Devil of the Highlands

LYNSAY SANDS

Synopsis from Goodreads: He is the most notorious laird of Scotland: fierce, cold, deadly...and maybe even worse. Yet Evelinde has just agreed to wed him. Anything, she thinks, is better than her cruel stepmother. Though Evelinde should be wary of the rumors, she can't help but be drawn to this warrior...for the Devil of the Highlands inspires a heat within her that is unlike anything she has ever known.

They may call him whatever they wish, but Cullen, Laird of Donnachaidh, cares only for the future of his clan. He must find a wife, a woman to bear him sons and heed his commands. He has no need for beauty or grace, but one taste of his lovely bride's sweet lips and the sultry feel of her skin arouse an untamed passion. Perhaps there's more to marriage than he thought.

Stats for my copy: Large print hardback, published by Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning, by arrangement with Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2009; borrowed from my local library.

My thoughts: If I didn't have a job to go to every day, which means having to get up of a morning, I might have read this entire book in one night.

This is the third of the author's non-vampire books I've read (the first two being The Brat and What She Wants.) As with all of Ms Sands' heroines, Evelinde is very likable, although she felt somewhat familiar, being similar, personality wise, to the heroines of THE BRAT and WHAT SHE WANTS. Cullen, however, was much more distinctive and I was quite enamored of him. But then he was the very description of “the bad boy”, and aren't we drawn to those men? At least on paper.

Since her father's death, Evelinde has been under her stepmother's power, and treated quite badly by her. Step-mama is thrilled to have arranged a marriage for Evelinde with the man who is fearfully known as the Devil of Donnachaidh, anticipating that Evelinde will be miserable in her new life. If she survives her marriage. After all, the devil is rumored to have killed his first wife when she did not bear him any heirs. And other relatives have died under suspicions circumstances.

But of course a reputation is sometimes just a reputation, and we all know there will be an HEA in the end. In the meantime, the characters have to deal with Evelinde constantly having accidents and close calls that become more and more suspicious, while she is determined to get to the bottom of the aforementioned deaths and clear her husband's name.

The situations Evelinde gets into are sometimes ridiculous, but I laughed out loud several times. I can always count on that happening when I pick up a Lynsay Sands book.