Haunted by horrors of his childhood, Dugan MacMillan has sworn to protect his clan at any cost . . . even if he must search for a rumored treasure and kidnap a beautiful thief to do it.

The MacMillan laird has never crossed paths with anyone quite like Lady Maura Duncanson. After he saved her from certain death, the comely vixen had the audacity to disappear with his treasure map, his only key to restoring his clan. Dugan has no qualms about taking Maura hostage, especially when he learns she is to wed a wealthy old baron who will pay him a fortune in ransom . . . a fortune his people desperately need.

But, of course, Maura has no intention of returning to her despicable fiancÉ. And the longer Dugan spends in the bewitching hellion’s presence, the less willing he is to surrender her to any man . . . at any price.

Review

As a child, Dugan Macmillian watched the massacre of his father and brother. His whole life was turned upside down and he vows to never be that young and vulnerable boy again. Now as a grown man and Laird of his mother’s clan, he will defend his people at all cost. When his landlord shows up at his doorsteps, threatening to evict him and his people if he can’t come up with an obscene amount of money, Dugan decides to follow an old mystery that his grandfather use to tell him of.

Lady Maura Duncanson knows she must escape her cousin’s house. She is betrothed to a man she has no desire to marry and to top it off, she must hurry to get her disabled sister from an evil woman that her parents cast her to live with. The opportunity presents itself when she discovers a piece of a map that leads to a treasure that no one has been able to find. If she can find the gold, she can have enough money to secure her way to America or somewhere else far with sister.

I loved the aspect of a Scottish historical romance mixed with a treasure hunt. This is a unique spin to my normal Scottish reads and it kept the story interesting. The author could have made the trip more intriguing by playing up the suspense of the treasure. I’m assuming her focus is to show the readers the slow sizzling connection between Dugan and Maura.

Maura is feisty, independent and work on Dugan’s nerves. She is constantly running away from him. Though he slowly comes to admire her, he knows by holding her hostage and threatening her family for money, he can save his family in return. As the time comes closer, Dugan realizes that love is worth more than a few gold coins. Even though they both have a certain goal in the story, I loved watching how their priorities changed and they stop working against one another and started working together.

I am a little disappointed with the love scenes. The author is great at building the sexual tension and is so descriptive in other areas of the book. However, when it came to the love scenes, after a brief description of foreplay she didn’t follow up with the sexual act. Sure, we as adults know how the deed is done but don’t use words like “cock” and don’t follow up with what he did with it. The love scenes are a paragraph at most and I wanted her to explore the emotions and vulnerabilities of each character through the intimate scenes.

Reviewed by Samantha

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