This was a little more of a stretch of believability than I prefer, but that doesn't bother lots of people. I liked that the heroine saved the hero sometimes. Overall it was kind of middling though. ( )

Leo is a Sidhe Lord living amongst the humans. When he catches the scent of Ruby from his accounting department he suspects he's found his true mate but she keeps alluding him. With a little help from her friend and a double dog dare, Leo is finally able to get Ruby into his arms. He finally gets her into his bed when a family emergency calls him away and he proceeds to whisk her off with him. A great fairytale and hot sex, with lots of hooks for future stories.
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Taming the Highland Bride
3 Stars

After caring for her drunken father and brothers, Merry Stewart is only too happy to learn that she will be traveling to England to marry her betrothed. Unfortunately, upon her arrival it seems that she has gone from the frying pan into the fire as her fiancé is as inebriated as her family. It soon turns out that Alex is not the drunken sot he appears and that someone if determined not only to cause strife between the married couple but to remove Alex from the equation altogether.

A sweet romance with likable characters. Alex is patient, loyal and understanding although for a supposedly seasoned warrior, he is constantly being knocked unconscious. Merry is charming and not nearly as shrewish as the title implies. She is also a resourceful woman and manages to save Alex more often than not. On a side note, the wedding night scene is reminiscent of that in Amanda Quick’s Seduction but not as cleverly executed.

The mystery has potential but there are too many contrived situations and the villain is obvious. Moreover, Sands has an irritating tendency to set up a particular plot point and then have it drag on for a while before it is resolved.

In sum, a light and easy read but nothing all that special. ( )

I only just discovered Sands' historicals last year. I didn't realize she wrote medievals, only historicals. Since then I've found her novels to be quick, light reads. While this was more of the same, I wasn't quite as satisfied with it.

I think many of the actions of the heroine were supposed to be kind of cutesy but they were kind of dry instead. I wasn't laughing or smiling over her antics as much as I have in the past. I'm not sure if it was my mood while reading or a reflection of the book but there you go. I think the problem might have been that they just went on too long. There were a ton of instances where she had to be clever and find solutions to problems (carting her husband around after he'd been bashed in the head or drugged) and that didn't leave a lot of time for the romance.

Still, it was readable and I enjoyed the main story. I'm also looking forward to the next book. ( )

I usually enjoy Lynsay Sands books, and this was no exception. While still entertaining, a lot of the humor was derived from slapstick situations. By the end I was thinking there was no way this man would survive if he got hit in the head and knocked unconscious one more time.

Overall, this was a fun summer read. ( )