The Scot Beds His Wife (Victorian Rebels #5) by Kerrigan Byrne

The Scot Beds His Wife is the 5th instalment of Kerrigan Byrne’s Victorian Rebels series. Samantha has had a difficult life growing up an orphan in America’s Wild West. Sam rushes into marriage with Bennett Masters. She hopes to escape her foster parents plan of marriage to an already married, old man. Unfortunately, Bennett and his two brothers are train robbers. Sam has little choice but to help them.

Sam is forced to kill her husband during a train robbery to save the life of Alison Ross. Alison is travelling back to her birthplace of Erradale in the Scottish Highlands to stop Gavin St. James, Earl of Thorne, from claiming it. Grateful to Sam for saving her life, Alison encourages Sam to flee to Scotland in her place. Her only condition being, that none of the Mackenzie’s can take over Erradale.

Gavin St. James, Earl of Thorne refuses to be beholden to the Laird Mackenzie. He is seeking to emancipate himself from his clan. His father was a cruel violent man and Gavin refuses to be associated with his memory. He is estranged from his brother, the current Laird Mackenzie, “the Demon Highlander.”

Gavin is delighted that “Alison Ross” is returning to Scotland. He hopes she will be swayed into turning her land over to him. Little does he realise that “Alsion” is no retiring miss. She is a gun tooting, foul-mouthed hellion who has no interest in being seduced.

I haven’t read the other books from this series but the author describes previous events so well that you don’t get lost. I find it difficult to review this book. There were elements I enjoyed, the descriptive writing was excellent. I could picture the Scottish Highlands I could imagine myself in that setting. There were several things that detracted from the story.

A major thing for me was the amount of swearing, particularly by the heroine. Now I’m not one to shy away from swearing but it did not fit the historical setting. I am also a native Irish speaker and to me, it’s obvious the author used google translate. “Bealtaine” is the translation for May ( the month) it’s not what the author intended it to be. While the story started and ended well, I felt it lagged in the middle. It was too drawn out.

I am interested in the hints given about Callum and Alison Ross and I look forward to reading their story.