Marion spent most of her life being raised in a convent after her father, the Scottish Earl of Fleet, was killed in battle. Twelve years later, Iain Armstrong travels to the convent to retrieve Lady Marion and make good on their betrothal that was contracted before the death of their parents.

As with most romance novels, Marion fights against Iain and the marriage, however she is left with no choice. On their way back to Marion’s home, they are attacked, Marion finds that marriage to Iain isn't so bad...yadda, yadda, yadda. This all happens within the first fifty pages of the book.

They make it back to Fleet Tower: Enter Marion's lunatic family. The rest of the book is centered on Marion's two crazy and exasperating aunts and her even more delusional uncle who thinks he is William Wallace. To say the least, the author's attempt at creating a humorous plotline through insanity and murder resulted in nothing more than two hundred pages of banter and dialogue that made me almost as insane as the characters. While the aunts lived in their own dream world and couldn't carry on a conversation without repeating what the other had just said, I found that having to trudge through page after page of the conversations made a trip to the dentist to have all of my teeth pulled, sans Novocain, sound like a vacation at Club Med.

Ok, so a small portion of story revolving around the demented aunts, and oh, let's not forget the fruity uncle raising his sword and yelling "Freedom!" a la William Wallace every 2 pages, might have made for a humorous addition to a strong plot line. However, after the first one hundred pages, the plot completely moved away from our main characters (which, by the way, were horribly underdeveloped) and I found myself immersed in over two hundred pages of excruciating, someone please rip my toenails out one-by-one, meaningless babble. On top of that, add the fact that the dialogue in no way, shape, or form makes me believe that I am reading a story set in the 16th century.

Would I read the book again? Absolutely not. Well, considering that reading this book killed most of my brain cells and has since left me with as much sanity as the "family"...uh, no still not crazy enough to pick up the book again.

Would I recommend anyone else buy the book? Sure, if you need paper to start a campfire or we find ourselves in a sudden shortage of toilet paper.

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Publisher: Signet (April 4, 2006)
ISBN: 0451218108
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