Tuesday, January 7, 2020

BOOK REVIEW for "Some Like it Plaid" by Angela Quarles


Some Like it Plaid
by Angela Quarles
Genre: Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Published: November 18th, 2019 
Published by: Entangled: Amara

SUMMARY

When Ashley Miller sees a Craigslist ad for an all-expense paid vacation to Scotland with a handsome Highland “escort”, she’s all over it. Worn out from working two jobs to pay off the debts her scam artist ex-husband left her with, she just needs a friggin’ break already. Rolling, misty mountains of the Scottish Highlands, here she comes!

But one minute she’s sipping a latte and the next she’s zapped to the 2nd century and promptly informed she’s managed to wed her handsome Highlander without even an “I do.” Oh, hell no.

After a devastating tragedy, Connall’s tribe is left with few marriageable women. When his Druid priest suggests a place filled with bonnie lasses, he of course agrees to go fetch one for himself. But nothing prepared Connall for his sassy new wife, nor his tribe for a woman determined to see equal rights for all women.

Now the men are threatening revolt if he can’t rein his young wife in, but it might be too late. The women are demanding the men get “woke”—which of course makes no sense because they already woke that morn—and give women “the vote,” whatever the bloody hell that is. Despite all that, Connall can’t stop wanting to convince his wife to get naked, and he’s starting to wonder if he’s been bewitched.

Only the more he gets to know her, the more he starts to think she’s just what they needed. If only he survives her next demand...

~ BOOK REVIEW for Some Like it Plaid ~

*****(3) out of 5 Stars!

Granted, historical romance is not typically my thing, but I've read and enjoyed other things by Angela Quarles.  (In fact, her Stolen Moments series is one of my all-time favorites!)  So I thought I would give this book a try.  It was... okay.  Not great, not horrible, just okay.  

The first ten percent or so is the backstory, concerned with explaining to the reader how and why Connall ends up traveling from ancient Scotland to present-day New York City.  It's a bit confusing at first, but things fairly quickly fall into place so that we become aware of what is going on.  Both Connall and Ashley adapt remarkably well to their new surroundings, although he does a bit better than her at accepting things as they are.  

Lack of communication between the two creates a myriad of problems along the way, as they get to know one another and deal with the various issues of life in a archaic environment.  The biggest issue is that both have feelings for each other that they are unwilling to express, and expectations that they don't bother to explore.  Ashley ended up in a much better situation - regardless of how primitive it was - than she was experiencing in her own time.  And (although I totally agreed with her), I found it absolutely absurd that Ashley would expect Connall to change everything about his entire society to suit her 21st Century viewpoints.  But Connall expecting her to fit right in to his lifestyle after having seen what she was used to was nearly as bizarre.  I did like the eventual compromise that they came to, but it was certainly hard won.  

The one real love scene between them was pretty spicy, and some of the other love scenes were equally intense.  The interactions between these two were a bit flat and sometimes seemed kind of forced.  Still, you couldn't help rooting for them to realize and delcare their love for one another.  When they finally did, the writing was a bit sappy, but the sentiment was delightful.  

The peripheral characters were interesting and a lot of the side action was intriguing.  There was mention of several characters who story archs were never fleshed out much, leading me to believe that this may be the first of a series with more episodes to come.  I'd be interested in checking those out to see where things go from here.  

I received a free eBook copy of this title from NetGalley, 
and have willingly provided an honest review. 

#SomeLikeItPlaid

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