His Wicked Promise is the literary equivalent of a K-Tel album. It’s not horrible or anything, but it reads like a rehash of the “greatest hits” of several authors. You may not have read this book yet, but you have certainly read most of what’s in it somewhere else before, and more than once.

Glenda MacKay has been living in the home of her brother-in-law since the death of her husband and child. But when she hears that her father and uncle have died, leaving her family’s keep unprotected, she decides to return to her childhood home to take responsibility for it. Her brother-in-law, Cameron, refuses to let her journey alone; he sends Egan MacBain to accompany her. Glenda feels uncomfortable with Egan, because her thoughts about him seem like a betrayal of her deceased husband. Egan, on the other hand, has loved Glenda since he first saw her, which is when she arrived at Cameron’s castle as a young bride. He has quietly watched her for years, and he felt horribly guilty when her husband was murdered.

Once their journey is underway, it doesn’t take long for the sparks to fly. When they arrive at Blackstone, the family keep, they find it virtually deserted and in poor repair. They discover that the tenants have been victimized by frequent raids, most probably from a neighbor to the south, Simon the Lawless. Egan refuses to leave Glenda under these conditions. Then, shortly after they arrive, Glenda’s overlord insists that she marry. Glenda is furious, but since her choice is basically between Egan and Simon, she goes with Egan.

From this point the couple travels a very rocky road on the way to true love. They are both very attracted to each other, and indeed Egan has always loved Glenda. But Glenda still believes that she is in love with her first husband, Niall. She also has a laundry list of other hang-ups. She’s afraid to get pregnant because her only child died shortly after birth. She’s afraid to love Egan because everyone she has loved has died. When she gets pregnant she’s afraid to tell Egan because – well, she’s just afraid in general. Eventually they both profess their love, but it’s in the final pages of the book.

There really is nothing horrible about this book, and most of the time I really wanted to like it. I found Egan to be a admirable hero, except for when he deliberately misunderstood Glenda, which unfortunately was quite often. But I liked that he had admired Glenda from afar for so long, in an admirable way. I couldn’t help rooting for the guy. Glenda really wasn’t bad either, though at times she seemed really deluded about the reality of a woman’s life in the 1200s. She really balks at the idea of marriage, even though it is completely obvious that she doesn’t have the resources or the experience to protect her holdings on her own. Still, she’s not stupid or simpering, and she manages to hold her own with the dominant Egan.

The problem is that this story sounds like about fifty others that I have already read. Maybe even a hundred others. It is easily the least original book I have read in some time. The plot is tired, and everything happens just as you would expect. I kept wishing something even remotely surprising would happen, like that the villain would turn out to be someone other than the obvious choice. Someone named Percival the Law-Abiding Citizen, maybe. But no such luck.

Another problem for me was the very dramatic, flowery language. Obviously, everyone has different tastes in these matters, but hearing the heroine’s “womanly passage” described as a velvet portal, a satin channel, and a cave of womanhood in one scene was a little much for me. Also, the book has way more exclamation points than average, especially in the beginning. For a while it seemed like every thought Glenda had was a shouted one, which I found distracting.

I have read one other book by Samantha James – One Moonlit Night. That one also had a been there, done that feel to it, but the very likable characters made it a more enjoyable read. His Wicked Promise just isn’t as good as that one. However, it is a sequel to His Wicked Ways and if you really liked that one you may enjoy seeing old friends again. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t bother.