THE DEVIL WEARS KILTS – Suzanne Enoch
A Scandalous Highlanders Novel, Book 1
St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN-13:  978-1-250-04160-9
December 2013
Historical Romance

London, England – Early 1800's

The Clan MacLawry in Scotland is close, and headed by Ranulf, who took over at the tender age of 15 after his father was murdered.  It is on his sister Rowena's eighteenth birthday that things start to go wrong.  First, her brother Munro uses his great sword to cut off all the tops of her birthday flowers from her Uncle Myles.  Her best friend and the man she's always loved, Lachlan, gets her riding boots, and her brother Bear gets her a new saddle, and her brother Arran gives her a clock on a pin.  Finally Rowena has enough nerve to tell her brother Ranulf all she wants is to have her Season in London.  As head of the clan, Ranulf's word is law, and he figures she'll grow out of wanting to associate with those English who hate everything about the Scottish, consider them brutal, and want to use all their lands for those pesky sheep.  But the next morning finds Rowena missing, and from a scrap of burned paper Ranulf thinks she has gone to Hanover house, where Elizabeth Hanover, who is the Countess of Hest and a close friend of their dead mother lives, and whose daughter Jane is also having her first Season.  There's no question about it that Ranulf will go to London and bring Rowena back.

Lady Charlotte Hanover doesn't know Rowena stole away from home, but when she meets Ranulf she can easily see why that bully tries to be in charge of everything.  Yet his towering presence and forceful personality attract her, especially when she coaxes him to let Rowena stay for a fortnight.  But Ranulf must be ever vigilant, even in London, as other clans would love to get their hands on either him or Rowena and do them harm. Rowena doesn't know the trouble she could be in, because she's always been protected.  Ranulf wants nothing to do with English women; his mother was English, and after her husband was murdered she committed suicide and left all her young children parentless.

After Charlotte persuades him, Ranulf ends up buying a house in London and trying to see if he can become the sort of man Charlotte could love, and if he can change his personality to fit in better.  A clansman in London just can't be told what to do for long!

Suzanne Enoch has once again brought to life two people from totally opposite parts of Society.  Ranulf's word is law as head of the Clan, and Charlotte is considered over the hill at twenty five and not due to see marriage in her future.  Told from their points of view, Ranulf immediately starts to change his attitude because of Charlotte, but it takes her longer to see Ranulf's point of view; life in Scotland is vastly different from society in London.  In Scotland, might is right, and if you can't protect your people and your land, it will be taken from you.  Charlotte preaches talking things out and using words to solve problems; all fine and dandy, until your father is drowned in his own lake and people are laughing over his last moments in life.  These are two hard-headed people. Ranulf might be physically stronger, but Charlotte has the beliefs in her ideas that are just as strong.

There are several lovely secondary characters, including Ranulf's brothers, especially Arran who goes to London to find out what is going on after receiving a letter from Ranulf.  Lady Jane Hanover is Charlotte's sister, also having her first Season, and Rowena who is adamant about a Season and enjoying the attention she gets from handsome men that she never got from Lachlan back in Scotland.

THE DEVIL WEARS KILTS is exactly what Ranulf does in several London soirees, something no one did back then, and only went to show everyone the barbaric side of him and Scotland.  Charlotte thinks Ranulf looks amazing in those kilts, and can't stop herself from falling in love with the most aggravating man she's ever met.  The road to true love doesn't run smooth for Charlotte and Ranulf in THE DEVIL WEARS KILTS. Give it a try this month and see if you agree.

Carolyn Crisher