Suzanne Enoch – The Devil Wears Kilts

The first book in the Scandalous Highlander series, published November 26, 2013.
Genre: historical romance
Cover: my book has the small cover, this hardcover picture is a bit boring.



The Price of Passion...
On a mission to rescue his runaway sister from the lure of flowery compliments and a useless lot of satin-clad scalawags disguised by their snooty titles, Ranulf MacLawry, Marquis of Glengask, has roared into British society like a storm across the Scottish Highlands. But he's about to find out that satin has its appeal, especially when it covers the curves of Miss Lady Charlotte Hanover--whose tongue is as sharp as her skin is soft...
...is Pure Pleasure
Lady Charlotte Hanover has had her fill of hot-headed men, having lost her fiancé in an utterly unnecessary duel. When did brawn ever triumph over brains? And yet there is something solid and appealing about the brash Highlander who's as dangerous in the ballroom as in battle. Sometimes bigger really is better... in The Devil Wears Kilts.


I did not read the blurb before I started reading the story, so I was surprised when I discovered the book was not about the runaway spoiled sister, but about Ranulf MacLawry, the Laird himself.
When he arrives in London to take his sister back home, where he can keep her safe, he does not intend to let her stay for a while, but meeting Lady Charlotte Hannover changes things. She doesn’t stand for his brutish behaviour, and challenges him. Ranulf knows nothing can come of it, as his own English mother was so unhappy living in the Highlands, that she took her own life when his father would not allow her to live in London.
And so it is that Rowena will have a few weeks in London, enough to sample the Season, and Ranulf and his men and especially his dogs, will keep her safe. As he does have real enemies, and they are living in London. Clan MacLawry is one of the biggest clans left in the Highlands, one of the few who has not kicked of the crofters to make room for English sheep to graze. Ranulf has done his best to create jobs and business for his people to be able to support themselves. He is a good Laird, and he can’t be away for long, even though two of his brothers are still taking care of things.

Lady Charlotte really enjoys debating with Ranulf, but she won’t accept any violence at all. And so Ranulf, doing his best to stay in Charlottes good graces, has to take the insults his enemies fling at him, when all he wants to do is strike them down. His enemies think this a weakness of him (of course), and grow bolder and bolder, threatening his sister and his younger brother whom has come to London to find out why Ranulf is staying so long in London that he has bought a house there. When someone sets fire to their stables, Charlotte finally realises that there is difference between the totally pointless kind of violence her late fiancé indulged in to soothe his injured pride, and justified violence when a man lives in a dangerous world.

Still, some of Charlotte’s influence is of the good kind. She forces him to try and look at Englishmen other than his enemies, Sassenachs, and he makes amends with his uncle Miles.


I really enjoyed this story, and especially the interaction between Ranulf and his servants/clan members. They don’t kowtow like English servants would, they give him a piece of their minds and they help him protect Rowena.
Charlotte is a strong character, at 25 she is firmly on the shelf, or so she thinks, until she finds out she doesn’t really like to act as her sisters’ chaperone. And Ranulf sure is a pleasure to look at, especially as she herself is taller than most English men and women of her acquaintance.
And then Ranulf, sigh. I would certainly follow him to the Highlands if given the choice! He has had to grow up way too soon when his father was murdered by their neighbours, and his mother took her own life. He had to take care of his younger brothers, his sister, and the clan when he was barely 18. He is strong, and he is a good leader, but he did spoil his sister perhaps too much. But they love each other a lot, and Rowena wants him to be happy. She is very grateful to him for letting her stay in London for a while.

I do want to read about his siblings, and I have the next two books on my shelves I think. I don’t think it will take me long to pick up the next book.

O for those of you who don’t like it, there is a lot of Scottish accent being used, but I think it is well done.

8 stars.

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian