Scot Under the Covers is an entertaining tale of erroneous first impressions, family loyalty, a sensual attraction against better judgment, and a dastardly villain – oh, and a few kilts too. There were some things that didn’t work for me in the story but overall, it was a fun, light read and a nice second addition to Suzanne Enoch’s The Wild Wicked Highlanders series.

Aden MacTaggert and his brothers have been summoned to London to find brides. An odd agreement between his estranged parents states that Aden and his brothers have to marry English lasses before their only sister can marry (and their only sister is now engaged). Aden recognizes that he will have to make a quick marriage of convenience and hopefully leave his bride behind in London when he returns to Scotland.

Miranda Harris’s brother is engaged to Aden’s sister. While she adores the sister, she abhors Aden – he is a gambler after all and she despises all gamblers. But when she finds herself about to be forced into an engagement with an evil man who has the power to ruin her family (a gambler who holds her brother’s gambling vowels totaling almost fifty thousand pounds), it’s Aden she turns to. Who better to outwit a gambler than another gambler?

Aden is intrigued by Miranda. She is so damn proper and yet he senses a streak of rebelliousness underneath her society façade. He agrees to help her – he wants to keep his sister’s fiancé under watch and he wants to spend more time with Miranda. Miranda is surprised by how devoted Aden is to helping her. They end up spending a great deal of time together and Miranda starts to sense that her first impressions of Aden might have been wrong and Aden’s interest in Miranda blossoms:

In the back of his thoughts, teasing at him since their first conversation and growing in volume since their verbal and literal waltz last night, crept the feeling that he’d found his lass. If she genuinely disliked him, he’d turn elsewhere, but beneath the sparring between them, perhaps even because of it, he felt…something. A slow, brewing lightning storm that made the hair lift on his arms and had him anticipating things he couldn’t yet put a name to.

Aden falls for Miranda early on in Scot Under the Covers, and I had a hard time believing this as he was so determined not to fall for an English girl. That said, he is a delightful hero – all manly Scot with much more honor than Miranda could imagine and a wicked sense of humor – “I should’ve worn a bloody kilt…whoever invented trousers needs to be hanged by his nethers”. Miranda took a little while longer for me  to warm to but she eventually won me over with her determination to decide her own fate while trying her best to honor her family. Aden and Miranda are a fun team who, together, end up vanquishing the villain in a clever, enjoyable manner.

There were definitely some points in the book where I had to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the story. For example, the agreement between the estranged parents was far-fetched and I couldn’t believe that the MacTaggert brothers would allow their sister to marry a man who amassed such huge gambling debts and expected his own sister to pay the price. So, if you have trouble letting a few things go in a story, this might not be for you. But, if you are looking for a light read to warm you up on a cold winter night, then it might fit the bill.

Buy it at: Amazon

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