Tome Thursday: The Legend of Lady MacLaoch

Hello everyone!

With the weather having changed (FINALLY) to something a little more manageable in the sense that it's not two hundred degrees outside every time I stick my nose out, I finally feel like I can actually function normally again.

I mean, I like summer, don't get me wrong, but I also like it when it doesn't try to roast me on the spot like it's been trying to do.

But then of course the downside here is that we may not GET any more real summer from now on, which is a bit of a bummer.

You can't have it all!

But maybe you CAN if you're descendant of some ancient Scottish clan or Viking-inspired seafarers, because then you just MIGHT stumble over a curse that's been hanging over someone's head for generations, you CAN try to lift it, and end up living your happily ever after!

Sounds like something you might read more about?

Then I encourage you to pick up The Legend of Lady MacLaoch. It's got all of the above, and more!

Becky Banks isn't an author I knew prior to picking up this book, but I'll admit that I grabbed an ARC copy off Booksirens primarily because, a ) the blurb sounded incredibly interesting since it had an ancient curse that somehow goes forward into modern times, and b ) we're in Droughtlander at the moment, so anything and everything connected to Scotland is basically a win.

You with me here? Yes? Fantastic!

So here it goes.

Back in the 13th century, the Lady of clan MacLaoch gets "kidnapped" by seafarers from a nearby island, and her clan rushes to get her back. They do, ending up killing her "kidnapper" in front of her eyes, and she's married to someone else, according to her duty, but she passes away while giving birth to her son, and in doing so she curses her father and her entire clan because of what they'd done.

See, the whole "kidnapping" wasn't really that. It's a bit like the Rhaegar and Lyanna conundrum in A Song of Ice and Fire, only here we ACTUALLY know what happened, aka that the lady willingly went with her "kidnapper" because they were in love.

So true love was thwarted, and the curse was going to work its way against Clan MacLaod from there on out, basically taking out its chieftains like you wouldn't believe.

And I mean, you wouldn't believe it.

But then once you see the current chieftain serving in the RAF get shot down and almost killed in the middle of nowhere desert, you'll probably believe it.

Meanwhile, our female protagonist, Cole, gives us a bit of a briefing that her family had the shock of their lives when the patriarch explained they weren't ACTUALLY descendants of the man they carry the surname of, because their ancestor married him when she already had children, and this other guy is the one they should focus on eventually.

While the rest of the family pushes it all under a rug like ostriches, Cole is determined to follow up and heads to Scotland to investigate.

The thing here worth mentioning is also that there's a different letter in the surname of her ancestor - or at least she's got a different one. Because the one that the townspeople all sort of balk away from is the one from the seafarers, so the one that caused it all, if you look at it that way.

Naturally, she runs into Rowan, the chieftain, but she's a determined American and she's not going to just turn around and leave because he glowers at her, though she does tuck tail and run one night when they're dancing together (after she's nearly assaulted by his cousin, which leads to a hysterical exchange where Rowan's trying to do the right thing but Cole isn't having it).

It doesn't help they both seem to be getting weird dreams from the past, and connect through the dreams at that.

Not to mention Rowan invites Cole to the Gathering, as his guest, and if you've ever seen an episode of Outlander, you'll know that the Gathering is basically a bunch of festivities and a large get-together of the clan as a whole, with members coming from all over the world and spending time with their "family".

It should be noted here that Rowan has never taken a date to anything ... ever, and that his assistant, Eryka is a woman on a mission to thwart his every plan - quickly characterising herself as the bad guy of the book, right along with Rowan's cousin and uncle. I mean, you'd be pretty hard pressed to miss them, they're fairly obvious.

What's also obvious is that Rowan and Cole share an unusual connection which allows them to feel each other's emotions, but of course things have to get worse before they get better: Rowan almost ends up killed by Eryka and his cousin, but he obviously defeats them, because RAF, duh, and then heads off to grab Cole to get her away safely. They finally sit down and have a proper conversation about everything - the legend, their ancestors, their feelings for each other, the freaky dreams in which they somehow also connect, and the fact that Cole knows things that no outsider should know (because she's being helped from beyond the grave by Lady MacLaoch it should be noted).

This eventually leads to them hand-fasting (and some randy sex, as per Rowan's description LOL) though the bad guys still aren't satisfied.

See, Rowan's uncle is convinced HE'S the descendant to be chieftain, so he kidnaps Cole while she's on a mission with the Secret Keepers, a family who's passed down information about this curse form generation to generation and who know what else needs to be done to finally lift said curse.

It ends up being uncle against cousin (so father against son) and then Rowan arrives and gets himself shot in the shoulder, but a bolt of lightning strikes down the cousin when all the energy converges on the spot. Lady MacLaoch, satisfied that what she hadn't been able to have in her life has now finally come to pass - so a MacLaoch and a seafarer together - and she blesses them both.

Afterwards, Cole moves to Scotland with Rowan, the bad guys (surviving ones, that is) are all arrested, and she finally receives the one surviving photograph of the guy who fled Scotland and changed his surname to escape and start a new life - only it turns out that it was Cole's own family who messed up the surname because it's correct on the back of the picture.

And with that last laugh, Rowan and Cole can get back to planning their wedding (and dealing with her family, of course).

Basically, the story in a nutshell is: 13th century lady of a Scottish clan is abducted by a seafarer, but her clan gets her back, and she ends up cursing her father, the laird, at which point we go to present day when descendants of the lady and the seafarer (both had other children) find each other and fall in love. And naturally, there's the curse, of course, there's machinations because Scottish families, and there's some good ole' Southern charm.

I enjoyed watching Rowan and Nicole interact throughout the book, but I would point out that the first 40% or so is basically exposition and nothing much really happens - it's only after that point that everything picks up speed.

I had a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, especially once the two protagonists started dropping their guard and ended up talking like two civilized adults, which I enjoyed further in the story itself because unlike with so many others, there's actually DEBATE and you get some back-and-forth between the characters.

The bad guys (naturally, there are bad guys, this is Scotland and the clans, and if we've learned anything from Outlander is that there's ALWAYS someone plotting somewhere about something) were a bit like caricatures at times, especially Eryka, who I don't really understand why she was still employed by the clan to begin with since she was useless, but okay.

My personal favourite was the dress maker who helped Cole before the Gathering though - we should have seen that second dress!! 

Overall I thought the idea of the curse, and a sort of modern day Romeo and Juliet story was a solid one and the execution was really good, too. Occasionally, the characters (specifically Nicole) spoke a bit too formally for it being modern, and I'll admit it took me a hot minute to get used to the Scots, but thankfully, as you can tell, I have some experience through Outlander.

The one thing I WILL point out though is that I personally felt there wasn't enough Rowan and Nicole. There was a lot of ground to cover and the curse took precedence over a whole lot, but in all of that the protagonists got kind of lost a little bit, I felt? It ended up feeling a little bit rushed on their part and I would have LOVED a hundred or so pages more just to explore the two of them and their relationship a bit more in-depth. That's the reason I'm docking the one star off my otherwise 5-star review.

I do recommend the book, though!

xx

*images not mine