Once in a while I come across a book that’s first in a series, breeze through it, and keenly anticipate the next installment. Since The Border Bride appears to be Elizabeth English’s debut book, I’m doubly impressed. Although I wasn’t completely satisfied with the development of the characters’ relationship, the writing struck me as solid and faintly reminiscent of at least two well-established authors.

In the fourteenth century, two families are engaged in a bloody, decades-long feud along the Borderlands: the Killarens on the Scottish side and the Darnleys on the English side. After the violent death of his eldest son, the grieving Laird Killaren is desperate to secure lasting peace. When the Scots capture Lord Darnley’s heir, Haddon, the laird strikes a bargain with his nemesis: in exchange for Haddon’s life, Darnley’s daughter Maude must marry Killaren’s only remaining son, Jemmy.

A wedding shortly takes place, and the skirmishes stop. However, things aren’t what they seem. Darnley has never wanted to join the two families, and he is secretly planning an invasion. The woman who meets Jemmy at the altar is actually a kitchen maid whom Darnley has blackmailed into spying for him. Because her younger brother is being hostage, Alyson McLaran can’t afford to reveal her true identity or warn the Killarens about Darnley’s treachery. Her dilemma worsens when she finds herself falling for the gallant Jemmy.

I don’t mean to imply that there’s a prototypical Judith McNaught heroine or a Mary Jo Putney hero; but the characters in The Border Bride did remind me of characters written by both authors. Jemmy and Alyson share some qualities that often (but don’t always) recur in McNaught’s and Putney’s characters. To be a bit flippant, the relationship of Alyson and Jemmy is what might happen when you cross a McNaught heroine with a Putney hero.

Young and naïve, Alyson is thrust alone into an unfamiliar world. If only the hero knew the reason behind her silent suffering, he’d worship at her feet. But since she’s supposed to impersonate the spoiled and haughty Maude, her deception culminates into a Big Misunderstanding and compels him to treat her abominably. This should’ve been the prelude to an immensely satisfying groveling by the hero – at least if it had been a McNaught novel. Jemmy, however, doesn’t do enough of it.

But for the most part, he makes me sigh. He’s a soldier of fortune, a stubborn gentleman, vulnerable and haunted by bitter memories of a lost love-strongly reminding me of Lord Michael Kenyon in Putney’s Shattered Rainbows and Kyle Renbourne in The China Bride. Jemmy had set out for the high seas in order to avoid the Killarens’ legacy of war. Though he never wanted to settle down, much less succeed his father as laird, his sense of honor compels him to do his part in maintaining peace in the Borderlands. But once he’s back home, the Scots see him as the long-lost black sheep who can never live up to his slain older brother’s heroism.

Jemmy’s kinsfolk’s treatment of his wife is no better. For them, Alyson is the spoiled English interloper who can never truly be their lady. Treated as little more than pariahs despite being the clan’s nominal first couple, Alyson and Jemmy learn to turn to each other for comfort. They also work together to initiate reforms among the war-mongering Killaren warriors. Given this touching “you and me against the world” theme, their lack of trust throughout most of the book is disappointing. Their first love scene could also have been developed further.

On the other hand, a number of things also make this book remarkable as a first effort. The author’s prose is highly readable and the story moves swiftly along, a true blessing for any reviewer. The supernatural element in the book is a nice touch, providing an interesting side story that complements the main one nicely. The age-old issues of war are also handled well, except that the Scots are unrealistically portrayed as unequivocally good and the English unequivocally evil.

Finally, the book features an intense secondary character whose own book comes after this one. Jemmy’s kinsman Alistair walks the frayed line between dark and light, creating such an interesting enigma that he eventually overshadows the hero. He’s part of the reason this series looks rosy; if Ms. English does away with the Big Misunderstanding, the next book, Laird of the Mist, is something to look forward to.