What do you do when a romance has almost every element you need, but one? You gnash your teeth and hope for more in the next one.

Border Storm takes up the story of the Scottish Borders at the end of the 1500’s. It follows the author’s earlier Border Fire. Laurie Halliott is the daughter of Sir William of Aylewood who has recently been named warden of the Scottish middle march. As warden, Sir William acts as magistrate and is responsible for the conduct of the people within his ward. When Laurie’s younger half-sister is accused of murdering an English soldier and disappears before she can face the charges, Laurie agrees to stand as a hostage in her sister’s name. Laurie’s father will only allow this if she is married to Sir Hugh Graham in a hand-fasting ceremony.

Sir Hugh Graham, deputy warden on the English side of the border and brother of Janet Graham (heroine of Border Fire) is extremely reluctant to take Laurie into his household. He has no desire to have a wife, but agrees to house Laurie in order to spite his boss. He remains determined, however, to leave Laurie untouched so that their marriage can be annulled at the end of one year. His plans include leaving Laurie in the care of his recently arrived aunt, Lady Marjory Graham.

These are some great story elements. Sir Hugh is a strong, no-nonsense hero and Laurie is equally strong if a little naive at times. The two definitely have chemistry and it comes through in every interaction they have. What’s missing is the interactions. They have so few that I was left feeling like they hadn’t had a chance to even get to know each other before they were deeply in love. This isn’t really that surprising, considering their first meeting doesn’t happen until around page 100. Prior to this they have seen each other once, and then only for a couple of minutes. Once Hugh has taken Laurie to his home, he spends most of his time away. This is believable since he is trying to keep his hands off of her, but it doesn’t give them many opportunities to speak to each other. Laurie spends far more time with the other inhabitants of Hugh’s home then she does with him.

Lady Marjory is a wonderful addition to that household. She’s an overly solicitous, over-anxious woman who drives Hugh crazy. When she’s first introduced it seems her behavior must be an act to cover more nefarious purposes, but it isn’t. She really is as annoying and concerned as she’s drawn. She’s only on Hugh’s doorstep because all of her other relatives have managed to get rid of her, a feat Hugh is unable to emulate. Every scene she’s in with Hugh is amusing because of her high annoyance factor. He takes to hiding in his extremely small study every time she comes into sight.

The grade for this one is attributable primarily to the lack of scenes between Hugh and Laurie, but there were a few other minor considerations. Laurie at times borders on being TSTL. She’s not quite there, but there were times when I gritted my teeth a bit. Once at Brackengill she gives her word she won’t leave the property, but not only does she leave the grounds of the keep, she crosses back into Scotland. If she’d had a real reason for doing so, it would have worked, but her only reason is that she wants to visit. When her visits lead to larger problems, her actions end up making matters worse. This sudden change in Laurie’s characterization was done for plot purposes, not for her development, which made it that much harder to believe. Laurie’s too smart for this kind of behavior.

This is a very solid successor to Border Fire, which I liked far better than my fellow AAR Reviewer did (my grade would have been a “B”). Sir Hugh, who was an interesting character in that book, is more then fully fleshed out. I just hope that in the next book, the hero and heroine will actually spend more then a quarter of the book together.