WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT
By Tessa Dare
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: August 25, 2015
WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT is the third in this delectable
series; and as is my way, I preordered and received my book the day of release. I
took it with me to lunch, curling up on the chair and laughing like a hyena on
the first page. Two grad students checked to make sure I was okay; I snorted at
them and waved them away, never lifting my eyes from the book. The next day, at
lunch, I continued snickering and if asked, telling people about this book. The
Thursday after the release, I got a massage and told my masseuse about the
book—and when she said it sounded good—I gave her my copy because by then I had
received a free review copy and could finish it when I got home. I hope she
loves it as much as I did. I hope you do too!
Maddie, our intrepid heroine, is a panic-attack-ridden SHY
artist; and on her 16th year, when she is “threatened” by the
prospect of a glorious London season, she does the unthinkable: she invents a
fiancé. A mysterious soldier who is off fighting for home and hearth—and she
couldn’t imagine finding anyone else and thus participating in a London season.
It worked—Maddie was as amazed as the rest of us—and then she had to keep up
the pretense for five years, when she decided she needed him to be “killed off”
so she could get the family to stop bugging her about when he was coming home.
(Details. Tsk.) While she is keeping up the pretense, she had to write
letters—for five years—to the fictitious Captain Logan MacKenzie, the love of
her life.
Maddie inherits a castle and is saved from coming out of
mourning and having to find a husband. In fact, at her castle, she’s quite
content with her life. She lives with her beloved Aunt Thea and works on her
illustrations. Her greatest ambition in life is to do illustrations of nature
for an encyclopedia. Currently, she is keeping two lobsters, waiting for them to
mate, so she can draw the illustrations for the Big Event.
Let that sink in. Our heroine wants to draw her pet lobsters
copulating.
But this perfectly ordinary (if eccentric) world is
disrupted when her fictitious fiancé returns from the dead, taking up all the
room in the parlor with his six foot plus, two hundred plus, brawny, hairy, Scottish self. She is even more flummoxed when he demands she make good on
their promise to be married. If she refuses, he’ll have all her sent letters
published, humiliating her and her family with her web of lies.
She decides to marry him, in name only, at least long enough
to find said letters and burn them; but meanwhile, she has to contend with his
ragtag group of soldiers who become more endearing than a batch of mutt
puppies, an inexplicable attraction to a man she never imagined existed and who
is irking her every minute of the day to protect his own, and make sure no one
figures out about her web of lies,
which of course, she’s covering with another web of lies.
There were scenes in this book that made me go, “Really? Why
is this scene here?” (because you do that as a writer) and then voila, it all
made sense. It was really quite a miracle. Yes, this book has the sort of
silliness Dare is known for doing; and it also has the emotional and intense
vulnerability for which Dare is also known. And who knew a lobster could be such a
perfect metaphor and foil for our shy heroine? It was just brilliant.
For me, it’s a Top Dish. Enjoy!
~Hellie
