Review: Hit Me With Your Best Scot

Hit Me With Your Best Scot by Suzanne Enoch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

 Perhaps he wasn’t Macbeth, but Coll MacTaggert might have been some perfect, pagan god of the old Highlands, lit by yellow lamplight and chiseled to stunning perfection by some unknown hand. Trouble, her heart beat in a fast tattoo. Trouble. 

Third in the Wild Wicked Highlanders series, eldest brother Coll MacTaggert, Viscount Glendarril, is the only brother to have not found a bride. If you've read the other two books in the series, you'll know that the three MacTaggert brothers have come to London from the Highlands to fulfill a contract that their parents signed when they married. Their mother, Francesca, left the Highlands seventeen years ago after a fight with their father and they haven't seen her since. The contract stipulates that the three brothers all have to be married before their younger sister Eloise or their mother's money will stop funding their home Aldriss Park. With Eloise set to marry in four weeks, Coll is feeling the pressure as his other two brothers have found their wives. When he is escaping two women his mother is pushing at him at the theater, he ends up backstage and meets the one woman who makes him want to get to know her. 

“If you’re not careful,” she said aloud, “I’m going to begin liking you.” 

Persephone is the toast of the London stage and has been for the last eight years after she seemed to come out of nowhere. She's used to having to dodge unwanted attention but when the striking Highlander saves her from a particularly ardent aristocrat and doesn't force anything from her, she's interested. She's protective of her independence but when a string of accidents that seem to target her, she starts to think someone is after her and keeping Coll close is a good idea. Coll would never leave a damsel in distress and tweaking his mother by claiming her contract didn't say a he had to marry a Lady Englishwoman has him claiming to be Persephone's protector and fiancé. It's a fake relationship that is starting to get some emotional strings attached. 

 He’d saved her life at least once, had left a grand ball and his best chance to find a wife to be certain she wasn’t injured. No, she didn’t quite know how to classify him, but she did know one thing. She trusted him. 

After reading and enjoying the first two in the series, I was a little worried that “let my fists do the talking” Coll might stomp about too much for me, but while he bloodies some noses, he's the strong but listening hero Persephone needed. The first half wanders a bit that slows the pace down while the author sets the story and makes sure to give Persephone's theater setting time and spotlight, if you're willing to sit and settle instead of wanting to rush, it does fill out instead of bog down the story. By the 30% mark, Persephone and Coll have hit the sheets (or rather the hay cart) and their hearts are well on the way to love, even if their minds are still caught up in actress and Viscount. Throughout, there is a some alluding to Persephone having a big secret and the hints drop to a reveal at about 60%. The reveal is nothing surprising for seasoned romance readers as the way to a happily ever after is clear.  

Persephone Jones was the lass he wanted. Damn all propriety and tradition that said he couldn’t have her. And damn anyone who tried to stop him. 

Persephone and Coll are, rightly, the best part of this book and at times I wished they could have just been left to be together. There's some of the emotional angst from Coll and feelings of abandonment from his mother and since this was the connecting thread throughout the series, I do think we should have gotten more of a conversation healing this not only between Coll and his mother but all three brothers hugging it out or something together with her. I just felt like there was still some unresolved angst from this. I also thought the wrap-up and danger from Persephone's secret didn't quite stick the landing at the end. When something is slowly carried throughout a story and built up to have importance, it's easy for it to feel too quickly wrapped up and anti-climatic when it only takes a couple pages to reveal and deal with villains, which happened for me here. 

Evidently, she’d been luckier than she deserved. She’d hoped to find a capable man. What she’d found had been an honorable one. 

There were times I thought the story could have been tightened and cleaned up because of how it favors a slower pace instead of snappy but I greatly enjoyed how Persephone and Coll dealt with each other honestly (Persephone has her secret but she's honest with her intentions) and with care. I can't help but hope for Eloise to get her own book, with the appearance of their father Angus I hope she travels to the Highlands to replace her English fiancé with a Scot. The MacTaggerts are a family I became fond of and would gladly read more about.

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