Review: To Scotland, With Love

I was looking forward to the new Karen Hawkins book To Scotland, With Love, but I was disappointed with this one. The hero’s family has been cursed so that the weather is tied to their temper – love that idea and it was used effectively in this book.

The story centers around a practical but meddlesome heroine, who is kidnapped by a feather-brained young lord who wants to elope with her, and her best friend, the hero, who rushes off to rescue her as an unseasonable snowstorm gathers. The storm traps them and several other travelers at an inn for several days where they assume roles to protect the heroine’s identity and reputation but she can’t resist meddling and everyone follows her to her grandmother’s home when the roads finally clear. The tables are turned as the girl is manipulated into close proximity with the hero, she finally agrees to allow everyone to solve for themselves their issues that she compounded with her meddling and she agrees to marry him.

The title of this book was horribly misleading for me. Yes, the young lordling was absconding with her to Gretna Green. No, they never make it that far. The hero is of Scottish descent, so I assumed that he’d be whisking her off by the end… nope. The other problem I had with this book was that it felt like it sat and spun its wheels throughout the entire middle section. I realize it mostly dealt with internal conflicts and centered on issues more akin to political intrigue, but I felt like we were stuck in the inn way too long for comfort or plausibility for their roles not to have been seen through. I’ll probably buy the next brother’s book, but can only hope for a more rewarding story.