week thirteen curtseys to her queen

    From the beginning of page one to the very last most delectable word, this story took me away and deposited me in the Scottish Highlands, circa the Dark Ages. The author, Julie Garwood's vivid descriptions of the Scottish Highlands, with their mountain lochs and wooded glens, created a picture in my mind that stole my heart and gave me a new item for my bucket list, visiting Scotland some day. Barring that I will continue to live in the mountains of Maine, which are the closest I can come to it for right now.
      The story is a simple boy-marries-girl, then boy-doesn't-know-what-hit-him-from-then-on-as-girl-completely-runs-rings-around-him-and-leaves-him-with-the-misconception-that-he-has-any-control-what-so-ever-in-his-own-life. See, what could be more simple than that? From when we first meet our heroine, standing on the back of a horse that is running through a field for the sheer joy of it, she shows us that she is made of sturdy stuff. The author has her shouldering the burdens of responsibility constantly but every once in awhile the character does her own thing, almost as if she slips it in on the author when Madam Garwood is not looking.
     There is also the subplots of the heroine's sister who is married to Alec Kinkaide's neighbor. In laws drive me nuts too, and she absolutely frazzled her new brother in law. Then there was the jilted English Baron, Jaime's first fiancee, having already paid the bride price to Jaime's father, who had gambled it away and could not repay it. He arrived on the doorstep of the Kincaides, with his army and a severe issue about getting either his money or his bride back. The murder of Alec's first wife who every one but Jaime thought had committed suicide, and was bound and determined to murder the second as well. Throw into the mix, a tremulous new priest, and a cantankerous old warrior bound and determined to find something to do while he recuperates from a battle injury, and you have everything you could possibly need for a sexy, suspenseful, page turner; destined to become one of those books you never want to give away.
     While reading this story I laughed, I cried, and was completely impressed with the ability of the author to reach from the pages of her book and touch my heart with her characters. They have become my new best friends and I will check in on them from time to time for many years to come.