It’s Getting Scot in Here by Suzanne Enoch @SuzieEnoch ‏@StMartinsPress @SMPRomance ‏#GIVEAWAY

Posted March 2, 2019 by Robin in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway / 11 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


It’s Getting Scot in Here by Suzanne Enoch @SuzieEnoch ‏@StMartinsPress @SMPRomance ‏#GIVEAWAYIt's Getting Scot in Here by Suzanne Enoch
Series: Wild Wicked Highlanders
Published by St. Martin's Press on February 26, 2019
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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three-half-flames
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER
London socialite Amelia-Rose Baxter is nobody’s fool. Her parents may want her to catch a title, but she will never change who she is for the promise of marriage. Her husband will be a man who can appreciate her sharp mind as well as her body. A sophisticated man who loves life in London. A man who considers her his equal—and won’t try to tame her wild heart...

IN THE HIGHLANDS
Rough, rugged Highlander Niall MacTaggert and his brothers know the rules: the eldest must marry or lose the ancestral estate, period. But Niall’s eldest brother just isn’t interested in the lady his mother selected. Is it because Amelia-Rose is just too. . . Free-spirited? Yes. Brazen? Aye. Surely Niall can find a way to soften up the whip-smart lass and make her the perfect match for his brother for the sake of the family.

JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT HOTTER.
Instead it’s Niall who tempts Amelia-Rose, despite her reservations about barbarian Highlanders. Niall finds the lass nigh irresistible as well, but he won’t make the mistake his father did in marrying an Englishwoman who doesn’t like the Highlands. Does he have what it takes to win her heart? There is only one way to find out...

This was pretty freaking adorable.  Suzanne Enoch is an author I’ve seen round about in my book musings but have never read.  It’s Getting Scot in Here is the first book in a new Wild Wicked Highlander series focused on three brothers from the Highlands, raised solely by their father, after their mother returned to London with their baby sister.  Her absence came with a price; each son would have to marry a woman from London and one of them must be of their mother’s choosing. They would also all have to be married before their sister or they will lose their estate and holding in Scotland.  Lady MacTaggert is about to find out that trying forcing a Highlander into something they don’t want is a lot like herding cats.

Lady Amelia-Rose’s family wants her to marry into a title and since one of the MacTaggerts will inherit a Viscount title, she has been chosen for the oldest brother, Coll.  It’s not her fault Coll and his mother are in a slight battle of wills and she is in the crossfire. Amelia-Rose and Coll’s first meeting blows up spectacularly and Naill jumps in to save the lady from some embarrassment.  He is the family diplomat and so this isn’t a new role for him. His plan is just to keep the lady affable until Coll comes around, it never occurred to him in the beginning that might lead to his own feelings for the woman slated to marry his brother.

Both Amelia-Rose and Naill were completely likable from the get go.  You could see how each were just trying to do the best for their families and thrown together.  I’m always worried in instances when a sibling is involved because that can get awkward fast but this is done in a way that it really worked for the story without any true ewe moments involved.  It probably helped that Coll came off as a complete jerkface from the get go. I warmed up to him by the end, and after a few punches were thrown, but for the majority of the story, he just made my teeth grind.

Naill is fantastic in that when it gets to be his time to court Amelia-Rose against her family’s wishes, he determines  he wants to woo her and get the real woman she is.  I love that he never really forced her hand but told her she would need to chose which woman she wanted to be. Naill sees Amelia-Rose for the woman she truly is, not the one she shows society and with him she really blooms.  I love seeing how each person made the other better.

The other great thing about this book was the family dynamics.  Lady MacTaggert is trying to rebuild something with her sons. I’m thinking that over the course of the series, some more light will come to her absence from their lives above and beyond leaving for London with their sister.  It did add for some great family drama. I did love how protective the brothers felt for their sister right from the start; her fiancé is in for a ride there I’m sure.

Overall, this was a fun book with strong characters and I really enjoyed my time with this new to me author.  I’ll definitely be checking out the other books from this series and some of Suzanne Enoch’s other works.

“I didn’t have much notice, either, and you don’t see me stomping about or trying to encourage people to faint or cry.” Oh, she likely shouldn’t have said that, either.

“Ye’ve a slightly better hold of yer temper than Coll does.”

“A dragon would seem to have an easier temper than your brother,” she blurted, then put a hand over her mouth. What was wrong with her tonight?

He snorted. “I cannae argue with that.”

 

Excerpt:

 Prologue

Once upon a time—in May 1785, to be exact— Angus MacTaggert, Earl Aldriss, traveled from the middle of the Scottish Highlands to London in search of a wealthy bride to save his well- loved but crumbling estate. Aldriss Park had been in the MacTaggert f amily since the time of Henry VIII, when Domhnall MacTaggert, despite being Catholic and married, declared publicly that Henry should be able to wed as many lasses as he wanted until one of them got him a son. Aldriss Park was the newly minted earl’s reward for his support and understanding.

For the next two hundred years Aldriss thrived, u ntil the weight of poor harvests, the ever- intruding, rule- making Sassenach, and the MacTaggerts’ own fondness for drinking, gambling, and wild investments (including an early bicycle design wherein the driver sat between two wheels; sadly, it had no braking mechanism and after a series of accidents nearly began a war within the MacTaggerts’ clan Ross) began to sink it into disrepair.

When Angus inherited the title in 1783, he realized the old castle needed far more than a fresh coat of paint to keep it from both physical collapse and bankruptcy. And so he determined to go down among the enemy Sassenach and win himself a wealthy bride. The English had made enough trou ble for him and his over the centuries, so they could bloody well help him set things right.

On his second day in London, he met the stunning Francesca Oswell, the only offspring of James and Mary Oswell, Viscount and Viscountess of Hornford— who had more money than Midas and a bevy of very fine solicitors—at a masked ball where he dressed as a bull, and she as a swan. Despite the misgivings of nearly everyone in Mayfair, Angus and Francesca immediately fell madly in love, and married with a special license ten days later.

A week after that, Angus took Francesca back to Aldriss Park and the Highlands, where she found very l ittle civilization, a great many sheep, and a husband who preferred brawling to dancing, and he discovered that her father’s solicitors had arranged to keep the Oswell family money in Francesca’s hands. This made for some very spectacular arguments, because there is nothing more combustible in the world than an impoverished Highlands laird in disagreement with an independently wealthy English lady about his own ancestral lands.

Over the next thirteen turbulent years the estate prospered, and Francesca gave Angus three sons— Coll, Aden, and Niall— and with each one became more concerned that this was not a life for any civilized person. She wanted to bring the boys back to London for proper educations and to live proper lives, but Angus refused, stating that what had been good enough for him would be good enough for his lads.

When a fourth child, a daughter, arrived in 1798, Francesca reached her breaking point. No daughter of hers was going to be raised with an uncivilized accent in a rough country where she would be ridiculed by proper Society It’s Getting Scot in Here and unfit to marry anyone but a shepherd or a peat cutter. Angus refused to let his lads go, but he allowed Francesca to take young Eloise and return to London—on the condition that she continue providing for the maintenance of the estate.

Francesca reluctantly agreed, but given that she controlled the purse strings, she had her own conditions to try to keep some influence with her wild sons: All three boys must marry before their sister, they must wed proper Englishwomen, and at least one of them must marry someone of her choosing.

She knew Angus would raise them as he pleased, but they w ere her children, too, by God, and she meant to see to it that they had some semblance of propriety in their lives— she was a viscount’s daughter, after all, and certain things would be expected of her offspring. She refused to allow them to be viewed as unsophisticated wild men by her London neighbors, and she remained determined to have a presence in their lives.

To enforce her will, she convinced (or rather, coerced) Angus to put his signature to the agreement, which contained this provision: If young Eloise MacTaggert did marry before any of the boys, Francesca would cut off all funds to the estate. If they were to insist on defiance, they would have a heavy price to pay for it— one they and their tenants could not afford.

Angus had no choice but to agree, and considering that Coll, the oldest, was only twelve at the time of Francesca’s departure and Eloise was but a wee bairn, he was willing to wager that he would have time to renegotiate. Angus and Francesca remained married, but neither would bend enough to visit the other ever again. As far as the lads were concerned, their mother had abandoned them.

In the spring of 1816 Angus received a letter from Francesca announcing their daughter’s engagement, and he promptly collapsed. He’d hoped his sons would have found themselves Scottish lasses by now and shown their mother she couldn’t control their lives after all, but the lads were defiant and wouldn’t be rushed. Now it appeared to be too late.

He summoned his sons to his apparent deathbed and confessed all— Francesca funding the estate, the pernicious agreement, and their mother’s grasping claws, which he explained was a symptom of all Englishwomen and their weak, clinging, cloying ways. For the sake of the property and their tenants the young men must go to London. At once. No sense even taking time to put him in the ground, much less mourn him, because Francesca wouldn’t excuse the loss of time, and they needed to marry before their sister.

The lads— grown men, now— were not at all happy suddenly to learn about the responsibilities and rules foisted upon them by a woman they barely remembered. Being wily, freehearted, and exceptionally handsome men accustomed to doing things their way and certainly not bowing to the demands of a demented Englishwoman, they determined to go down to London not to comply, but to outwit their m other and upend any plans she had for them. And thus, dear reader, begins our story.

Giveaway:

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Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Robin
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Posted March 2, 2019 by Robin in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway / 11 Comments


11 responses to “It’s Getting Scot in Here by Suzanne Enoch

  1. What a great review you have here. I am going to be reading this soon and I really loved your thoughts on this one. I love this author so I hope to enjoy this as much as you have.

  2. I haven’t read any of her books yet. Interesting premise. The mom would definitely need a pretty powerful reason like abuse for me to buy into her leaving most of her kids behind like that and then demanding them to court at her demand or she’ll take away their inheritance.
    But, the romance part sounds good. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it, Robin!

    • It’s set up pretty well that I was willing to give the mother a shot. Plus it is fun to see her Highlander boys try to mess with her.

      I’m looking forward to seeing if at the end there is something between her and the boys father, they both seem very on the stubborn side. She was likable along with the rest of her brood.