December 04, 2011

Men in Kilts by Katie MacAlister

Ok so this is a pretty average romance novel. It does have a lot of humor, which I love, but sometimes the characters could just drive me bonkers.

Attending a mystery writer's convention in England, Kathie is wildly distracted by a Scotsman who is there on vacation. Going against everything she usually does, she ends up sleeping with him quite quickly and moving the relationship at a fast speed from there. Delighted with the invitation to go stay with him on his farm in Scotland though, she quickly realizes that there are a lot of potential hazards to overcome. Which includes Archie, Iian's son who isn't fond of his father's new relationship and the interfering Bridget who intends to dig her claws into Iian and doesn't like Kathie's interference. Not sure where she stands with the stoic highlander, Kathie knows she loves him desperately, and just wants his love in return.

So the characters are both funny at the very least. But oh my, Kathie can be a simpering idiot at times and very bad at reading social cues. I would get so exasperated with her when she'd act the complete fool around Iian and wonder what on earth he saw in her. And then there was Iian, he had a bit of a control tendency and really, didn't express himself very well or in kind ways in my opinion. The characters both grow to be a bit better during the book, but sheesh. And Archie, not quite sure what was up with him except to play an obstacle in the book. Bridget I also found quite annoying but since she was the bad guy in the book I guess that's ok. I did like some of the other side characters and thought they were warm and friendly, and I almost enjoyed reading about them rather than Kathie at times.

The plot moves pretty quick thanks to Kathie's lust and love for the Highlander and the romance is kind of whirlwind. Not a bad thing, but I would hope any self respecting woman wouldn't go to Scotland with a man she's only known a few days. Too much danger involved. And the plot did meander a bit, going here and there without rhyme or reason or spending an awful lot of time on one specific thing. I guess I would have liked to see more of a timeline rather than the focus on a few events. The writing was good. And very funny. I enjoyed the banter of the characters and just the other humourous happenstances the characters found themselves in. This is a romance novel, so it should be forewarned that there are quite a few sex scenes in it. But even those had funny touches to them. One of my bigger complaints about the book was that there were quite a few unfinished plot lines that I would have liked more detail about. It just didn't feel complete to me. But hey, at least it involved kilts.

So I enjoyed the writing for the most part but didn't think the book was fabulous. As said before there are some very unfinished plot lines and I truly hope she has a sequel for the book.

Men in Kilts
Copyright 2003
349 pages

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