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To Catch a Highlander (The MacLean Curse Series), by Karen Hawkins
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In this sizzling romantic adventure, a daring Highland lass plays a high-stakes game to keep the home she loves...but ends up losing her heart instead.
When her father gambles away the family estate to darkly dangerous Lord Dougal MacLean, Sophia MacFarlane is determined to use her wiles to regain it. Forced to stake the one thing she has left -- her virtue -- she desperately hopes her skill can limit her losses to a few kisses...no matter how hotly tempting Dougal turns out to be.
Dougal MacLean knows that Sophia has some trick up her sleeve, but he can't resist the challenge -- or her ravishing beauty. So when she proposes a card game with most unusual stakes, Dougal is delighted to accept. But as the game ends, Dougal and Sophia discover they've wagered something even more precious -- their hearts.
- Sales Rank: #700482 in Books
- Brand: Pocket Books
- Published on: 2008-01-22
- Released on: 2008-01-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.75" h x 1.00" w x 4.19" l, .40 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 368 pages
- Great product!
About the Author
Karen Hawkins is a USA TODAY and New York Times bestselling author of some of the funniest and freshest fairytale-based Scottish romances. When not stalking hot Australian actors, getting kicked out of West Virginia thanks to the antics of her extended family, or adding to her considerable shoe collection, Karen is getting chocolate on her keyboard while writing her next delightfully fun and sexy historical romance!
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
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Chapter 1
Och, me lassies! The fun ye'll have when ye've a man of yer own to torment!
- Old Woman Nora from Loch Lomond to her three wee granddaughters one cold evening
You lost everything?" Sophia MacFarlane's voice cracked on the last word.
Robert MacFarlane, known as "Red" to his daughter and his gambling companions, winced. "Aye, lass. I -- I lost it all."
Sophia sank into her chair, her face ashen. "Even...even the house?"
Red swallowed with difficulty. He'd always thought it best to get bad news out fast, but looking at his daughter's quivering bottom lip, he questioned his own advice.
Her wide, light blue eyes and thick lashes were wet with unshed tears. "But how? You were to go to Edinburgh and sell Mother's diamonds for the new roof. How did you end up in a game of chance?"
"I stopped in Stirling, though now I wish to God I hadn't. I'd heard on the road that there was to be a race between the fastest horses in England. At first, I just thought to watch, but Andrew MacGregor was there, and -- "
Sophia's lips twisted. "MacGregor has always been trouble."
"Psht. 'Tis my own bloody fault and no one else's. Lass, I only thought to help you -- "
"Help me? By losing the house that I love?"
"I didn't plan it that way!" Distress poured through his voice. "I thought if I could win just once, I could pay for the repairs on the roof, and you wouldn't be forced to sell your mother's diamond set." His brow lowered. "I didn't like the idea of selling it to begin with."
She pressed her fists to her forehead. "I told you I didn't care a feather for the diamonds. I only wanted the roof fixed!"
He set his jaw. "Beatrice wished you to wear those diamonds when you married, just as she wore them when I married her."
Sophia's eyes flashed. "Once the roof began to leak, Mama would have been the first to say the diamonds had to go."
Red reluctantly admitted to himself that Sophie was right. Except when she was caught up in a challenge, Beatrice had been the pinnacle of solid common sense -- despite growing up in one of the largest manor houses in Scotland, surrounded by servants with nothing to do but spoil her rotten and do her thinking for her.
But Beatrice was not the sort of woman to let others do for her what she could easily do for herself. She was strong and independent, character traits her own father had deplored.
Every time she had attempted to act on her own, her father would furiously clamp down on her freedoms. Back and forth the two went -- until, at the tender age of seventeen, Beatrice had kicked off the family traces and eloped with an unknown adventurer named Robert MacFarlane.
It had been the greatest stroke of luck Red had ever experienced, and it had changed him forever. Life before Beatrice was exciting, but life with Beatrice was exciting and warm and damned near perfect. She made every inn, no matter how sordid and cold, feel like home. In return, Red filled her life with excitement and romance and love. Not once had either of them regretted their impulsive marriage.
Red wished for the millionth time that Beatrice were still with him today. "Sophie, I just couldn't let your mama's diamonds go without a fight. I meant no harm, but now...I've lost it all." He swiped at his eyes angrily. "But I'll find a way to fix this, see if I don't!"
Sophia's expression softened as she took his hand between hers. "We'll just have to think of a way out of this mess." She sat silently, her brows knitted.
Red looked at her hopefully. If anyone could think of a way out of this mess, it was Sophie. She'd do it; he knew she would. He watched her face, noting how the sun gleamed through the curtains to gild her already golden curls. The light warmed her skin to cream and traced the delicate line of her heartÂ-Âshaped face. With her thick lashes, sparkling eyes, and perfect nose, it was hard to imagine a more beautiful woman.
But her obvious beauty and delicate appearance were misleading; from early on, Sophie had her parents' rapacious appetite for excitement. The three had followed the game and traveled from inn to inn across all of Europe without complaint, delighting in each new location, every leaky inn. While Red had plied his trade, Beatrice had made their daughter's life as normal as possible, serving as governess, tutor, and mother all in one.
Beatrice had kept them all safe and sane, laughing at muddy roads and mocking illÂ-Âtempered innkeepers until Sophie and Red would dissolve into laughter. She made certain their clothes were dry and clean, their rooms organized and welcoming. Red's and Sophie's entire world had revolved around merry, neverÂ-Âweary Beatrice -- which was why her unexpected death years ago had been so devastating.
Sophie was so like Beatrice, it made Red's heart ache. Though society might say a lass of twentyÂ-Âseven was firmly on the shelf, any man who saw her gold and pink loveliness would think otherwise. While she carried herself with a mature air that clearly told her years, she didn't look a day over eighteen.
Sophia's expression grew graver, and her tender lips pursed as she tapped a slender finger on her chin.
Red silently cursed his friend MacGregor, cursed the ill luck of the cards, and especially cursed the circumstances that had made him hope.
Hope for most people was a good thing, something to carry them through a difficult time. Hope for a gambler was ruin.
One should never wager what one couldn't afford to lose. Yet in the heat of this game, his heart had swelled with insidious hope at the chance to fix things for his Sophie. Of course he'd lost; gambling was not a game to be based on feelings. He, of all men, knew that. For years, he and his lovely Beatrice had made their livelihood on his ability to turn the cards and play on other men's hopes.
How she would have scolded him for taking chances with the only two things she'd left their daughter. It had been her fondest wish that their Sophie should have a proper home. So she'd tucked away the deed to a house that had been tossed onto a table by a desperate nobleman during one of Red's games and had refused to part with it even when times were lean.
Unfortunately, fortune was a fickle lady and poor Beatrice didn't live to see the house she'd guarded for her daughter.
After Beatrice's death, Red and Sophia had left Italy and traveled to Scotland to take possession of the house on the hill. They'd arrived on a chilled, blustery day, when clouds gathered over the tall, square stone house, the closed doors and windows cold and unwelcoming, a heavy growth of vines almost hiding it from view.
Sophia had immediately set about making the house into MacFarlane House. Together, they scrubbed and polished, hammered and nailed, fixed and cleaned, until the place was something to behold. Slowly, as they worked, their hearts began to heal, and the house became a real home. Thus it had been for eleven years.
Sophia straightened her shoulders with a determined air, and Red looked at her hopefully.
"We can't just sit back and let a stranger take our home." Her gaze flickered past him to encompass the sitting room. "I couldn't bear to see such a thing."
Red followed her gaze. The wood paneling gleamed softly, and thick Oriental rugs carpeted the room, softening the glossy wood floors. An intricate carving decorated the fireplace, where a large mantelpiece held a carved ormolu clock and a pair of charming brass and crystal candelabras. Several decorative chairs sat before the fireplace, simple yet elegant, covered with red and gold striped velvet and flanked by glossy Chippendale side tables. In one corner stood a small escritoire carved in the French fashion, flanked by intricately carved curio cabinets holding an assortment of china. Sunlight streamed past red velvet curtains and warmed the wood paneling, suffusing the chamber with the rich scents of beeswax and lemon.
With a small fire to offset the spring chill, it was difficult to imagine a more welcoming and beautiful room.
But the centerpiece of it all was sitting in the chair opposite him now: his beautiful daughter. Sophie, with her gold hair, heartÂ-Âshaped face, just like her mother. The only similarity between Sophie and her father was their unusual eyes, a liquid pale blue fringed with a wealth of curling dark brown lashes.
As a youth, tough and streetÂÂwise Red had gotten into many a fight with larger lads who had made the error of laughing at the length of his lashes. Red's fists had been hard even at the young age of eight, so few made the mistake of laughing twice. He wished he could solve his current difficulties so easily. It would take a keener head than his to get out of their current difficulties. "If anyone can find a way out of this mess, it'd be you," Red said stoutly.
Sophia smiled, her heart buoyed by her father's obvious belief in her abilities. She glanced out the window to where the gentle breeze rustled among the roses in the garden. The new path wound through the pink, red, yellow, and lavender flowers to the swaying green trees beyond, passing the white stone fountain where a pink marble angel perched on the edge of a large basin, its fingers forever trailing in the splashing water. Soon someone else would be standing here, taking solace in the garden, instead of her.
The thought ignited her anger. How dare someone sit in her garden without her permission, especially after all of the work she'd done! There had to be a way...Sophia drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. How could they turn this horrid tide of ill fortune? They had no money and less credit. She didn't know anyone who could help, either; their only wealthy acquaintance was the squire and his fortune was tied up in his own estate, as it should be.
No, if they wished to win back ...
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
CHEATERS AND SCAMMERS GET NO SYMPATHY FROM ME.
By Roberta Williams
Every once in a while, even the best writers produce a work someone doesn"t like and this was mine. I didn"t like the premise of the heroine's character. She is portrayed as an unprincipled, self indulgent chit. Men are supposed to the scam artists, the liars, the cheats not heroines. The basic premise of the story is that the house her dead mother fought to keep and have available to her family had been lost in a card game by her father - a gambling sharpy - along with the diamond necklace her father saved from her mother's personal possessions for their daughter to wear on her wedding day. The heroine was going to get back both the deed to her house and the diamonds by any means at her disposal, from the man who won them fair and honestly - Dougal Maclean. In addition to trashing the house to make it unappealing, she plans to use her physical assets to distract him as she manipulates him at cards to win them back. My brothers had a phrase for women like that, "PRXXK-TEASE". If the original loss had been tainted I would understand the heroine's position, but it wasn't. If she hadn't known her father was a professional gambler and might lose everything, that also might mitigate her motives - but she did. She deliberately plots to cheat a man out of his winning simply because SHE didn't want to lose the house her mother dreamed of but never lived in. Even her father said it was just a house, they could always start over again rather then put her virtue at risk. The fact that she was never intending to honor her wager - her virtue; only wager it - and then employ distraction or cheating to win - was when I stopped reading, about page 157. As far as I read, she wasn't the least bit remorseful in her actions, she didn't show any guilty conscience for what she was planning. That at least would have made her more sympathetic to the reader. But when her own father said to let it go, they would start over and she dug in her heels to continue the scam, she lost my vote. It didn't matter that Dougal knew he was being scammed, because she didn't know he knew. Cheaters should never prosper in my books.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Diana Harper
I love the way she writes Karen Hawkins is an awesome author
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Takes card playing to a new level
By Melissa
Karen Hawkins's Highlander novel is witty and original with a touch of passion and magic. It was my first read into the MacLean family. There are other novels which precede this one but it is not necessary to have read them to enjoy To Catch a Highlander.
Poor Sophia, her gambling loving father has just lost their home to Dougal MacLean and now she must find some way to keep her beloved manor. She stumbles upon what she believes to be the perfect solution. She will make the home look run down and as shabby as possible. Then, being an expert card shark herself, she will win the property back from Dougal.
Her plans go awry as soon as she meets her nemesis. He is bold, charming and handsome, she is caught completely off guard by him. Furthermore he seems to be taking the dirty less than hospitable surroundings to heart.
Dougal is aware of Sophia's little plan and keeps this knowledge from her. He pretends to have a good time at the manor all the time biding his time until he can give Sophia her comeuppance but in the meantime he is quite attracted to her and truly enjoys the time he spends with her.
Together these two create wonderful dialogue and smoldering passions which are both subtle yet electric. Their card games are wonderfully played out with humor and intense desire. Sophia is beginning to see her life in a new perspective. She is falling fast for her houseguest.
Dougal is cursed. His temper controls the weather, courtesy of a spell from a long ago witch, and when he is mad watch out, there is thunder and lighting.
These leads are so likeable that you cannot help but be charmed by their antics. They are not unkind to each other just trying to stay one step ahead of the other. I liked this book so much I am going to read the prequels.
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