The Laird’s Choice
Fifteenth-century Scotland is the setting for the first in Scott’s new Lairds of the Loch series. Andrena is a noblewoman with powers: to see into the hearts and minds of people. Animals seem to want to protect her. But her abilities do not work on the Scottish prisoner who finds his way onto her father’s land after escaping almost two years of brutal captivity.
Magnus Gallbraith is an affable mountain of a man who keeps his own counsel. He accepts marriage to Andrena with her father’s stipulation that he take on his wife’s name. Soon he and Andrena are off to visit the King of Scotland with news of an assassination plot while their marriage finds a new birth in love.
Atmosphere abounds in this colorful romance. But the action of the opening pages soon slows. The ping-pong point of view shifts and the dialogue tend tedious. This reader was left wishing for a more grand passion and conflicts to match the splendid scenery.
