Series: Scots of Honor, #3
Traits & Tropes: soldiers; highlanders; class difference; heroine in trouble
Publication Date: 08.24.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Edinburgh/Highlands, Scotland, 1817
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 4/5
Returning soldier Captain Euan Irvine, learns that he might not be the only heir to the Barony and Lairdship of Drum. Thanks to a stipulation in his grandfather’s will, either of his two grandsons could become the titleholder, depending on which one marries and produces an heir first, but it must be a love match. Euan is not exactly a proper society gentleman and not really the marrying kind. But he cannot allow his clan or his younger sisters to fall under the dominion of his villainous cousin, so Euan agrees with his sisters’ plan to hire a governess to dust off his rough edges and prepare him to find a bride.
Bronwen Holmes isn’t exactly a governess, but she needs to escape the creditors who murdered her parents a year ago and are now after her to settle their debts. When her cousin suggests the position as a way for her to escape Edinburgh for a few weeks, Bronwen sees little alternative but to go and barge her way into the role of governess, though she is surprised to find her charge is a grown man and not a passel of young girls. She knows little about society but brazens her way through anyway, striving to hide how charmed she is by her employer and to keep him and his sisters in the dark about her past.
I really enjoyed this take on the hidden identity trope and the Scottish setting was a big plus for me. It’s not too often that we get Regency set Highlanders, so I thoroughly enjoyed that here. Euan was an adorably clueless hero absolutely surrounded by women, but he took it all in stride. I really liked that he fell first, or at least admitted his feelings first, and that he did everything he could to make Bronwen feel safe and make her understand that he didn’t judge her for her past. I struggled to like Bronwen a bit just because she was often illogical, but I think allowances should be made for that because of how desperate her circumstances were and had been, and how few people she’d been able to rely upon. I was just frustrated when her doubts kept seeming to linger even after Euan kept proving himself to her, especially given her continued tendency to jump to conclusions. Fortunately, she did realize she was being irrational, and this wound up being a satisfying slow burn.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4922753584
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/129892963
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