Review: Highland Lover

Highland Lover
Amanda Scott
Scottish Knights #3
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 2

When Alyson accompanies her new husband Niall Clyne during his voyage she discovers one of the young passengers is the heir to the Scottish throne. Along the coast of England they are quickly overtaken by pirates, the heir is kidnapped, and Alyson is left for dead on the sinking ship by her negligent husband. Enter Jake Maxwell, Scottish knight of the realm and captain of the Sea Wolf. Will rescuing Alyson lead to an epic romance or epic trouble? 

After being thoroughly impressed with the previous book in this trilogy Highland Hero, I was looking forward to continuing the story Scott set before her readers and get to know our Highland Wolf, Jake Maxwell better. All I can say is that what I got in comparison to what I had previously read was a bit of a disappointment. For a book titled Highland Lover there was very little loving going on. The majority of the book is bogged down with details concerning Jamie's kidnapping, the journey to St. Andrews, and the legal ramifications of Alyson's marriage making the overall feel of the book come off dry and drudging. We gets hints throughout the book that Alyson and Jake have a thing for each other, but not much happens until the last quarter of the book. This final installment in the trilogy is still well written, but lacks the captivating spark of the previous book. I kept putting this one down and moving on to a different book. I read chapters in between large sections of other novels in hopes I would finally get into it, but it never really happened. 

For some reason, in the previous book, the Scottish colloquialisms were charming, but in this book they became cumbersome, slowing down the read substantially. Especially when the group sets foot in the English tavern and decides they need to imitate the speech of the locals. Dear lord! I was struggling to get through the dialogue portions at this point and was grateful when a large portion of narration came along. Don't get me wrong, I love me a sexy Scottish accent, but it was just not happening here.

Besides the dryness of the story and lack of any actual "lovers" until near the end, the main plot revolving around the Scottish throne is never resolved. When the story comes to a close, Jamie is still in English hands and Albany appears to be on his way to claiming Scotland for his own. It was almost like Jake and Alyson got their happy ending so *shrugs* oh well! I'm hoping that Scott did this because she is planning on continuing the development of Jamie's plight in another set of novels, and this may very well be, but it still felt unpleasantly abrupt.  Needless to say this is my least favorite installment in the series, but Scott has not lost me yet. I look forward to future Highland romance novels from her matching up to the potential I observed in Highland Hero.

Final In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted over at The Story Siren where we bloggers share our book hauls for the week.  Oh man did I get an amazing haul this week!

This is an update from what was posted here earlier today. I had put this post together and scheduled it before I got the news about The Story Siren and decided to let it go up, but with all the crazyness, I figured I needed to address the situation. I'm sure most if not all of you are aware that Kristi of The Story Siren was caught plagiarizing posts from other blogs.  After all my talk about ethics in the blogosphere and my speaking out against Fifty Shades of Grey and its blatant plagiarism of Twilight, I cannot rightly stand by and support Kristi who can't even make a decent apology about what she's done. There is no tiptoeing around the situation, she plagiarized. She took post ideas and content, sometimes word for word, from other blogs in order to bring more traffic and praise to her own blog. Success based on stealing the hard work of other bloggers is wrong. Therefore I will not be participating in IMM after this week. Thanks to the ladies of Talk Supe, I will be participating in their new book sharing meme Bought, Borrowed, and Bagged or BB&B inspired by JZB's book store in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. I'm very excited to start fresh! So please enjoy my final IMM post, it's a good one!

For Review

Wow! Some awesome indie and big press galleys. I'm very excited to read them all. I know I'm a bit behind on The Immortal Rules band wagon, but better late than never! A nice compelation of genres I think, historical romance, YA paranormal, YA dystopia, fantasy, and some zombies for flavor!

Bought on Ebay

I found an ebay seller who sells gently used paperbacks and offers combined shipping and got these two gems! I've been meaning to read the Downside Ghost's series for awhile now as many of my reader friends have told me it is amazing. Now I can start! I also thought Girl In The Arena looked really good. Kinda like Hunger Games except the main character is fighting to the death against the man who killed her father in the ring on live TV. So Gladiator meets the Hunger Games. It should be good! I paid a total of $7.98.

Won!

 A BDB prize package from Literal Addiction! 

It includes a BDB shot glass, a copy of the Official BDB Insider's Guide by J.R. Ward, and some awesome swag! Thank you so much! Now, since I already have a copy of the Insider's Guide, I will be offering it up as a prize in a future giveaway for one lucky reader to win, but the shot glass is mine! I love it!

Both books in Eve Langlais' Cyborgs: More Than Machines series! Thank you to Danielle at Romance Book Junkies and Eve Langlais for this awesome giveaway! I'm so excited to read these!

So, what was in your mailbox? 

 

Winner of the Spring Fling Blog Hop!

And The Winner Is...

Tanya Campbell Davis!

Congrats Tanya! A notification email has been sent to you. Please claim your prize within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen. 

Hope you enjoy Lover Avenged!

 

Review: The White Oak

The White Oak
Kim White
Imperfect Darkness #1
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:3


Alice's Adventures In Wonderland meets Greek Mythology when Teenager Cora Alexander falls through a sinkhole during her abusive father's funeral and finds herself in the Underworld! Together with her strange and not entirely trustworthy guide, Minotaur, Cora must navigate the Underworld to find her genius brother Lucas. But what's a living girl to do in the land of the dead?

The White Oak suffers from a raw narrative riddled with short, choppy sentences. However, there is an undeniably captivating quality regardless of the overall unpolished feel. From start to finish I was pulled into the strangely wonderful world White has created. The chapters are a reasonable length making it easy to read one chapter at a time during a busy schedule, but you may find it difficult to stop. Cora's surroundings are so unique and fantastic that you will devour many chapters at a time just to see what comes next. Despite its obvious Alice roots, the entire reading experience fondly reminded me of Jim Henson's movie Labyrinth with all the bizarre and fiercely beautiful creatures and locations.

My main problem with The White Oak is that it felt more like half of a book than a whole one. Just as the conflict with Minos began to reveal itself, the story ended. I felt like the moment I began to truly love this tale, it was over and I was left feeling like I had been majorly jipped! There was just not enough actual story and there is no real character development in sight. I never felt like I got a chance to really know Cora as a person. I understand this is going to be a series, but this felt more like a novella companion than an actual first novel in a set. I really would have liked it to be much longer 

Although this book didn't match up to my standards with length and polish, I still can't deny there is something magical about this book. An immense potential lingers in the background showing itself in brief spurts throughout the novel.  I kept waiting for it to reveal itself during my read, but just as I thought, "Yes! Here it is!" the book abruptly ended. Regardless of my disappointments, you can bet I will be reading the next book in this series. This author has the potential to be amazing, and I want to be reading her books when that happens.
 

Thursday's Dirty Little Secret #20

My favorite meme of the week! Dirty Little Secret is hosted by the lovely ladies of Under the Covers. This awesome meme challenges book bloggers to share a new dirty little secret each week.


To participate in the meme all you need to do is:


1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image (code above) and copy instructions.
3. Answer the question we propose! This can be done in any way you like, post a video, write a post etc.
4. Then add your link at Under the Covers


Non-bloggers, leave your answer in the comments! 

This week's question is: 

Who is your favorite flawed hero and/or heroine and why do you still love them despite their faults?

Oh man1 The ladies of Under the Covers have really hit us with a hard one this week, especially since I truly prefer flawed heroes! You all have been hearing me rave about Xcor, my favorite anti-hero with a heart of gold from the BDB books so I think I will give you all something new... When I read Firelight by Kristen Callihan, the descriptions of the Dread Lord Archer had me tingling all over! The anticipation of finding out what he was hiding behind that mask of his was pure delicious torture! So sexy! No spoilers here, but when we do finally find out what he is hiding, it doesn't detract in the slightest from his witty, charming, and heartfelt personality. If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it!

  
So, what's your dirty little secret?

WWW Wednesday #12

Another great meme hosted over at Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Recently Finished

Up Next

 Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave links to your WWW Wednesday in the comments section. I'd love to see what you all are up to! 

 

Teaser Tuesday #14

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Should Be Reading where we book bloggers give you lovely readers a tantalizing taste of whatever it is we are reading right now. To play along:
  
•  Grab your current read
•  Open to a random page
•  Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•  Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week's teaser is:

 Tomorrow Land
Mari Mancusi
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia

 "Leaving Peyton alone had been a stupid, selfish idea. What if that injured Other came back this time with buddies? Not that they were usually very organized, but you never knew."

pg. 46

This has been a really great read so far! Romance +Zombies / YA = Awesomeness

What's your teaser this week?   

Winner of the Hunky Hero Giveaway!

And The Winner Is...

Annie Walls! 

Congrats Annie, you have won a pre-order of Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost! You have been sent an email. Please claim your prize within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen. Thanks everyone for participating!

Spring Fling Blog Hop (US)

  Spring Fling Blog Hop Hosted by  Selena BlakeReading Between the WinesBitten by Paranormal Romance    Spring is finally here and what better way to celebrate than with some fabulous giveaways! I love when you can feel the change in the air, that subtle tinge of warmth and freshness that comes with the advent of spring. Winter had it's own magic and it was wonderful to indulge in favorite hot beverages and snuggling up close with that special someone, but now we are ready for the sun to shine! We are ready to enjoy crisp green foliage and the sweet scent of blooming flowers. Most of all, we are ready to have a sassy spring fling with a good book! Well Wickedly Bookish is here for you and wishes to present:  Wicked Giveaway of:

 Lover AvengedJ.R. WardBlack Dagger Brotherhood #7 One Lucky U.S. follower of Wickedly Bookish will win a Mass Market Paperback edition of Lover Avenged! Who wouldn't want to start off spring with the Brothers? I was lucky enough to acquire a hardback edition for myself at a local used bookstore so I'm giving you the chance to get your hands on my paperback copy. This copy was read once and is still in like new condition. The only way you could tell that this isn't brand spanking new is a tiny little, nearly invisible crease up the middle of the binding. I can feel it with my thumb, but can barely see it unless the light catches it. This will be a great edition to someone's BDB collection! What? You don't already have a BDB collection started? Well here's your chance to start it out with one of the best covers of the series! Look at Rhev just sitting there waiting for you to win him! Giveaway DetailsThis Giveaway is open to U.S. Residents only please as I am mailing it directly from my home and not The Book Depository.
Entries can be gained in a variety of ways as stated in the Rafflecopter. In order to be fair to everyone, all entries will be checked so please be honest! If I find an invalid entry, it will be removed from the giveaway. As following Wickedly Bookish is a mandatory entry, if I do not find your name in my list of followers, all your entries will be removed from the giveaway. I would much rather skip over this stuff and just get to the fun, but it has happened before, so I need to state it all before the entries are collected.   Winners will be chosen within 24 hours of giveaway's end and will be notified by email. If you are a winner, you will be expected to claim your prize within 48 hours of receipt of email or another winner will be chosen.  To Enter:  1. Be a follower of Wickedly Bookish2. Be a US Resident3. Be 18 years old or older4. Fill out the Rafflecopter below5. Make sure to check out the other great giveaways on the Linky below.

In My Mailbox #12

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted over at The Story Siren where we bloggers share our book hauls for the week. 

For Review

 Blackwood by Gwenda Bond
God's War (Bel Dame Apocrypha #1) by Kameron Hurley

Thank you to Netgalley, Nightshade, and Angry Robot for providing me with the galley versions of these titles! I love both the covers and am looking forward to diving into some dark science fiction.


Purchased

The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks From The Apocalypse
Steven Schlozman


I saw this one at Costco on Friday and couldn't pass it up! It seems fairly short, however there is quite an emphasis on the more scientific aspects of the genre. This should prove to be an educational read. :-)

So, what was in your mailbox? 

 

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Miss Peregrine #1
Genre: Science Fiction, YA
Rating: 2

I'm terribly conflicted in my feelings for this book. You see, I was so excited to begin reading. I received this book in a Secret Santa exchange and immediately fell in love with its gorgeous appearance.The hardback version of Miss Peregrine's is stunningly beautiful with its superb dust jacket artwork, inclusion of vintage photographs and letters in each chapter, and smooth, luxurious pages. The publisher succeeded in making the packaging alone worthy of today's high prices. However in the growing cover lust market it seems more focus is being put on making an outwardly beautiful book with less emphasis on the quality of its content. The old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," could not be truer here and ultimately leads to an experience that is downright disappointing.

The intriguing premise along with the deliciously macabre vintage photos makes for perpetually limitless peculiar plot possibilities. Yes, I'm a fan of alliteration. With this seemingly bottomless well of literary wealth, how the hell did Riggs completely miss the mark? Let me explain.

I'm the sort of reader who loves a deeply visceral and emotionally engaging read. The superficial appearance of Miss Peregrine's along with all the sparkling reviews led me to believe my experience would be like this:

When in actuality, It ended up being more like this...

Scary monsters huh? Cool...

So what happened? The storytelling is at first pleasantly creepy and the inclusion of the strange and disturbing photos made it that much better. I anticipated being drawn  in deeper and waited patiently for the core plot to be revealed. To my surprise, and dismay, the actual action/conflict doesn't begin until the last 100 pages! This subsequently led to the author shoving me down a hill and leaving me with brief glimpses of depth as I tumbled toward the end. The first half of the book sets you up and slowly reels you in with cleverly deceptive photographs that never quite pay off and are often awkwardly placed. This ends up slowing the story down considerably rather than enhancing it. The farther I got into the story, the more I cringed each time Riggs planted another photo op. If that wasn't frustrating enough, certain plot twists happen way too late in the story cutting off any actual character development.

Speaking of characters, I enjoyed Jacob's snarky wit and general dry attitude up until he turns into one of the freaking Hardy Boys (with much less sleuthing ability) halfway though. Jacob takes the express route from charmingly cynical to dauntingly featherbrained. I won't go into depth on the shallow secondary characters and their even shallower relationships with Jacob, but yeah... Very unconvincing to say the least. 

The sporadic and often random spurts of gore miss unsettling and go straight to just plain awkward. I don't mind gruesome details, but if you are going to do graphic then be consistent! The majority of the book is spent picnicking, making out with an eighty year old teen, and arguing the pros and cons of terrorizing a sweet little village in a time loop. So when out of the blue disemboweled sheep (and people) appear, the general impression comes off as an afterthought. 

Finally, I have to say...WHERE THE F*** ARE ALL THE CHILDREN? We are tantalized with creepy photographs of the peculiar children from beginning to end and are introduced to barely any of them! This wouldn't have been such a big deal if I had just gotten even a whiff of the disturbing clown faced twins! There are two separate instances where Jacob finds a picture of them and they are just so damn creepy you would think Riggs wouldn't pass up the chance to use them to his advantage. But no! Not even an honorable mention is made throughout the entire book. Some of the more off-the-wall peculiars are a real treat and helped keep me interested, but this fact alone was not enough to save Miss Peregrine's for me. 

The Final Verdict: A promising premise is poorly executed. If only an actual writer had written this...

Authors On Reviews: To Comment Or Not To Comment?

 

A Reading Romances Event

There has been quite a scandal concerning this topic in 2012! With debut authors lashing out at the reviewing community over negative or neutral reviews, it's about time book bloggers got together to discuss the issue in depth. For this event, we as reviewers are all answering the question at the heart of the matter with our honest opinions and experience. 

 Should authors comment on reviews? Why or why not?

In beginning to answer this question, I think it is important to make a distinction between professional behavior and immaturity. Of course I am not going to say authors shouldn't be commenting on reviews of their books! They have every right to reach out to their readers and reviewers. The problem comes when an author is commenting on a negative review and cannot refrain from making childish and unprofessional statements. I can only come to the conclusion that it is better for an author to avoid commenting on a negative review or else risk coming across as petty. I think the first thing you need to be aware of when you put your work out there is that not everyone is going to enjoy it! If a reviewer did not enjoy your book and gives valid reasons for why ti didn't work for them, then you should be able to take that in stride. Many negative reviews can easily be used as constructive criticism to improve your writing for better future works.

I recently found myself to be the target of an author's bruised ego. While perusing my Facebook feed I noticed a post from "the author who will not be named" and after closer inspection realized she was talking about me! Her post stated,

"QUESTION for the GROUP: What do you think of reviewers who offer a scathing review of your work while admitting they didn't finish it? Personally, I think those who DNF a book shouldn't offer an opinion on it. What do you think?"

 Ok, so this is a pretty legitimate question, however the review in question wasn't actually a review. It was a few short sentences on Goodreads describing why I didn't finish. This was mostly a note to myself as I often look back and wonder why I put a book down. I was kinda shocked she described it as scathing when all I said was I couldn't get past the poor quality of writing and I hoped I would enjoy her next book more. I can understand reading "poor quality of writing" and being a bit hurt. What I don't understand is why an author who is trying to break into the biz would then proceed to bash someone like me in the comments section of her post along with one of her buddies. I think we can all  agree that sometimes you just need to vent with a friend to get over something that is eating at you, however I think we can also agree that this is something you do PRIVATELY. An author's fanpage on Facebook is not in any way private. It is unprofessional, immature behavior like this that really gets to me and makes me believe it is better for an author not to comment. 

Behavior like this not only looks bad, but also sets a tone in the reviewing community for the kind of person the author is. The saying, "No publicity is bad publicity," does not apply here.  At the beginning of this year, a reviewer friend of mine on Goodreads wrote a negative review about The Selection which she received an ARC copy of.  Within 24 hours of the review being up, the author's publicity agent got on Twitter and publicly called said reviewer a "bitch" and suggested the author and herself get a group of friends together and like all the positive reviews in order to push the negative ones down. The author agreed. What these two ladies didn't realize was that this particular reviewer is quite beloved in the Goodreads community and thus all hell broke loose. Her review has received hundreds of likes and close to two thousand comments, many vowing to boycott The Selection because of the bad behavior of the publicity agent and author together. Months before the book had even been released, this author had lost many, many possible fans. It just goes to show you this kind of behavior only hurts the author's reputation and sales.

I recently spoke to an author friend of mine about this subject, privately of course. She expressed to me that most authors have a DNR or Do Not Respond policy when it comes to negative reviews. This is to ensure that emotions don't take over. It is better to take what you can get out of it and then move on. 

As book bloggers, we are not considered professionals and we do not get paid for what we do. Often times, we invest quite a bit of our own money in order to keep our blogs up and running with choice content and giveaways. This means we are consumers as well. Consumers of a product have every right to voice their opinions and let others know if it is a worthwhile investment. Books are no different, in fact, they are quite expensive these days! I personally don't want to spend $15 - $20 on a brand new book when I have no idea if I'm going to like it or not. As reviewers, we offer insight on this matter and contrary to popular belief, negative reviews sell books too. There have been quite a few times I've read a negative review and thought, 'Wow, intriguing! I'm interested to see what all the fuss is about!" One element a reviewer didn't like in a book may appeal to another person, and get them to pick up a copy. Negative reviews are not an attack on the author, but an expression of what did and didn't work for that reviewer. Some bloggers chose not to do negative reviews at all, but there are those of us who feel that we need to follow a review request through to the end. It is for this very reason I have laid out my reviewing policies so specifically here and insist authors read these before requesting. If you can't handle the possibility I might not like your book, then this isn't the right blog for you.

I guess what I'm trying to express here is, play nice. You have a right to your personal feelings, and there is no harm in letting a reviewer know you have read their review, but if you don't think you can be an adult about it, then you are better off not saying anything at all. 

To wrap this post up, I would like to say thank you to all the authors I've had the privilege to work with thus far. You have all given me the opportunity to be exposed to your works and expand my blog. I have been very lucky in that I have only had the one bad experience. Christiana Miller, Kristen White, Rhys Astason, Joel T. McGrath, Darcy Town, Lorin Barber, and anyone else I may be forgetting here, thank you all for being so courteous. It has been and still is such a pleasure.

Please feel free to leave your own opinions on this subject in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Thursday's Dirty Little Secret #19

My favorite meme of the week! Dirty Little Secret is hosted by the lovely ladies of Under the Covers. This awesome meme challenges book bloggers to share a new dirty little secret each week.


To participate in the meme all you need to do is:


1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image (code above) and copy instructions.
3. Answer the question we propose! This can be done in any way you like, post a video, write a post etc.
4. Then add your link at Under the Covers


Non-bloggers, leave your answer in the comments! 

This week's question is: 

If you could visit any country with a fictional character as your guide, who would you pick and why?

Normally I have a hard time deciding with these questions but I knew my answer instantly this time. Lestat could take me anywhere he damn well wanted to, but I would love to see France with him. It's the place where he grew up as a human and was changed into a vampire. He knows practically everything about the place from its monarchy days to its reformation. My favorite charmingly arrogant vampire would know the best sights to see and all those miraculous hidden secrets most tourists would never know existed. Yes, Lestat my love, let's go to Paris!

So, what's your dirty little secret?

Review: Scotsmen Prefer Blondes

Scotsmen Prefer Blondes
Sara Ramsey
Muses of Mayfair #2
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating:

Amelia, a spinster at 27 is secretly a published author. In order to pursue her dreams, she vowed never to marry. However when Amelia agreed to accompany her dear friend, Prudence to meet her potential fiance, she never expected to become the object of Lord Carnach's desire. In an unfortunate turn of events, Amelia finds herself in a tenuous situation. Marry Lord Carnach or be ruined in the eyes of the ton. Either way she has earned the ire of Prudence who is one of the three people who know Amelia's scandalous literary secret. 

Malcolm is a Scottish laird who desperately wants to save his clan and their home in the Highlands by joining the House of Lords. He seeks an obedient and simple wife in Prudence to help him reach his political aspirations without scandal.  However when he lays eyes on Amelia, he can't deny the magnetic attraction he feels towards her. Will he be able to tame her into the wife he needs or will their passion consume them both?

While I ate the majority of this book up there were a few things about it that irked me. After tearing through the first half like a mad woman, I started to notice a continuing pattern that at first presents an interesting twist to Malcolm and Amelia's romance, but becomes frustrating after the fourth or so repetition. The whole basis of this book's plot is that Amelia never wanted to be married, but now that she is, she is altogether the wrong kind of wife for Malcolm's political career. I very much enjoy the premise of an unlikely pair finding love and understand that this requires quite a bit of back and forth, "I love him, I hate him." However, instead of feelings and complications evolving over time, the two characters are stuck with the same issues throughout the entire book.  Plus, they spend very little time actually considering their situation and substituting actual relationship building for loads and loads of sex. It sort of goes like this...

Malcolm: Are you going to behave woman?
Amelia: Are you going to force me into subservience so that I will have no time to write my...letters?
Malcolm: (Gets distracted by her breasts) Um... letters? What could you possibly be writing to people about!? 
Amelia: You know... stuff, the Highlands, London stuff...
Malcolm: (Still distracted by her breasts) There's something she's not telling me... Oh well! Bend over darling!

Obviously that's only my abbreviated version of events, but you get the idea. This sort of thing happens over and over again. After half of the book I felt like the romance just wasn't developing and they were trading sex for avoidance of the real issues. Finally at 2/3 of the way through, it has to actually be stated point blank, "I think I'm in love with him/her" by each of them internally in order for you to get the gist that all this bumping and grinding hasn't been for nothing. I feel if the emotional side of the romance was better developed earlier on in the story, this would have been an excellent read for me. 

As it stands, this was still a good read, much better than many of the historical romance I've been indulging in lately. I enjoyed the premise of Amelia, who was determined for spinsterhood, lands herself in a marry or be ruined situation. The irony that she is stuck in a situation she would have written for one of her heroines was attractive and I loved reading about how the Highlands and Malcolm were inspiring her to be a better writer. Even though I didn't enjoy the constant back and forth I did appreciate the fact that there were no easy answers here. Everything doesn't magically fall into place and work out in the end. The characters have to work for their goals. 

Overall, I felt Scotsmen Prefer Blondes is an enjoyable read read for lovers of the genre and will likely charm less picky readers.