After reading the Amazon reviews for this book, I went to check if maybe I was looking at the wrong book. No ... I guess I see this a bit differently.
I love Scottish stories, but this one seemed very ho-hum; I've heard it all before. Unfortunately, Potter seemed to tell me too many times that there was a curse, Rory didn't want to bury another wife and Felicia didn't want a Maclean.
If she had stopped at telling me each of those things a total of 3 times, I could have tolerated it. But, no, the author seemed to be concerned that we couldn't remember so much information so it was repeated ad nauseum!
I also had the feeling that the author was paid by the word; there were lots of words but little action until the end.
Romantic novels often seem to suffer from an over-emphasis on physical attractiveness - or lack of it. This book wallows in that over-emphasis. Felicia is upset that she's not as attractive as Janet, the person she supplanted. I felt there was precious little to Felicia except shallow feelings about her lack of beauty. Yawn.
However, I liked that she stepped outside of her insecurities and helped the Maclean villagers who were attacked by the Campbell's (her clan). She regained a great deal of my respect by helping those less-fortunate than herself. This was not something expected of "a lady."
I have the second and third books in this Scottish series and I hope Patricia Potter hits her stride in the next installment. I think her American frontier novels are superb.
Maclean Scottish Series:
1. Beloved Imposter
2. Beloved Stranger
3. Beloved Warrior
I love Scottish stories, but this one seemed very ho-hum; I've heard it all before. Unfortunately, Potter seemed to tell me too many times that there was a curse, Rory didn't want to bury another wife and Felicia didn't want a Maclean.
If she had stopped at telling me each of those things a total of 3 times, I could have tolerated it. But, no, the author seemed to be concerned that we couldn't remember so much information so it was repeated ad nauseum!
I also had the feeling that the author was paid by the word; there were lots of words but little action until the end.
Romantic novels often seem to suffer from an over-emphasis on physical attractiveness - or lack of it. This book wallows in that over-emphasis. Felicia is upset that she's not as attractive as Janet, the person she supplanted. I felt there was precious little to Felicia except shallow feelings about her lack of beauty. Yawn.
However, I liked that she stepped outside of her insecurities and helped the Maclean villagers who were attacked by the Campbell's (her clan). She regained a great deal of my respect by helping those less-fortunate than herself. This was not something expected of "a lady."
I have the second and third books in this Scottish series and I hope Patricia Potter hits her stride in the next installment. I think her American frontier novels are superb.
Maclean Scottish Series:
1. Beloved Imposter
2. Beloved Stranger
3. Beloved Warrior
