Also in this series: Wild Wicked Scot, Sinful Scottish Laird, Hard-Hearted Highlander
Series: Highland Grooms #6
Published by HQN on October 30, 2018
Genres: Historical Romance, Scottish Highlands, Georgian Era
Narrator: Derek Perkins
Length: 9 Hours
Pages: 376
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
ISBN: 1335629424
There’s no matchmaking an unruly heart
When a prominent Scottish family faces a major scandal weeks before their daughter’s wedding, they turn in desperation to the enigmatic fixer for the aristocracy, Nichol Bain. Remarkably skilled at making high-profile problems go away, Nichol understands the issue immediately. The family’s raven-haired ward, Maura Darby, has caught the wandering eye—and rather untoward advances—of the groom.
Nichol assuredly escorts Maura toward his proposed solution: an aging bachelor for her to marry. But rebellious Maura has no interest in marrying a stranger, especially when her handsome traveling companion has captivated her so completely. Thankfully, Nichol loves a challenge, but traveling with the bold and brash Maura has him viewing her as far more than somebody’s problem. Which raises a much bigger issue—how can he possibly elude disaster when the heart of the problem is his own?
Seduced By A Scot is the most recent installment in the Highland Grooms series and I have the first few books in this series and really enjoyed the first few books so I was expecting to really love this book as well. I will say that even though it was a likable read at times, I struggled with this one throughout the story. I think it just didn’t click right for me and the heroine is one I really struggled with. Nothing specific about her character, but she seemed to be so uneven and it really threw me off at times.
Our story is set in the Georgian Era in Scotland, in the 1700’s and our hero, Nicholas Bain, is a rescuer of situations. He travels all over to deal with scandals and tough to straighten out problems and sorts them out for the upper classes. A upper class family calls him in to their home when a scandal involved their family. Maura Darby, is the ward of the family but when she unwillingly catches the eye of the fiancee of the family’s daughter, tensions rise and the situation gets very bad for Maura. Maura is innocent of their machinations against her, but when Nicholas is to take her to her betrothed, she is resistent but she also knows she has little choice. But along their journey, Nicholas and Maura learn to admire each other and desire and more tender emotions build between them. But Nicholas has a life on the road and can’t ever give Maura what she deserves. It will take them almost losing their lives to fight for their love and finding their HEA.
This story was a “On The Road” romance and I really liked the development of the plot here. And I really appreciate that this was the time era before the Regency era, it does take place in Scotland, so it was a very refreshing setting for me. I found Maura’s situation to be so disheartening and it also focuses on the bad situation that orphans especially female one’s had to rely on others to survive. Maura wants more out of life than just marriage to a stranger, or being treated so horribly by her guardians (and let me tell you they use her, demean her so much and are very vindictive) but we a great inner strength in her character and Ilike seeing her fight in those small ways.
The romance that develops between these two is so sweet and endearing, but its more of a slow build. There is some not so fun tension between them in the first half of the story, they really don’t like each other much, but they make compromises and there is a change in their relationship when Nicholas helps Maura get her things returned including a priceless necklace that has been in her family for generations that her guardians stole from her. We see a shift in their friendship and this is the beginning of their romance that really hooks in the reader. The pacing of the story is on and off steady, there are moments in the plot where the reader is hooked but other moments that are very slow going and I will admit I almost DNF’d this but I kept with it since I was close to being finished and I haven’t ever DNF a Julia London and didn’t want to start now. But it was a very close call in this book. But overall I had a fun time with this book here and really enjoy certain aspects of the story. But I didn’t love it and really struggled with the pacing at times and yes the heroine rubbed me the wrong way at times. But I did find it interesting, and loved the change of setting and the slow build romance was lovely and sweet.
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