The first in a wickedly seductive new Scottish historical romance series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Enoch!
IT'S GETTING SCOT IN HERE by SUZANNE ENOCH
Publication date: February 26, 2019
Series: Wild Wicked Highlanders #1
Genre: historical romance
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
London socialite Amelia-Rose Baxter is nobody’s fool. Her parents may want her to catch a title, but she will never change who she is for the promise of marriage. Her husband will be a man who can appreciate her sharp mind as well as her body. A sophisticated man who loves life in London. A man who considers her his equal—and won’t try to tame her wild heart...
IN THE HIGHLANDS
Rough, rugged Highlander Niall MacTaggert and his brothers know the rules: the eldest must marry or lose the ancestral estate, period. But Niall’s eldest brother just isn’t interested in the lady his mother selected. Is it because Amelia-Rose is just too. . . Free-spirited? Yes. Brazen? Aye. Surely Niall can find a way to soften up the whip-smart lass and make her the perfect match for his brother for the sake of the family.
JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT HOTTER.
Instead it’s Niall who tempts Amelia-Rose, despite her reservations about barbarian Highlanders. Niall finds the lass nigh irresistible as well, but he won’t make the mistake his father did in marrying an Englishwoman who doesn’t like the Highlands. Does he have what it takes to win her heart? There is only one way to find out...
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Praise for Suzanne Enoch:
"Enoch weaves a tale of love and passion with a little humor thrown in." - Fresh Fiction on It's Getting Scot in Here
"An entertaining tale of two people overcoming incredible odds to be together." - Romance Junkies on It's Getting Scot in Here
"A scalding tale of pent-up desires finally unleashed...sure to keep romance fans enthralled." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review, on A Devil in Scotland
“Readers will savor this mature, multi-layered story filled with vengeance, scandal, regret, loss and second chances.” - RT Review Top Pick on A Devil in Scotland
"Outstanding...five flying stars." - Night Owl Reviews Top Pick on A Devil in Scotland
"[A] rich, sexy and nuanced tale." BookPage on A Devil in Scotland
"Enoch's historical romances are always a delight." - Book Riot
"Wonderfully romantic...one marvelous read." - RT Book Reviews on My One True Highlander
"An indisputable highland hit...you will not be disappointed." - Night Owl Reviews Top Pick on My One True Highlander
"Enoch at her finest!...No one does it better." - Reader to Reader on My One True Highlander
"My One True Highlander is a delightful mix of sexy bantering, hints of sensuality, a picturesque Scottish setting and likable character that will keep you thirsting for more. A WINNER." - Addicted to Romance
"The latest from the ever-popular Enoch is steamy and bubbling with humor, a scrumptious tale to begin her No Ordinary Hero series." - Booklist Starred Review on Hero in the Highlands
"Enoch produces another bold Highland fling in this stirring historical romance...with colorful secondary characters, judicious lashings of Scots dialect, and lush summertime Highland landscapes, Enoch creates a heady romantic atmosphere that’s sure to captivate the genre’s eager audience." - Publishers Weekly Starred Review on Hero in the Highlands
"A thrilling and sexy story." - Kirkus Starred Review on Hero in the Highlands
"A romance not to be missed." - BookPage on Hero in the Highlands
"One of my very favorite authors." —Julia Quinn
EXCERPT
Prologue
Once upon a time—in May 1785, to be exact—Angus MacTaggert, Earl Aldriss, traveled from the middle of the Scottish Highlands to London in search of a wealthy bride to save his well-loved but crumbling estate. Aldriss Park had been in the MacTaggert family since the time of Henry VIII, when Domhnall MacTaggert, despite being Catholic and married, declared publicly that Henry should be able to wed as many lasses as he wanted until one of them got him a son. Aldriss Park was the newly minted earl’s reward for his support and understanding.
For the next two hundred years Aldriss thrived, until the weight of poor harvests, the ever-intruding, rule- making Sassenach, and the MacTaggerts’ own fondness for drinking, gambling, and wild investments (including an early bicycle design wherein the driver sat between two wheels; sadly, it had no braking mechanism and after a series of accidents nearly began a war within the MacTaggerts’ clan Ross) began to sink it into disrepair.
When Angus inherited the title in 1783, he realized the old castle needed far more than a fresh coat of paint to keep it from both physical collapse and bankruptcy. And
so he determined to go down among the enemy Sassenach and win himself a wealthy bride. The English had made enough trouble for him and his over the centuries, so they could bloody well help him set things right.
On his second day in London, he met the stunning Francesca Oswell, the only offspring of James and Mary Oswell, Viscount and Viscountess of Hornford—who had more money than Midas and a bevy of very fine solicitors—at a masked ball where he dressed as a bull, and she as a swan. Despite the misgivings of nearly every- one in Mayfair, Angus and Francesca immediately fell madly in love, and married with a special license ten days later.
A week after that, Angus took Francesca back to Aldriss Park and the Highlands, where she found very little civilization, a great many sheep, and a husband who preferred brawling to dancing, and he discovered that her father’s solicitors had arranged to keep the Oswell family money in Francesca’s hands. This made for some very spectacular arguments, because there is nothing more combustible in the world than an impoverished High- lands laird in disagreement with an independently wealthy English lady about his own ancestral lands.
Over the next thirteen turbulent years the estate prospered, and Francesca gave Angus three sons—Coll, Aden, and Niall—and with each one became more concerned that this was not a life for any civilized person. She wanted to bring the boys back to London for proper educations and to live proper lives, but Angus refused, stating that what had been good enough for him would be good enough for his lads.
When a fourth child, a daughter, arrived in 1798, Francesca reached her breaking point. No daughter of hers was going to be raised with an uncivilized accent in a rough country where she would be ridiculed by proper Society and unfit to marry anyone but a shepherd or a peat cutter. Angus refused to let his lads go, but he allowed Francesca to take young Eloise and return to London—on the condition that she continue providing for the maintenance of the estate.
Francesca reluctantly agreed, but given that she con- trolled the purse strings, she had her own conditions to try to keep some influence with her wild sons: All three boys must marry before their sister, they must wed proper Englishwomen, and at least one of them must marry some- one of her choosing.
She knew Angus would raise them as he pleased, but they were her children, too, by God, and she meant to see to it that they had some semblance of propriety in their lives—she was a viscount’s daughter, after all, and certain things would be expected of her offspring. She refused to allow them to be viewed as unsophisticated wild men by her London neighbors, and she remained determined to have a presence in their lives.
To enforce her will, she convinced (or rather, coerced) Angus to put his signature to the agreement, which contained this provision: If young Eloise MacTaggert did marry before any of the boys, Francesca would cut off all funds to the estate. If they were to insist on defiance, they would have a heavy price to pay for it—one they and their tenants could not afford.
Angus had no choice but to agree, and considering that Coll, the oldest, was only twelve at the time of Francesca’s departure and Eloise was but a wee bairn, he was willing to wager that he would have time to renegotiate. Angus and Francesca remained married, but neither would bend enough to visit the other ever again. As far as the lads were concerned, their mother had abandoned them.
In the spring of 1816 Angus received a letter from Francesca announcing their daughter’s engagement, and he promptly collapsed. He’d hoped his sons would have found themselves Scottish lasses by now and shown their mother she couldn’t control their lives after all, but the lads were defiant and wouldn’t be rushed. Now it appeared to be too late.
He summoned his sons to his apparent deathbed and confessed all—Francesca funding the estate, the pernicious agreement, and their mother’s grasping claws, which he explained was a symptom of all Englishwomen and their weak, clinging, cloying ways. For the sake of the property and their tenants the young men must go to London. At once. No sense even taking time to put him in the ground, much less mourn him, because Francesca wouldn’t excuse the loss of time, and they needed to marry before their sister.
The lads—grown men, now—were not at all happy suddenly to learn about the responsibilities and rules foisted upon them by a woman they barely remembered. Being wily, freehearted, and exceptionally handsome men accustomed to doing things their way and certainly not bowing to the demands of a demented Englishwoman, they deter- mined to go down to London not to comply, but to outwit their mother and upend any plans she had for them. And thus, dear reader, begins our story.
About Suzanne Enoch:
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It's Getting Scot in Here by Suzanne EnochMy rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
This series is about three Scottish brothers who were raised in the Highlands by their father after their English mother left them at an early age. Their parents' marriage was a hasty love match that resulted in a rocky marriage with two very hardheaded people. After years of being unable to compromise, they decided to live apart and split up their children. He would raise their sons, and she would raise their daughter in England. In an unusual twist for that time period, the wife was the one holding the purse strings, so she used that power to force his agreement in making their sons marry English brides. Which leads us to now, because the time has come for the oldest, Coll to meet the woman she has chosen for him. Set to inherit the McTaggert earldom, this arranged marriage is satisfactory to Amelia-Rose's parents despite their snobbish opinion of his "barbaric country."
I've got to say, I despised the heroine's parents immediately, and loathed the brothers' mother as well. Amelia-Rose's parents were looking for an advantageous marriage, and their daughter's happiness never once factored into their thoughts. Her mother especially was a hateful harpy who tried to suppress her daughter's personality in order to make her more compliant and biddable to potential titled suitors. She didn't show an ounce of worry for her daughter when she was distraught over what Coll was proposing-marring her, abandoning her to her parents' household, and keeping children she would bear him in Scotland. Her mother didn't bat an eye, and chastised her for standing up for herself to such an unacceptable life. As for the hero's mother, I had no sympathy for her. There's no excuse for leaving your sons and having pretty much no contact with them their whole lives. Even at the end, I feel as if they forgave her too easily.
After two seasons, Amelia-Rose has had several marriage proposals, but struggled to keep herself free of scandal. Her mother has drilled etiquette and propriety into her head because she has an inconvenient tendency to be too "impertinent." To give inappropriate set downs and let her emotions run away with her. God forbid, women speak their minds! In other words, she's not the mild and meek bride that Coll is hoping for that he would be able to control. So after a disastrous first meeting, it falls on the youngest brother Niall to smooth things over.
For the first time it occurred to Niall that perhaps the MacTaggert brothers had spent too long out in the wilds. They saw every meeting as a battle, every negotiation as a surrender, and every new thing as a threat to the old ones.
The meek side of her, the one Coll wanted, didn’t much interest him at all. The other side, the one she’d been trying so hard to stifle, near drove him mad.
I enjoyed these two together a lot. He accepted her just as she was, and valued her opinions and needs like no one ever had before. He was very sweet, funny, and most of all, willing to make compromises for her happiness. I liked the heroine's spirit when she lost control and spoke her mind to those who mistreated her. As much as she tried to fit in and make her parents happy, she wasn't willing to sacrifice herself to the highest titled bidder to achieve it. At nineteen, I would imagine that a young woman in her place would find it nearly impossible to rebel against what was chosen for her life. She may have taken a while to put her foot down with them, but once she did, there was no going back.
There were a lot of frustrating characters in the book, and I found it really hard to get into in the beginning of the story. I felt like there needed to be more character development earlier on, because it took a while for the brothers' distinct personalities to surface. After about 1/3 of the way through I finally got hooked, but it took me two days of struggling to get past it. This was an issue for me personally, and may not be the case for others. I am curious about who the other brothers will end up with, but Coll didn't win any favor from me with his brutish behavior. He was unspeakably rude and insulting, which I understood to a point, but he potentially ruined the heroine at one point because of it without a second thought. I'm not sure I could be convinced to read his book. The third brother however, is a possibility!
If you like historical romance with Scottish Highlanders, arranged marriages, and a heavy dose of humor, this series could be the right fit for you.
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