The Laird Takes a Bride: The Penhallow Dynasty: 2

The Laird Takes a Bride is my favourite of the Penhallow Dynasty series. Fiona is so feisty and her romance with Alasdair is a delight to read with all its twists and turns.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first book In the Penhallow Dynasty series it was this one that moved Lisa Berne onto my favorite authors list. We meet a couple, one who is emotionally stagnant due to loss the other rigid and insecure because of betrayal. While they do fall in love, the journey is not without pain and this is where the mastery of this book lies. The author's ability to understand human frailties and put them to paper. As a reader you will feel the heaviness of the character's sentiments which for me required a tissue or two. But rest assured there is the, in my case, mandatory happy ending.The Laird takes a bride is a straight forward love story with no other subplots except a minor parallel love of an older couple, it's exciting enough to hold your interest. I especially appreciated the love\sex scenes are not overly graphic and there are no trigger scenarios. I wholeheartedly recommend this book and advise you to make Lisa Berne an author to follow.

very enjoyable book, full of stubborn pride on both sides, discovering love and confidence in each other.

Alasdair Penhallow is the laird in the title. Since he just turned thirty-five, it turns out there's a rule that he must find a bride or lose all, including his life. Fiona Douglass is an unwilling candidate for his hand according to the rules, but both decide fairly quickly that marriage between them won't do. So Fiona watches the other three candidates vie for Alasdair's favor in a series of Bachelor-type contests.As it turns out, Fiona and Alasdair are married much to their dismay and must find a way to create a real marriage despite issues from their pasts.I just read the first book in this series and enjoyed it, so I moved on to this one which I also liked very much. Ms. Berne has an engaging writing style that makes the reader want to keep going in the book (even when she should turn the light off and go to sleep). I liked both Fiona and Alasdair; they were a good match. I especially liked the way the author treated the beginning of their marriage. There was no instant seduction and grand sex scenes. Instead, we have a blase and perfunctory joining that is solely for the purpose of procreation. Too often I read historical romances where the hero and heroine dislike each other, but are immediately drawn into the throes of passion. I found this a nice change.I was annoyed a bit with the book of rules and the device used for the marriage, but that was a small bother in an otherwise enjoyable read.

Another enjoyable read from this author