Bookit Review: To Marry a Scottish Laird

Title: To Marry a Scottish Laird  (Second in Highlander series)
Author: Lynsay Sands
Publication Date: June 2014
Grade: A-

In this book, we take a different path than most romance serials.  Usually the main character of the next book is a character mentioned in the first (An English Bride in Scotland), perhaps a friend of the main character or a sibling.  In this case, the main characters are Joan and Campbell, neither of which appear in the first book.  However, that is not to say it is not connected.  Annabel, her husband Ross and their three children appear in this story.  Campbell, for one, is a Sinclair, which happens to be the neighboring family. He comes across Joan, dressed as a boy (which fools him for a day or two) trying to make her way from England to the MacKay family with a message from her mother.  They fall in lust with each other, and maybe a little in love as they travel to the MacKay Keep.

Once there, Joan finds out she is the daughter of Annabel’s sister Kate, and her stable boy husband Grant.  The woman she thought was her mother was a midwife who delivered her, and then adopted her after Kate’s death.  Once again we are reminded on how horrible the Abbess and Annabel’s parents were in this novel as neither agree to look in on the now orphan.  However, the midwife Maggie does, and raises her as her own. SHe never tells Joan the truth about her parentage during her lifetime, instead sends her on a deathbed request to take a letter exposing the information to Annabel Mackay.

The second part of the book holds the mystery, as someone is trying to kill Joan to get her out-of-the-way.  She and Cam have to figure out which of the brides Cam’s mother had been preparing to suggest to him prior to his elopement with Joan is the culprit.  We are introduced to 3 ladies who will take on the roles of the next 3 books  and a few others.  I have to admit, this book was good at keeping you guessing at who it was.

This book was a nice easy day read, and I think a bit better than the first as she now seems to get into the new universe she’s created.  You don’t have to read the first book to read this one, though it would help for the back story about Kate & Grant, Joan’s biological parents, as well as the horrible grandparents.