TITLE: McClairen's Isle: The Passionate OneAUTHOR: Connie Brockway
STARTED: November 26, 2008
FINISHED: December 1, 2008
PAGES: 372
GENRE: Romance
FIRST SENTENCE: In 1523 the McClairen chieftain, Dougal of Donne, stood on northern Scotland's high headlands, looked out at a rock island rising from the churning sea, and ordered a fortress built there.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Ash is a smoldering, contained (hence his name) Scotsman; Rhiannon is a fiery young Scotswoman whose clan was destroyed by Ash's people when she was a child. Rhiannon's 10 years of safety and freedom from fear in the village of Fair Badden abruptly end a few weeks before her scheduled wedding to Squire Watt's youngest son, Phillip. When cynical Ashton Merrick--the eldest son of a deceased Scottish mother and a dissolute, sadistic English father--arrives in Fair Badden, he is surprised at the uncomplicated kindness he encounters in the village and is even more astonished to realize he's falling in love with Rhiannon. The remnants of Ash's suspicious nature prove ultimately advantageous, however: he is the only one to realize that certain recent "accidents" involving the penniless Rhiannon are actually threats to her life. Unfortunately, whisking her to McClairen's Isle offers no sanctuary, as Ash discovers his father has far more sinister plans for Rhiannon than making her his fourth wife. Skullduggery, bitter English-Scottish hatreds and harrowing cat-and-mouse pursuits fill the ebb and flow of this 18th-century romance, the first volume of the McClairen's Isle trilogy by veteran romance writer Brockway.
THOUGHTS: The first book in a series... that actually makes me want to read the rest of the series... intriguing. There's certainly nothing groundbreaking in the genre of romance in Brockway's book, but the story is interesting enough that I kept reading. The lead characters act like real people and (bonus!) most of the secondary characters don't come from the usual stock. Actually, from what I can recall of this book, I am actually more interested to read the story of two secondary characters (luckily, they get their own book) than I was in the main story of this book.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
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