With The Legend MacKinnon you get three exciting romances, three passionate otherworldly heroes, and three admirable heroines strong enough to bring them to their arrogant knees all for the price of one.

Maggie Claren is having a very rough month. Running for her life from an abusive fiance, she’s been forced to hide out in a cabin recently bequeathed to her by her mysterious Uncle Lachlan. She only wants a little peace and some time alone to begin repairing her troubled life. What she finds instead is a 300 year old angry ghost wearing a kilt and nothing more. He is Duncan MacKinnon and cannot abide anyone who bears the Claren name. It was the curse of a Claren woman, you see, who was the cause of his current state of unrest. Rather than enjoying eternal rest, Duncan must take mortal form one month each year and he’s a mite grumpy about his predicament. His blustery attempts to scare her senseless fail miserably and much to his dismay, he becomes painfully attracted to her. His barbarian attitude is just no match for an intelligent nineties woman and she quickly snares his heart. Their battle of wills is amusing and the sensual tension builds to a scorching level.

And, as if ol’ Duncan and a warped ex-fiance weren’t enough for one woman to deal with, Maggie learns she has a psychic cousin. Cailean Claren has been plagued by visions all of her life and tracks down Maggie to alert her of impending danger. Here the book cleanly segues into Cailean’s love story and more pieces of the puzzle that is The Legend MacKinnon come into play.

The journals Uncle Lachlan left for Cailean and Maggie provide Cailean details about the “curse of the MacKinnon’s” and she fins proof that every joining between a MacKinnon and a Claren inevitably ends in tragedy. When she learns that she alone has the power to save future generations from heartache, she heads to Scotland, where it all began, to put an end to the sorrow for good. Here she meets Duncan’s brother, Rory MacKinnon, cursed with immortality by a Claren woman. Their attraction, like the couple before them, is immediate, fierce, and undeniable. Rory is none too happy to learn that Cailean is a descendant of the Claren who cursed him, but they are bright people and don’t waste precious time arguing and denying their feelings.

Just as Rory and Cailean are getting cozy yet another Claren cousin steps into the picture. Delaney Claren has traveled to Scotland to check out the land that crafty Uncle Lachlan left her. Naturally, it is MacKinnon land! It is on this land that she discovers the third sexy brother, Alexander. Their first encounter is smart, sexy and made me smile. Alexander was lead, by a Claren woman of course, through a time portal and has had a heck of a time trying to get home. He intends to use Delaney to help him return to his time to save his clan. But if he’s not stopped in time, all of their lives and their new blossoming relationships may come to a rapid end.

Whew! That sure is an abundance of plot information, but this isn’t a book that can be easily summed upo. This is a cleverly crafted book that is not to be mistaken for an anthology. Each relationship takes center stage for roughly a third of the 400 page book and the couples move from primary to secondary characters easily and naturally. You aren’t left feeling huge pangs of loss when it happens either, because the characters continually appear throughout the remainder of the book. Watching the long lost brothers interact with each other and their new loves is one of the neatest things about the story. It’s almost like reading a trilogy without the long wait in between books.

Best of all, there isn’t a bad character in the bunch — well, maybe Maggie’s ex-fiance was a bit over the top crazy, but he was a very minor part of the book. The heroines are all very different but are likable and intelligent. Of the women, I personally enjoyed outspoken, kick-ass Delaney the most – but please don’t make me choose between the brothers, whom I loved equally.

In a world filled with overpriced, average reads The Legend MacKinnon is quite a bargain indeed. Pick it up, read a page or two, and I’ll bet you’ll be as hooked as I was by the humor, sizzle and interesting premise. Donna Kauffman’s first single title (she previously wrote for Bantam’s now defunct Loveswept line) was a joy to read.