Too Scot to Handle

Burrowes’s second Windham Brides historical (after The Trouble with Dukes) isn’t quite Pride and Prejudice, but her bold riff on Jane Austen’s famous opening line declares her intent to come close, and she certainly has the pitch just right for a humorous Regency-era novel. Miss Anwen Windham, an Englishwoman who is fiercely protective of those she loves, and Lord Colin MacHugh, a wealthy Scottish distillery owner who’s a fish out of water in London, are both do-gooders whose current project is trying to save the House of Wayward Urchins and its incorrigible occupants. Anwen’s uncle’s sly matchmaking is all the funnier for its subtlety, and Burrowes cleverly hides clues in plain sight that indicate Colin’s mentor will become his enemy. But the romance lacks emotional friction between the leads, and no amount of purple prose about Anwen’s pink flesh can make up for its absence. (July)