5 member(s) found this review helpful.
I wanted to like this book a whole lot more than I actually did, and the concept had a lot of potential. But absolutely nothing happened for 150 or so pages...the rest of the book was really, really good, but I felt like the author belabored things in getting to the point. I got really tired of reading about what the characters were feeling, and wanted them to act, already!

Cali M. (
Cali) wrote on 1/13/2007...
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
* Well if you go striclty by reviews (here & Amazon) this is a great book! I just don't happen to agree. And I usually like Ms. Ranney.
* This felt so ho-hum reading it, and when I tried to come up with one thing really great about this book, I couldn't. There's enough interest to peak your curiosity with the characters but they just never seem to fully evolve. (Except maybe for Maisie.)
* On one hand the reader is supposed to accept Dixon as an 'honorable' man while he's being entirely dishonorable. The one redeeming quality or heroic act he performs? Beats me!
* Every situation, Charlotte's reserve then intro to something more, Matthew's wisdom, Nan's suttle hint's of the past or her dislike of Charlotte or anyone English...you keep thinking 'OK, now we'll find out...he'll say/she'll say' something to explain or give you some closure to what you've been given. It never happens.
* I don't usually have expectations when I start reading a book. I leave that to the author to raise. And Ms. Ranney did raise my expectations; she just never answered them.
* Liked Most - Balfurin & the cover
* Liked Least - Dixon posing as dead George to sleep with/get Charlotte & doesn't tell the truth until cornered and forced to.

Pamela S. (
Cosmina) wrote on 9/23/2008...
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
I loved this book. The hero comes into the story with such sadness and lack of love in his life that he doesn't tell the lady he finds at the castle that was once his home, who he really is. The love story is not too predictable and the side characters are too much fun.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
I had a bit of a moral problem with this book. Her husbands cousin comes barging into her life and doesn't tell anyone who he is. Other than that, it was a really good book, though I was rather surprised by the ending.

Maria G. (
moliviag) wrote on 7/6/2007...
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Was only okay. It was very slow at the beginning and didn't really get pick up until at the very end.

Catherine A. (
cottontop) wrote on 12/20/2006...
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
another very enjoyable book by Karen the charachters show determination and love for scotland with all its bad weather a very good read every page catches you so you want to read on delightful enjoyable smileable read by an excellent author

John P. (
peterman) wrote on 8/19/2008...
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Good book. I would rate it as a little better than your normal romance novel one or two twist, enjoyable to read.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Great read, especially if you are into historical romances dealing with the highlands of Scotland.

Tara B. (
tabloyd) wrote on 4/2/2007...
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Abandoned by a husband she never knew -- left alone in his crumbling Scottish castle -- Charlotte transformed her greatest shame into her grandest triumph.
But will everything change when a devilishly handsome stranger arrives, claiming to be her ong-lost spouse?
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Charlotte is abandoned by her husband after only one week of marriage. She travels to his crumbling castle and transforms it into a paying school for girls. Five years later a man arrives at her door. Her husband? Can it be? What does he want? Will he take everything she has built? If he is not her husband, who is he?