, and made it seem as if they truly were meant to be and not just thrown together by Maddie’s random use of Logan’s name. I thought it was adorable that Maddie, when she started thinking and stopped jumping to conclusions, was able to teach Logan what it means to love and be loved, and he came to feel safe exposing his vulnerabilities and fears to her. Maddie was similarly able to confide in and lean on him when she struggled to deal with her paralyzing and utterly relatable social anxiety. In this way, they each brought out the best in one another and made for a story that was as funny as it was sweet. This book was a delight to read/listen to, even if I didn’t prefer this narrator.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3570923984
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2375591441
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