Lord Keeper

by Tarah Scott

[Cocktails and Books]

Victoria Hockley flees her brother-in-law by seeking sanctuary at a church. As she is walking the outside of the church she wanders from holy ground and is abruptly taken by Iain McPherson. Iain is acting on an old edict that allows taking someone if they are not on holy ground. This sounded so romantic to me when I read the blurb for the book, but there was no buildup to the relationship between Victoria and Iain before or after she was taken. Their relationship was awkward and choppy. It never seemed to be a flow from meeting to actually developing a love for each other. Even when Iain finally told Victoria that he loved her it was at the very end and everything had already been resolved by then. I never felt that there was chemistry between the two of them. I never felt like I was drawn into their story and became vested in their happiness. I just muddled through it.

The female lead character, Victoria Hockley, was independent and wickedly smart. I loved that the author allowed this woman in a historic romance to be well versed in math and science. Better still the character was able to solve an engineering dilemma that evaded the men. However, I just didn’t follow the development of this character. One moment she was fighting a former mistress, and the next she was playing childish games by withholding her name. Her actions were so disjointed I just couldn’t get vested in this character.

The male lead character, Iain McPherson, had a boat load of issues. He had daddy issues in every way possible. Unfortunately, the way the author unfolded the issues was so repetitive and convoluted that I lost interest. I don’t know how many times Iain’s character rehearsed the lines that amounted to “I don’t want to be like my father”. It made him seem whiny. He was an otherwise good guy, but this killed the alpha male thing for me.

I love Tarah Scott’s romance novels, but this one is not her best. The story was choppy and didn’t flow well. The characters weren’t well developed and bordered on irritating. I have read previous works, and I am still a Tarah Scott fan. I will continue to read her novels. She is a great novelist.

Reviewed by Michelle for Cocktails and Books