It’s not a happy thing when a bad book happens to a good writer.

Sadly, there’s nothing I can find to like about this book except the fact that the prose – as always with Ms. London – is smooth and readable. And, even though her characterizations are skillfully done, the author’s protagonists are so incredibly unlikable that I can’t even remotely imagine what she was thinking when writing this book.

So, what’s the problem with her hero and heroine? For starters, heroine Mared Lockhart is firmly convinced that the hero is evil incarnate for the changes he’s brought to Scotland. She is wrong and the reader knows this. Nevertheless, Mared continues to hate the hero for more than half of the book and behaves as a flat-out junior high school brat for just as long. As for hero Payton Douglas, he has “loved” the heroine for most of his life, but when she – in full brat mode – refuses to marry him in payment for a debt, he resorts to a familiar romance cliché from ten or more years ago and forces her to work as a servant in his household so that he can humiliate and degrade her. Now, that’s a romance for you!

Readers of Highlander Unbound and Highlander in Disguise are familiar with the tale of the lost “beastie” and the curse upon the family, though reading the first two books isn’t necessary before picking up this one. As this final entry in the trilogy opens, Mared’s family owes a significant sum of money to Payton they are unable to repay, and Payton requests they honor the agreement to give him Mared’s hand in marriage if they can’t come up with the cash.

Because Mared hates Payton for importing sheep and “invading the land” her family thinks should be used for cattle and because the Lockharts are supposed to hate the Douglas family, she refuses. Soon enough, she finds herself working as a housekeeper at his lavish estate.

And, basically, that’s the plot. Mared “cleverly” tries not to work. Payton humiliates her by reminding her she’s a servant in a variety of different ways and eventually they give in to their lust.

I very much enjoyed the first entry in this series, a book I reviewed and graded a B. But even though I was sympathetic to Mared for the first 50 pages or so since it’s widely believed by the Highland folk that any man the women of her family marry will die and Mared has had to live her entire life with the shadow of this “curse” upon her, she is so stubborn, childish, and unpleasant that I soon enough grew to despise her. And, no, that’s not too strong a word. As for Payton, you have to question just how deep his “love” for Mared could ever have been if he sees humiliating her as suitable revenge.

So, there you have it. An unpleasantly retro plot device, far too many tempestuous and bratty confrontations, and somehow, someway Ms. Unpleasant and Mr. Nasty get together and, we are to believe, live happily ever after

Not!

I’ll say it again because it bears repeating: Julia London is a skilled writer of historical romance. However, this statement also bears repeating since I’m still puzzled days after finishing the book: What the heck was she thinking?