HIGHLANDER IN HER BED

Author: Allie Mackay ISBN: 0451219813 11/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: NAL/SIGNET

A self-employed-tour guide, Mara is weary from leading her charges all over London. So she takes a breather at an antique shop—and, spots perhaps the handsomest bed ever. Then she bumps into the handsomest man ever. He has a sexy Scottish burr, a fiery gaze, and a chip on his muscular shoulder. And despite a spat, Mara can't fight her yearning for the irresistible Highlander. Then she learns that she's inherited a Scottish castle, and the stipulations she must meet in order to keep her unexpected windfall will help her banish the hottie Scottie from her mind . . . she hopes. As a ghost, Sir Alexander Douglas has hated the name MacDougall for ages. Once a medieval knight betrothed to a stranger, he fell victim to her beau, a MacDougall, who tricked him into a curse that he would forever haunt the bed intended for his would-be bride. Now Alexander will stop at nothing to keep the magnificent four-poster out of MacDougall—or McDougall—hands. But when Mara buys the bed for her castle, he reckons she's nothing like his enemy. After all, no other MacDougall ever made him burn with passion and long for the one thing he never never knew he missed: love.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

All Mara wants is a little break, a respite from the bunch of wackos she has been touring all over creation looking for ghosts. Her need for a respite drops her off neatly at a quaint little antique shop in London, where she is completely enthralled with a beautiful antique bed that is in a back room.

Upon taking a closer look at the bed, she encounters quite possibly the rudest man ever to walk the face of the earth. He is unbearable and arrogant to a fault and he keeps making inappropriate comments about her family lineage—as if he knows anything about her family!! Just as she is about to turn around and rip Mr. Crankypants a new one, he seems to have disappeared into thin air. Mara quickly decides that she is better off not having to be bothered again by such an unpleasant man and goes about her day, but he is still in the back of her mind for some odd reason—just who is the handsome man with the bad attitude?

When an opportunity arises for Mara to inherit a castle in Scotland, she takes up residency and then decides that she absolutely has to have "her" bed, never realizing that she is getting a lot more than just a bed in the deal.

Alexander Douglas is possibly the most unpleasant man ever to walk the earth, with good reason. He has been cursed and has had his good name tarnished, and he has waited centuries to bring honor back to his name and avenge his murder. Well, now, hundreds of years later, a hated MacDougall has once again taken possession of "his" bed—one he swore he would haunt so that the MacDougalls could never own it. His biggest problem is not just that a Macdougall has taken residency in her old family estate or that she now owns his bed, it is that he is entirely too attracted to this wench for his own good.

Mara and Alexander are absolutely the most phenomenal couple. She is bullheaded and stubborn, he is cranky and prideful, and they fit perfectly together. They have a great charisma, a chemistry that heats up the pages. HIGHLANDER IN HER BED is a wonderful book, a story of knights in shining armor and damsels in distress that will have every romantic sighing wistfully.

Kristal Gorman