Reviewer: Tracy
The Highlander's Accidental Marriage by Callie Hutton
Series: Marriage Mart Mayhem #6
Publisher: Entangled Scandalous
Publication Date: November 30, 2015
Format: eARC
Genres: Historical Romance
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Series Rating:

She never intended to take a husband...

Scotland, 1817

The Duke of Manchester's sister, Lady Sarah Lacey, always abides by the rules of etiquette. Fate, however, has no such confines. On a journey to the Scottish Highlands, Lady Sarah is set upon by misfortune-leaving her without carriage or chaperone, and left to the mercy of a kind and handsome gentleman. Whom (in order to secure a room at an inn) she announces is her husband.

When she proclaims they're married in public, Professor Braeden McKinnon can't bring himself to correct the lovely Lady Sarah. After all, her reputation would be ruined. Nor can he tell her that her proclamation is not only legally binding in Scotland, but sharing a room is considered to be an act of consummation...

Now they are bound together until death do they part-even if Sarah has no intention of becoming any man's wife.

Lady Sarah Lacey is on a trip to the Highlands to visit her sister who is about to give birth.  On the way she runs into a horrible storm and her carriage is run off a cliff, killing her driver and footman.  Luckily Sarah and her lady’s maid were thrown from the carriage and their lives were spared.

Professor Braeden McKinnon is also on his way from Edinburgh to the Highlands to wait for a letter letting him know if he has been accepted on an archaeological expedition.  That’s really the only thing he’s thinking about so as much as he wants to help the ladies on the side of the road he’s exasperated at having to delay his trip.  Braeden and his friend end up traveling with the ladies until a series of events makes it so that only Braeden and Sarah are traveling alone.  They manage until they come across one inn that’s very crowded and instead of two rooms there’s only one and Sarah doesn’t want to let it go.  Braeden had decided that they were to pose as brother and sister but when the innkeeper recognizes Braeden Sarah decides to claim they’re married so that they can have the room.  Unbeknownst to Sarah declaring you’re married in front of a witness is as a good as a wedding in Scotland.

Braeden doesn’t tell her their married in the eyes of the law until they reach her sisters house but that doesn’t stop them from consummating the marriage (whether Sarah knew that’s what they were doing or not).  Once she finds out she’s not happy at all. She never plans on getting married as she’s an author who is about to be published and she plans on that being her life.  She knows if she’s married her husband will either stop her from writing/publishing or in Braeden’s case make her go on his expedition with her to Rome rather than go back to London to do book signings and make appearances.  When Sarah finds herself in love with Braeden she’s still torn on what to do and it may tear their relationship apart.

This was a very cute though highly unlikely story.  I couldn’t seem to wrap my brain around Sarah, who at first seemed highly proper and unlikely to travel alone with a man, not only does but then sleeps with him as well (and takes the chance of getting pregnant which was strange when she said she didn’t want kids).  As much as that furthered the story it didn’t match up with my knowledge of how women acted back in the 19th century.  Of course this is a romance and fiction so I let that go after a bit. 🙂

Sarah and Braeden were very sweet together if a bit odd. He was so worried about his expedition and she was so worried about her publisher that though they fell in love they were both so stubborn that they couldn’t work out their issues.  I did think that Sarah was much more stubborn than Braeden but then Braeden’s expectations of what would happen now that they were married were a bit prosaic – but fitting with the times.

Overall the story was very cute and I was happy when the pair finally worked out their differences.  They each came to a compromise and I loved seeing that not just one of them, but both, had to give up something in order to find a middle ground. This was my first book by Callie Hutton but it was a good one and I’ll be reading more from her in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5