Highland romances can be tremendous fun, so if you’re in the mood for some historical culture clash, pick up LORD SCOT. The Scotsman in question is Lord Liam Laughton, a man due to inherit a crumbling castle and many responsibilities. Having spent a decade travelling and being educated, he sets his cap at Lady Clara Chambers, sister of Aaron, the Earl of Kittrel.

London bluestocking Clara is enjoying the untrammelled life of a well-to-do spinster. She attends lectures, visits museums and society entertainments, aware that her first and only fancy just wanted her money. Now she doesn’t intend to marry. And she is convinced that Scotland must be a crude, backward place. Liam is fascinated by her discussions of piping water into a castle, and educating the poor, and he decides that Clara with her improving ideas and especially her dowry, would be the asset he needs. He persuades her to accompany him and an unmarried couple, Aaron and Miss Lilah Rees, to Edinburgh and then visit his highland home, hoping to secure her hand – one way or another.  

Scottish Viscount and Laird, the MacLeal, is a bad advertisement for the clan and expresses well just why Liam wants to bring education and modern methods to the people. When his father keeps harping on about a dowry, grabbing women, and doing his best to down half the traditional whisky they produce and bottle at the castle, Liam needs to take control so they can rebuild and have stock to sell to English lords. This account by reliable author Jade Lee doesn’t sugarcoat poverty nor the causes of poor living conditions. I noticed that a marauding wolf is mentioned which seems very late, with this tale set during the Prince Regent’s time; but perhaps it wasn’t known for sure that all the wolves had been killed, and a possible wolf was an excuse to go off on a hunting adventure for desperadoes. My favourite scene was the fair day at the castle, with market stalls and many kinds of crafts from knitwear to blown glass enlivening the picture.

LORD SCOT is an absorbing and exciting adult romance, first in the new Always a Scot series, which builds on characters and situations from previous stories by Jade Lee.  I’ll be looking forward to the next on the shelf.

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