Tracy’s review of The Bridegroom Wore Plaid (MacGregor Trilogy #1) by Grace Burrowes
In an effort to preserve the family estate, Ian MacGregor, the Earl of Balfour, must marry for money. When a promising match emerges in the form of Genie Daniels, a rich English heiress, Ian begins devising a strategy to woo her. When he meets Genie’s poor cousin Augusta, he discovers a new avenue to Genie’s heart. But after spending time with Augusta and falling for her charms, Ian begins to question whether or not he’s willing to forfeit his heart to save the family name…
Ian MacGregor is trying to keep his clan fed and in order to do that on a regular basis he needs to marry a woman with money. He and his family – brothers Gilgallon, Connor and sister Mary Frances – rent out their family seat in Aberdeenshire in the summer to get extra money. In this particular summer their renting it out to a Baron and his family with the thought that Ian and the Barron’s daughter, Genie, will make a match.
The Daniels family arrives and they’re an odd bunch. There’s the Baron, his son Matthew, his two daughters Genie and Hester and then two chaperone’s Julia (Baron’s sister-in-law) and Augusta (Baron’s niece). From the moment that Ian meets Augusta he sees a poor, shy, retiring woman…who has beautiful gentian violet eyes. When he happens to meet her in the garden he realizes that she’s a smart, kind and attractive woman. Too bad for him he’s going for Genie’s money. Unfortunately Genie has absolutely no desire to marry Ian and makes it almost impossible for him to get to know her. The Baron is forcing the issue but the more he forces the wedding, the more Ian thinks that there’s something the Baron is trying to hide. Why else would he be in such a rush?
Ian knows that he has to marry money – it doesn’t matter how he feels about Augusta the more he’s around her and gets to truly know her. He starts to fall in love, as does Augusta, but even though they know they can’t be together, they can’t seem to stay apart.
Then there’s the Baron who wants Augusta out of the picture permanently and isn’t afraid to kill her himself in order to see that done. While he’s planning his niece’s demise his daughter Genie is getting closer to the wrong brother and is confiding in Gilgallon. Julia who is thought to be an old widow, but is not yet 30, has her eye on Connor and surprisingly he’s got his eye on her too. Lots of clandestine meetings were taking place.
The story, while really good, was lacking a little something for me. I absolutely loved Augusta and Ian together and they were just so achingly in love I wanted nothing more than for Ian to say screw it, I’m marrying the poor relation! He was very loyal to the MacGregor clan though and knew that he just couldn’t do it. Now, even after his financial woes were taken care of in a roundabout way he was still not completely falling at her feet and that annoyed me a bit because I knew he loved her. Why not go for it? IDK.
Genie and Gilgallon, Julia and Connor and Mary Frances and Matthew all had their parts of the book as well. Well, we got to see a bit of Genie and Gilgallon and Julia and Connor but were only told about Mary Fran and Matthew. While this was very sweet and everyone was quite happy I just felt that those parts should have had more to them. Their love seemed so sweet (yes, all of them) I just felt they deserved more page time. The Baron and his evil machinations fell a bit short for me – needing a bit more page time. We never heard much about the Baron unless he was planning something – where was he the rest of the time? He was talked about a lot but he was in the book very little.
Overall I liked the book. As I said, Augusta and Ian’s love story was incredibly sweet and I loved them together, I just wanted more – from them and from the other couples. This was a good start to the series though and I’m looking forward to reading what will be next for the MacGregor Clan.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.
This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
Very interesting review.