When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

When a Scot Ties the Knot (Castles Ever After, #3)

by Tessa Dare

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shy, pretty, and talented with a drawing pencil, but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: she invented a sweetheart. A Scottish sweetheart. One who was handsome and honorable and devoted to her, but conveniently never around. Maddie poured her heart into writing the imaginary Captain MacKenzie letter after letter ...and by pretending to be devastated when he was (not really) killed in battle, she managed to avoid the pressures of London society entirely. Until years later, when this kilted Highland lover of her imaginings shows up in the flesh. The real Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives on her doorstep-handsome as anything, but not entirely honorable. He's wounded, jaded, in possession of her letters ...and ready to make good on every promise Maddie never expected to keep.

Reviewed by Rowena on

5 of 5 stars

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Tessa Dare strikes again!

I knew that I was going to enjoy this one and I wasn’t disappointed. Tessa Dare delivers yet another historical romance that touched my heart, made me laugh and made fall in love with both the hero and the heroine. She’s proven time and time again that she deserves to be on my auto-buy list and she proved it yet again with this one.

Miss Madeline Gracechurch is shy. Painfully shy. So much so that being in a crowd gives her anxiety and when she’s of age to come out and have her season, she’s terrified. She doesn’t like attention and being in crowds makes her want to vomit so it doesn’t come as a surprise that she lies to get out of attending balls and participate in her season. The lie? Oh, only that she already met the man of her dreams, her future husband, Captain Logan MacKenzie but he’s fighting in the war so she can’t marry him right now. She’s going to wait for him. To keep up pretenses, Madeline starts writing letters to Captain Logan MacKenzie and what started off as something to get people off her back turns into a huge lie that goes on for years. The lie gets to big that it takes on a life of its own. She gets a castle for her efforts in keeping up the charade but when Captain Logan Mackenzie shows up at her castle door and wants to make good on the promises they made to each other…Madeline is confused and terrified at the same time.

Captain Logan Mackenzie has waited years to find out who the lying Miss Gracechurch is. He pictured her as a plain, bratty young woman but the woman he was expecting was not the woman he got. Even though he’s never laid eyes on this woman, she’s got something he wants and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it.

Including marrying the lying little wench.

Being in the army wasn’t easy for Logan and it wasn’t easy for the men that he led into battle. Everything that they were promised upon their return to their home of Scotland was not waiting for them after the war and in an effort to take care of his men, he takes them to Madeline’s castle and takes up residence.

Seeing these two battle wits at the same time that they were battling their own battles made for an entertaining read. I loved seeing Madeline and Logan come together. It wasn’t love at first sight. Their love grew over time and overcame a whole lot of obstacles and I enjoyed every minute of their story. Their romance was fun and steamy and everything I’ve come to love from Tessa Dare’s books and I just really liked it all.

I loved both Logan and Madeline but I also loved the secondary characters as well. Madeline’s Aunt was great fun and so was Logan’s men. They were all fleshed out characters that stood out and they were fun to get to know. I’m really thirsty for more from this series and I hope we’ll get some more. This series is great!

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 August, 2015: Finished reading
  • 8 August, 2015: Reviewed