I loved the characters. ( )

A Scot in the Dark
4 Stars

Another wonderful romance from Sarah MacLean.

Lily and Alec are very appealing despite (or perhaps due to) their flaws. Alec is domineering and overbearing, and Lily is stubborn and willful. Nevertheless, their love/hate banter is witty and their chemistry is off the charts. Moreover, the fact that they are two such lonely souls amongst the spoiled and selfish members of the ton makes their coming together all the sweeter.

The conflict revolving around the painting is compelling and it is very satisfying that Lily plays a significant role in resolving the dilemma as it is always annoying when an independent heroine is relegated to being rescued. The fact that the obnoxious Derek gets his just desserts is also very gratifying.

A couple of minor problems include: 1) the incongruity of Lily's incredible beauty and the fact that she is more or less invisible to those around her, and 2) that fact that Lily and Alec spend far to much time pushing each other away. The whole "I'm not good enough for you" trope gets old after a while.

Sera and Malcom's story is next, and it will be very interesting to see how MacLean can rehabilitate this particular hero considering his actions in the first book. ( )

3.5 stars - this instalment of the series was okay, but not amazing for me. The characters were interesting but I felt the plot/romance lacked something. ( )

Enjoyable. I am intrigued by all the insecurities that romance writers come up with in order to justify why the main characters think the marriage would never work. Sure, there's the standard "ruined", but "too large and beastly", "too intellectual", "secret life of danger or espionage", "my mamma didn't love me", "too scottish", and previous bad behavior seem to be fairly common too. I feel like there's a drinking game here.

I'm glad to see the recurring characters, but my memory is so bad, it's hard to keep track of who has their ever afters and who's still in the marriage market. ( )

The two main characters take a ridiculously long time to come around to some simple realizations, but I suppose there's got to be some tension and drama somehow. And all of us have been extremely slow to grasp something at some point. A couple public embarrassment scenes that will make you cringe if you're sensitive about that. But the characters are pretty likable and it's an enjoyable story. ( )