Ilze

Bought this mainly because Anne Gracie has a story in it. I'll add ratings for the stories as I read them, in descending order of enjoyment.

Sandy Blair's "Her MacKinnon" - the soul of a laird murdered 500 years ago re-enters his drunken slob descendant's body in a car accident. Perfection. 5 stars.

Connie Brockway's "The Laird's French Bride" - a young girl arrives from France, where she has grown up, to check out her fiance, who she hasn't yet met in person, in Scotland. Excellent story, well-realized characters. And there's a dog in the story! 4.5 stars.

Jackie Barbosa's "The Reiver" - a reiver (thief) is captured while raiding laird Maxwell's cattle and turns out to be a girl. Lovely story. 4 stars.

Anne Gracie's "The Laird's Vow" - a laird has to marry real fast to keep his uncle from squandering his inheritance, so he vows to marry the first single woman he sees, who happens to be a bedraggled shepherd he literally drags out of a bog. The wedding section was very similar to the wedding section in "The Perfect Stranger" (i.e. a recycled version of that section but I guess that's OK since Gracie wrote the original one). Nice. 3.5 stars.

Marta Acosta's "Wolfish in Sheep's Clothing" - contemporary - an "American" woman (who uses anglicisms like "lotto" and "jumper"?) is traveling in Scotland and meets a perfect-10 Scotsman who just happens to be unattached. As if. But a fun read nevertheless. 3.5 stars.

Julianne Maclean's "The Rebel" - a girl disguises herself as an English soldier in a battle with Scottish highlanders and is captured by one. Quite nice - 3 stars.

Terri Brisbin's "Kidnapping the Laird" - a woman kidnaps her husband to convince him to change his philandering ways. Silly but kind of cute. 3 stars.

Jacquie D'Alessandro's "At Last" - a grieving widow has a summer fling in Scotland with a much younger man, neither of them revealing their true identity. Great setup, but too much drama for the short format. 2.5 stars.

Susan Sizemore's "The Curse of Wolf Crag" - a woman returns fom Glasgow to her native island to marry a werewolf. Cute, but the Greek and Celtic and Nordic mythological elements are something of a hodge-podge. 2.5 stars.

Kimberley Killion's "His Magick Touch" - a woman is shoved over the edge of a cliff by her husband and is rescued by a man who has loved her since childhood. Intense, interesting atmosphere, but violent and weird (lots of paranormal stuff, which I'm not into). 2 stars.

Leah Marie Brown's "After the Gloaming" - a woman spurned and accidentally killed by her lover is cursed to be a banshee for almost 500 years until she finds someone who loves her. Weird mix of contemporary love story and Scottish ghost story that doesn't work that well, even though it has a lovely deerhound. 2 stars.

Heather McCollum's "Highland Heart" - ai, ai, ai - just a long list of "Scottish romance" cliches strung together. Totally over the top - 1 star.

Jackie Ivie's "Forever Knight" - could not finish because it was impossible to understand - 1 star.

Annette Blair's "Kissingate Magic" - completely incoherent - 1 star.