When the Laird Returns (Book Two of The Highland Lords) [Mass Market Paperback]

Alisdair MacRae has arrived, for the first time, in Scotland as an adult. His family had fled their former Highland estate prior to his birth. Alisdair wants to see his birthright, Gilmuir castle with it's surrounding lands, and falls in love with it. The castle had been partially destroyed when his family had been forced to flee Scotland but Alisdair finds that a large portion of it has been systematically dismantled. Although the MacRaes no longer occupied their former Scotland home, the land and castle remains still belong to Alisdair. In addition, Alisdair finds sheep grazing on his land and orders the shepherd and his sheep off his land. He begins looking for the man who is apparently using his land as his own and finds the dreaded villain in this book, Magnus Drummond. Magnus has claimed the lands as his own and has apparently obtained legal ownership. Alisdair is a wealthy successful ship builder and decides not to fight Magnus and agrees to pay him an unbelievable sum for his own birthright. But Magnus has a further provision for Alisdair's purchase of this property. Alisdair must also wed Magnus's daughter, Iseabal.

Iseabal is a free spirited woman who lives in the shadow of constant fear of her father. Her times of running free for a day across the Scottish highlands must be kept from her father. Although she doesn't escape her father's oppressive treatment often, she lives to relish the few times she is able to wander among the beautiful highlands around her. Her father sees her as nothing special and believes her to be totally biddable. When Alisdair realizes whom he will be marrying to obtain his birthright (he had seen her earlier in the castle ruins of Gilmuir), he considers her to be somewhat of an empty being - certainly no one he would be attracted to. Iseabal accepts her marriage sensibly. Once she leaves the island with Alisdair, he informs her that he will obtain an annulment of their marriage once he reaches England. Of course, he will support her in some manner. He refuses to bed her - nothing will come between him and his determination to have the marriage annulled. He doesn't really care about the future he is forcing upon Iseabal or rather he doesn't really think about the ramifications upon her life his determined annulment will cause.

During the voyage to England, Alisdair begins to see beautiful qualities in his unwanted wife. Iseabal, in return, sees in Alisdair a man she could be happy with. Their relationship tenderly begins to evolve into something more than a forced marriage. Alisdair stays committed to the idea of the annulment but finds it harder and harder to find his reasons for it.

Alisdair is a nicely written hero with a capacity to love before the end of the book (we often don't get to see this in romance writing until the end of the book). He has all those hero like masculine attractions we want to see in a male lead. We discover he is a very considerate and understanding man. Iseabal eventually convinces us, as the readers, that she has a desirable personality and strength of character. Their relationship has some great moments but then the last half of the book falls into some sort of hole. I never regained my interest in the happenings once I passed the mid-point.

Magnus is a horrible villain - so awful that you cringe thinking about all of the despicable things he will do before the book ends. He is just too mean. Alisdair remains consistently likable and loyal throughout the story. Iseabal, however, sinks into some pretty ridiculous behavior that makes no sense during the last half of the book. I won't attempt to explain her convoluted thinking because I don't think we, as readers, can understand it.

The last third of the book found me skimming page after page as THE BIG MISUNDERSTANDING plays itself out. The book became predictable, hellish, and boring the closer it approached the end. Even the love scenes were boring in the good parts of the book. There were pages and pages of description of these sensual scenes that were so artistically yet vaguely described, that you totally lost track of when he had even kissed her. The sensual scenes rate about a 3.0 to a 3.5 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines).

This is not a book I will keep to read again. It had some great possibilities but got lost in subplots and secondary characters and THE BIG MISUNDERSTANDING. There was some great interaction between the leads that was highly enjoyable during the first half of the book. I was so disappointed in the last half of the book because the first half had been extremely promising,

Iseabal has escaped a life of terror when she marries Alisdair. She is sold to him with his families land by her nasty father. Alisdar is not sure how a marriage will help him since his dream is to build the fastest boat on the high seas.

Together they find out how important love is to life. Alisdair has come to England to turn down the Earldom and return to Nova Scotia. While in England he finds out that he can do more for his family and his new wife at the same time follow his dreams if he accepts the Earldom. He does this and then heads back to Scotland his souls home and sets out to fulfill his dreams along side the most important person in the world to him his new wife Iseabal. But something happens before that tests both Alisdar and Iseabal.

Of course the path of true love has many bumps and twists and this story is no different. Set in both Scotand and England there is plenty of love and emotion in this book.