“Wouldn’t It Be Scottish?” was written by Sara Bennett and
is the third book in “The Mackenzies Take London” series. The book tells of
Donal, who goes to London to attempt to persuade his love, Mary, to come back
to him. While there, he teams up with Agatha, who is attempting to do the same
with her love, Richard. To make their loves jealous, Agatha and Donal form a
fake relationship, and both find they are falling for the other.
The book features the tropes of a fake relationship and
forced proximity. These tropes propel the book forward and are the driving
forces that allow the story to work. There are a few sex scenes in the book. As
such, readers should be advised.
It was fun to see how the plot unfolded and the various
secrets became known. There were times when not knowing the secrets was
frustrating, but the timing of their reveal made a lot of sense when they
became known. It is obvious that Bennett had an outline of where she wanted the
story to go, and the hints at secrets keep readers invested for the journey.
The writing itself was a bit boring at points throughout the
book, and there were a few punctuation and grammar errors towards the end.
However, the need to see how things unfolded motivated me to keep going.
There are two other books that precede this book. While I
have not read the other books, I still felt like I was able to follow along
with what was happening. I do wonder if the previous books talk about Donal’s
brothers and the scandals that they went through. These were not super
important plot points for this specific story, but it would have been nice to
have that context so I could follow when the scandals were mentioned and Donal
was compared to his brothers.
Even though this book takes place in the 1800s, there are
themes of strong women. Throughout the book, Donal sought Agatha’s consent for their
sexual encounters. Other female characters took the lead on various aspects of
their relationships as well, and led their men in different ways. This is a
cool thing to see in historical romance.
Overall, this book was decent and fine. I was not particularly
“wowed,” but the secrets that were mentioned kept me interested in reading until
the end. The ending was predictable for the most part, but the secret reveal was
so sweet. I am confused about what the title means in relation to what took place
in the book.