Review: Excellent!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2014
Sally (aka Sarah Denham) is the daughter of a viscount and she has been found in a compromising situation with a cad who would like to use her fortune to pay off his gambling debts. Rather than marry him, Sally contrives to run away to a cottage in Scotland on the property of the Earl of Kane, only telling her darling brother Rupert where she is going.Of course Sally and Lord Kane run into each other and feel an instant attraction and keep falling into each other's arms (details are fairly brief but explicit in case that's an issue for you). While their relationship is developing, Sally and her maid, Millie, and groom, Miles, are becoming accustomed to life in their cottage. Thankfully Sally rescues a young woman, Bridget, who comes from a large, local family and she teaches Sally and Millie how to cook and manage a household without servants. Bridget has a side story which is central to the developing plot.When Sally's parents send Rupert to "find" Sally (they don't know that he already knows where she is) he meets up with Lord Kane and finds him to be a capital fellow and becomes a guest at Castle Kane.  Thus begins another side story which keeps the plot rolling along at an excellent pace.  Rupert may have been my favorite character - I found him charming and his relationship with Sally is heartwarming.  Lord Kane is TD&H; and an all around good guy, there's nothing not to like. Sally is fiesty and good natured and trying to learn to control her temper. Lord Kane appreciates her beauty and resourcefulness.Just as in the author's first book, this story is well paced and has an excellent balance of dialogue and storytelling. The story flows very naturally, it's never stilted which is so common with new authors, and everything makes sense. Readers will occasionally need to suspend belief (or disbelief depending on how you prefer to look at it), but the characters act in a logical manner which is such a relief compared to some other books where characters seem TSTL.Here's my quibble with this book. Those readers looking for a Scottish experience may be disappointed... there's no kilts, plaids or brogues. Even the local servants use not a hint of "didna" or other Scottish dialect. There are some nice landscape descriptions of moors and fields of heather, but this story could have taken place anywhere in England. In fact, why did her parents get a special license for marriage at the end when that's not needed in Scotland?  Maybe it was still required to be married in a church or by a minister? I'm not an expert by any means.... just didn't strike me as very Scottish.Even with this slight quibble, it doesn't take away from this being a delightful story with lovely characters and a fun plot for light reading. This is definitely an author to watch for more great work in the future.