"It's Getting Scot in Here" tells the story of Highlander Niall MacTaggert and his two older brothers, Aden and Coll, who are summoned to London by their English mother and ordered to find English wives in order to fulfill an agreement she made many years ago with their Scottish father, from whom she is estranged. If her sons fail to marry according to her wishes, Lady Aldriss will stop providing the funding that the MacTaggerts' beloved ancestral estate, Aldriss Park, desperately needs to stay afloat. An additional provision in the agreement between Lord and Lady Aldriss states that at least one of their sons must marry a young lady of Lady Aldriss's choosing. A turn of the cards determines that this duty will fall to Coll, the eldest, but the hot-tempered Highlander is not at all happy about the prospect.
In an attempt to thwart their mother's plans and seek revenge for her abandonment of them as children, the brothers have planned to find meek, spineless Englishwomen to marry, then leave them behind in London and resume their carefree bachelor lives in Scotland. The first wrinkle in this plan appears when Coll and Niall meet Miss Amelia-Rose Baxter, the young lady their mother has chosen to be Coll's wife. The outspoken Amelia-Rose is nothing like the meek Englishwoman Coll is looking for, and he quickly abandons her at the theater, leaving Niall, the family peacemaker, to attempt to salvage the match in order to save Aldriss Park. As Niall spends more time with Amelia-Rose in Coll's stead, he begins to realize how poorly matched she and Coll are, and how much he wishes he could court her for himself. But Amelia-Rose's parents are set on her marrying a man with a title, and Coll, as the heir to the earldom, is the only brother they will accept.
For her part, Amelia-Rose has tried desperately to be the perfect example of an English young lady, but her wicked tongue often gets the better of her. She wants to make her parents happy by catching a man with a title, but isn't convinced that marrying an "uncivilized" Highlander is the best prospect for her future happiness. She is desperate to escape her parents' house, but dreams of a life in London, not the vast, empty Scottish Highlands. Despite these fears and her almost-engagement to Coll, Amelia-Rose is drawn to Niall, but knows that her parents will never accept the match.
Will Amelia-Rose and Niall find a way to be together despite her parents' objections, and compromise on a lifestyle and place to live that will make both of them happy? The answer, of course, is yes, but the journey is filled with twists and turns that will keep the reader turning pages quickly. Both of the main characters are incredibly well-developed and likeable, as are the secondary characters, particularly Niall's brothers, who will presumably be featured in future books in this series. I also appreciated the humorous moments in the story, particularly those involving Rory the deer.
Overall, "It's Getting Scot in Here" was a 5-star read for me, and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Check out an excerpt of "It's Getting Scot in Here"!
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