Secondary to the relationship between Liadain and Declan is the assassination conspiracy that serves as the story’s central conflict fans of “V for Vendetta” will appreciate Roberts’ allusion to Guy Fawkes. It was arguably the weirdest scene in the novel and intended to be a bonding moment between them, but really, an ass rash is hilarious and Liadain’s awkwardness made the moment memorable. In truth, the relationship between Declan and Liadain is one of the novel’s redeeming qualities at certain moments, the couple is adorable in a kind of ridiculous way, particularly when Liadain must apply a mud salve to Declan’s bare “arse” after he falls into a pile of nettles. “Ye donna realize how truly painful that was for me,” Declan jokes after he admits something civil to Liadain. Tartan and haggis and ale for everyone.īut as aforementioned, their unsurprising love story is not what captured my attention I was immersed by their conversations, which are a cacophonous hodge-podge of 17th century Scottish brogue, the occasional foray into Gaelic and modern turns of phrase. ” From this point, the story is predictable. We know they dig each other because Roberts shoves their sexual tension into her audience’s face with quality descriptions like, “She wore a gold-colored gown that clung to her curves in all the right places” and “His fingers gently rubbed her. She bonds with Declan, her kilted bodyguard, over long walks in the garden and their mutual attraction. She hates the stuffy pretenses of the court and also wants to return to the Highlands, because this makes her character unique and unconventional, or something. Liadain is a healer whose life is spared after she helps the MacGregor sisters escape. But after Archie Campbell, an enemy of the MacGregors, is killed following his attempt to take the king’s throne, Declan is assigned the role of escorting his dead enemy’s sister to court. We begin the story with Declan MacGregor, a Scottish manly man hailing from the Highlands, whose two main concerns in life are women and drink. It has decently developed characters and a good sense of humor, and while the plot is full of incongruous dialogue, repetitive phrases and overabundance of clichés, it manages to be entertaining in its absurdity-and oh, is it absurd.

I was surprised because “X Marks the Scot” toes the line between a trashy romance novel and an unlikely love story. Not for its sex scenes, of which none occur until halfway through the story, and not for its role in the larger Scottish romance genre, which is actually a thing. I expected smut set in Scotland-nothing more, nothing less. I was sorting through new releases for a book to review this issue when Victoria Roberts’ romance novel “ X Marks the Scot” captured my attention with its cover art ( Fabio in a kilt) and its horrendous title (is he a Scottish pirate?).

X Marks the Scot by Victoria Roberts