Harbinger of Books

Lady Aila Graham was destined to become a nun but then her brothers dies in war and becomes heiress to her family lands. Regardless she still believes she will go to the covenant as no man has ever looked at her like a woman. Then attacks begin to occur on her families land and her father arranges a marriage to Padyn MacLaren as he needs soldiers and MacLaren needs Aila’s dowry.
Padyn MacLaren is weary knight who wants only to live in peace and save his lands for his people. He is also weary because he had given his heart to a treacherous woman who did not love him but used him as a pawn. MacLaren decided he would never give his heart to another woman. Then Lord Graham offers his deal, use of MacLaren’s soldiers to stop the attacks on his lands in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage and her very large dowry.

The book is kind of strange and while something’s were interesting a lot of it just did not work for me. For example Aila and MacLaren are married on the same day they see each other and as such their marriage if off to a rocky start. They have issues because Aila is not always forth coming with information and MacLaren does not trust her and treats her a bit harshly. Add to that Aila’s mother who is estranged from Aila’s father..they live in the castle and have not seen each other in like a decade (how is that possible)…anyway Aila’s mother is very harsh and has her own agenda for Aila thus adding to Aila’s problems.

Aila and MacLaren are also separated for about 2/3rds of the story so it made the romance really slow. Let’s be honest I read these stories for the romance. The saving grace is that while they are apart they begin to work out their issues but they don’t fully come together until the end. The other thing that will either work for people or not is all the scripture that is quoted in the book, Aila is a very pious woman so it is not surprising that she would turn to prayer to help her figure things out. While it fit the character because the author chose to write it in Latin then restate it in English I found this to be distracting and pull away from the story.

The writing is good and there is enough action that keeps it moving is what saved the book from a "did not finish" but I really wanted romance and passion. Instead romance took a backseat.