Review by Booklist Review
Get married or die. Given the choice, Alasdair Penhallow opts for finding a wife since an ancient clan decree states that any chieftain of Castle Tadgh who remains unmarried by his thirty-fifth birthday must choose a bride within 35 days or perish posthaste. After invitations go out for a meet-and-greet at Castle Tadgh, Alasdair finds himself entertaining four suitable lasses from the surrounding clans, each of whom seems thrilled with the idea of becoming the new Mrs. Penhallow. Well, three of the candidates are excited about the prospect of marrying Alasdair; Fiona Douglass is only attending the bridal cattle call because the alternative according to the same clan custom is being tossed into a loch. Having been burned once by love, Fiona has absolutely no interest in playing the dating game with Alasdair, but with time running out, as far as Alasdair is concerned, every eligible lass is fair game! Romance newcomer Berne scores again with the second scintillating installment in her superbly written Penhallow Dynasty series, following You May Kiss the Bride (2017), a Booklist Top 10 Debut Romance, by delivering another triumphant mix of sparkling wit and sophisticated sensuality.--Charles, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Nine years earlier, Fiona Douglass watched the love of her life marry her beautiful younger sister, one of many weddings she'd had to witness. Her father keeps offering her up to one nasty suitor after another, and Fiona is getting nervous. Then disaster strikes. Drunken Scottish wastrel Alasdair Penhallow is told his family lives under a curse: he must wed one of the eligible maidens of the Eight Clans of Killaly before his 35th birthday or forfeit his life. Fiona is forced to go to Castle Tadgh along with three more enthusiastic maidens. Penhallow and his men are pretty squalid, having drank and wenched their way through Scotland. However, as Alasdair begins to make an effort to be a decent companion, Fiona finds him to be not so abhorrent. Unfortunately, circumstances lead to the pair getting married. Things move along fairly well as they get to know each other until Penhallow's emotional scars cause him to wound Fiona deeply. Verdict Berne (You May Kiss the Bride) takes a comparatively unlikable fellow and shows why he took the path he did, allowing the reader and Fiona to empathize with and forgive him. Fiona is a wonderful character, with her own scars, self-doubt, kindness, and need for love. Readers who can wait for Alasdair's redemption will be rewarded in this tale of two wounded people.-B. Allison Gray, Goleta Lib., CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
