Review: A Scottish Love

Reviewed by Jen
 

Life pretty much sucks for Shona. She married a man she didn't love, who withered away before her eyes and left her a penniless widow. Her brother, Fergus, was crippled in the war. And she has had to sell everything she owns to take care of him and her companion, Helen. The only thing she has left of value is the family's ancestral castle, and she must part with that too, or else she'll have to become a beggar.

As if all that were not bad enough, her long lost love, Gordon, has come back in her life. Her father talked her out of marrying him before he went off to war and time has not softened their feelings for one another. But even as they are still drawn to one another, neither can get over the wounds of their past.

So Shona works to sell the castle to an American family... a horrible lot of people, while suffering mostly in silence. It's dreadfully depressing. And it's made worse when she begins to see that a lot of her heartbreak is of her own making. Even the love scenes are tempered with sadness and loss. Yes, the ending is happy, but for 90% of the book, I was ready to toss Shona off a cliff (or maybe toss myself off one) to end all the misery.

The book is well written, but it was a downer for too long for me to really enjoy. Even the ancient love story of the ghosts in the castle had a terrible ending. Not quite 3 stars.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley

Click to purchase: Amazon

A Scottish Love

by Karen Ranney

Release Date: November 29, 2011

Publisher: Avon