In the Highlander's Bed by Cathy Maxwell

I first came across Cathy Maxwell's work in Four Dukes and a Devil, and I liked her story, so when I stumbled across In the Highlander's Bed, I said to myself, "why not?" I'm definitely going to check out more of her stuff!

In the Highlander's Bed starts out with Gordon Lachlan, traveling to Madame Lavaliere's Academy for Young Women with the intent of kidnapping Miss Constance Cameron. His plan is to trade her back to her brother-in-law for the Sword of MacKenna, a sword believed to give the holder power to lead his army to victory. Gordon is a rebel, fighting the English advancement into Scotland, avenging his father's death.

Little does Gordon know, Constance is planning to run away that very night. She is unhappy in England and wants to go back home to America. She plans to sneak away and ride to a ship that's sailing for America, but Gordon catches her and takes her back to his rebel camp.

It's a long, hard ride, and Constance rides with Gordon. She is upset that she finds herself attracted to the Scotsman, and tries that much harder to escape. She knows if she is ransomed back to her brother-in-law her sister will continue trying to marry her off to a nobleman - all she wants is to go home to America.

When the reach the camp, Constance sees it is in disrepair. No one is working together and it's a disaster. After trying to escape, she talks to Gordon and comes to understand his motives and decides she wants to join his cause. She rallies the women and improves the camp, and falls in love with Gordon in the process. He falls in love with her too, and the elephant in the room is what they're going to do when it comes time to trade her for the sword. When the time for the trade came, I was holding my breath!

This was a very enjoyable book. It is actually the third or fourth book in a series, Constance's sisters had the previous books I believe. I liked Constance and Gordon and wanted them to be happy. As each obstacle presented itself, I read on, hoping they would overcome it. I liked the ending and will definitely check out the rest of the series.

Four Dukes and a Devil Anthology

I bought this book because I love Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. I've never heard of the other authors.

Things I love about anthologies:

1. No long, boring back story. You jump right into the action.
2. Good way to "test drive" new-to-me authors.
3. If I hate the story, there are more to choose from.


Things I hate about anthologies:

1. You get into the story and suddenly it's over.
2. You can get characters from a series you're not familiar with.

Four Dukes and a Devil contains five stories. The first story, The Irish Duke, by Cathy Maxwell, was good. A 26-year-old spinster, Susan, starts a business (shocking!) as an advisor for young women in society looking to meet appropriate husbands. One of her selling points is "The Irish Duke" - it's a little known fact that the Irish Duke follow English and Scottish Dukes in order of precidence. The English families are horrified - they didn't know. Of course, she does not mention they are still titled and there are only two in existence. Then, at a dance with her "charges", she comes across a very irate gentleman - the Duke of Killeigh, and Irish Duke. He questions why no one will dance with him and learns Susan is indirectly responsible. He hatches a plan to make her renounce her story and ends up falling in love.

The second story, The Duke Who Came To Dinner, by Elaine Fox, was a contemporary romance that started out with a bang....a naked woman riding down the street on her bicycle! This story had two Dukes -a ghost that was a Duke and a Duke who is actually a dog, specifically the dog who stole the aforementioned clothes! It was a nice story about a normally shy woman who got out of her "comfort zone".

The third story is by Jeaniene Frost - Devil to Pay. Cat and Bones make a brief cameo, Mencheres has a bit more of a part. As you can probably tell from the title, this was the Devil section of the book. Elise is a vampire who is slowly losing touch with humanity. She runs across a man, Blake, who is in some sort of trouble. Turns out the trouble is he's posessed by a demon and the only way to get rid of it is to die; the only problem is that if he's near people the demon will pass to another person. Elise and Mencheres come up with a plan to get rid of the demon, but Elise is falling for Blake and doesn't want him to die. Is there any way to save him?

The fourth story, Catch of the Century, by Sophia Nash, is a historical. Victoria Givan is a 30-year-old spinster governess, traveling with three young charges to a new assignment. She has some difficulties and they end up walking along the side of the road when they are almost run over by a fancy coach. The owner, John Varick, gets out to apologize and ends up offering a ride to Ms. Givan and her charges thinking he's giving her a short ride, until he realizes her destination is 60 miles away! He feels obligated to take them and then deposit them at their destination, but once they arrive it's uninhabitable. He arranges for them to stay at his place, which is nearby, and attraction develops. Mr. Varick has a secret identity that is not revealed until later in the story.

The last story, Charmed by her Smile, by Tracy Anne Warren, is also a historical. I must say this was my favorite story. The young heroine, India Byron, is at a ball and grabs a stranger and implores him to kiss her...she's being hounded by an unwanted suitor and hopes that seeing her kiss someone else will put him off. It works, but she finds herself attracted to the stranger. They part after a second kiss, never to see each other again, so she thinks. A few weeks later she is at a friend's country home for a week, and her unwanted, very persistent suitor is there. He proclaims his love and tells her he will have her. She tells him she is almost engaged to the gentleman he saw her kissing earlier. Then, to her surprise, she runs into the gentleman at the country house! He agrees to her request to pretend to be courting her, then she finds out he's a Duke! Of course, there's attraction, but the Duke is not intersted in marriage and tries to keep his distance. Then, India gets into some trouble. What's a girl to do?

All in all, five very delightful short stories. I am a big fan of Jeaniene Frost but now I've also been introduced to some new-to-me authors and look forward to discovering more of their work.