Those who love Scottish settings are no doubt already familiar with May McGoldrick, a husband and wife writing team whose books often feature Scottish settings in various time periods. While this latest novel features a Scotsman as its hero, McGoldrick mostly focuses on an exploration of a different setting: Pre-Revolutionary Boston. Though slow-moving and even frustrating at times, Captured Dreams does give the reader a glimpse into a very exciting time and place.

Raised in a girl’s school in Wales, Portia Edwards now lives in the Boston household of Parson Higgins where she serves as tutor to his children. As one might expect, the atmosphere in Boston is quite explosive at this point in time and Portia is about to find herself caught up in the excitement of it all.

Though she spent the first 24 years of her life believing she was an orphan, Portia recently discovered that her mother may in fact be alive and – even better coincidence – living in Boston. Portia comes to believe that her mother is none other than Helena Middleton, daughter of Admiral Middleton. Even though Helena lives in seclusion at the Admiral’s residence and is rumored to be mad, Portia is understandably consumed with her desire to meet the woman she believes may be her mother. Through a friend she manages to secure an invitation to a party at the Middleton house.

While at the Admiral’s home, Portia slips away from her escort and looks for Helena without any plan other than finding her. As might be expected, her skulking about the grounds goes awry and she escapes detection only with the assistance of Pierce Pennington, a respected Boston trader. Though livid at Portia for impeding his own late-night plans, he also finds himself attracted to her. Thus begins their rather tempestuous relationship.

As it turns out, Portia is determined to find opportunities to return to the Middleton home to see her mother. Pierce, against his better judgment, finds himself drawn into her fumbling attempts and comes to lust after and ultimately fall in love with Portia. Through the course of their meetings, Portia also discovers Pierce’s secret life as a smuggler and colonial sympathizer. The intrigues in which each of them are involved keep intersecting and they eventually find themselves thrown together by their goals. It is at this midpoint that the emotional side of the romance finally flames to life and truly engages the reader.

This book is absolutely packed with action and intrigue, but it somehow never manages to come alive. McGoldrick chose an exciting setting and did a fairly creditable job of using it to add flavor to the story, but the book never becomes a page-turner. Though a little uneven at first, an even larger part of the problem lies in a cast of largely one-dimensional secondary characters. These characters do their part to move the plot along, but they never take on a life of their own and the plots involving them often seem flat. This lack of depth takes something away from what could have otherwise been a rich and epic story.

Portia, however, is a rather interesting character. Though she seems maddeningly careless at times, she is not merely a flat TSTL heroine by any means. She is actually fairly bright, but also naive, impetuous, and single-minded and, as can be expected from someone with these characteristics, her pursuit of her mother lands her in all manner of dangerous and ridiculous situations. These antics are maddening, to be sure, but they are also actions that fit in with her character. But there is more to Portia, however, and her caring nature and obvious intelligence give her more depth and make her more engaging than your average madcap heroine.

While May McGoldrick’s biggest fans may well enjoy Captured Dreams, it ultimately did not live up to the standards of much of her earlier work. The flatness of the secondary characters and plots turned what could have been a fun read into a rather ordinary and sometimes annoying tale. New readers would do well to stick to Flame or The Thistle and the Rose from the author’s backlist and take a pass on this one.