Beauty Among Ruins
In 1914, American party girl Lily Durham is shipped over to Britain to stay with her English aristocrat cousins and learn some manners. But when war breaks out, her cousin becomes a nurse and Lily tags along to Scotland to help care for the wounded. Alex MacGregor is the laird of Kinclavoch Castle—a hale and hearty man, but for a bum knee. Instead, opening his home to wounded men is how he contributes. But he locks himself, his mother, and ill sister away from the clamor of patients and nurses—until harebrained Lily finds herself in the family wing, dismayed at the dust that surrounds them.
This is a love story that I wanted to care about. Unfortunately, some of the purple prose and disordered sentences make it hard to follow. Metaphors are not always clear. A kidnapping plot seems to go nowhere, and character motivations are murky. There are some fun themes in here, and if the time period and location are your catnip, you’ll likely enjoy. If not, I’d skip it. The middle is long, and the resolution not satisfying enough to make up for the drag.
