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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

ARC Book Review: X Marks The Scot (Bad Boys of Scotland #2)


Book Title: X Marks the Scot, (Bad Boys of Highlands Book 2)
Author: Victoria Roberts |WebsiteFacebookFacebook|
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date:Feb 5, 2013
Genre: Historical Romance
Format: ebook, paperback
Cost: $6.99
Pages: 352
How I got it: NetGalley
Purchase:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Series/ Standalone: Series
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Synopsis:
He was a Highland rogue— wicked with a bow and just as wicked with the ladies. Declan MacGregor hadn’t a care in the world beyond finding a soft bed and willing woman…until he had to escort Lady Liadain Campbell to the English court. The woman needles him at every turn, but he can’t just abandon her to that vipers’ nest without protection. She never asked for a bodyguard… Liadain wasn’t thrilled to be left in the care of her clan’s archrival. It was as if the man never had a lady tell him no before! And yet as whispers of treason swirl through the court and the threat of danger grows ever sharper, her bitter enemy soon becomes the only one she can trust…

I was totally looking forward to reading Declan's story especially after he annoyed me a bit and intrigued me in the first book, Temptation In A Kilt.  When I dived in, the story moved pretty fast in the beginning, then dragged a little in the middle then quickly wrapped up in the end.

Declan is the irresponsible child because he is the third son, nothing much is required of him and so he spends his days wenching, drinking and dithering his life away, after his brother's life changed & he found that he wasn't as fond of his own life as he thought he made it his mission to look out for the Bloody Campbell's little sister until King James made a decision about her fate.  Once the major players were mentioned I kind of knew what was going to happen especially because I'm a huge history fanatic lover.  I still read on because I wanted to see how Victoria (the author) was going to spin the tale, how each character was going to react and just what was going to happen within her story.

This was perhaps the longest story to get to the point, I know she had to build the characters, but at times I was tempted to skip ahead and see what was happening on the action front, especially after they left court.  Perhaps because I knew the history of the events; I found it to be a bit predictable ( I mean you can only do so much when it's historical facts and not just conjecture) I was a little impatient and it made me rush the story a little.  About 3/4s of the way into the story the tone kind of changed and I wasn't really fond of the change.

I loved this side of Declan & I really enjoyed seeing his growth and even how much Liadain kept him on his toes.  I enjoyed reading their tale because they were such a fun couple to read.  I liked that they were enemies, then uneasy friends and that they built up from that.  It made it a little more awesome that there was a little bit of familiarity already there.  Although Liadain kept surprising

As I read however I noted that Liadain was using words which wouldn't necessarily have been around at that time like "dolt", in her thinking towards men, especially towards Declan, which was out of character for her, at least from what we have read so far, when she started using it.  The other women's insistence on 'girl' power, and their demand to wear pants <~~~ yeah at that time it wasn't going to happen, let's be real. I know it's a romance and we want the characters to be strong, feminine women in charge of themselves but historical that wasn't going to happen at all. It was way too modern and didn't really enhance the story at all.

My other pet peeve in reading was the lack of names used, Delan insisted on calling her "healer" the whole time, instead of her name or title which would have been more accurate for the time period.  Which made for an interesting love story read, because by doing that aren't you creating distance m?? between them?  Hmmm, then again Liadain called him MacGregor the whole time as well.

Beyond my own quirky issues, the book actually flowed well, had great dialogue and moved well enough to keep you engaged.  There wasn't much action in this one, and what little there was, was reserved for the end of the novel, as the bulk of it was about Declan and Liadain's courtship (I mean that's why we're here isn't it??).  An enjoyable read.
 ★★★1/2☆

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