I love this opening story in the Harlequin Historical LOCHMORE LEGACY series - I can never resist a sexy Highlander story and this series is filled with them! Also, this is an interesting twist in series since the most recent set story is first and the series runs backwards in time...

Janice has a lovely style and I loved her characters...and intriguing story... Can't wait to read them all.

Lachlan McNeill May be insanely rich, but he came from a lowly status. When he weds an Earl’s daughter, Flora McCrieff, he knows having her on his arm will open a lot of doors for him. Flora once denied a Duke, and now she is married to Lachlan. Flora desperately wants love and family, and truly hopes that being bound to Lachlan will fulfill those desires.

It is business first for Lachlan - mostly. He has another serious matter that also requires his time and attention. With everything going on for him, he has very little room for emotion. Also, Lachlan has experienced a difficult and painful past and this he feels he must keep secret from Flora.

As things progress, Flora and Lachlan eventually draw together, but it was never easy for them to do. They both have amazing strengths and it will take some doing for each of them to realize that. Kudos to Janice Preston for writing such powerful characters.

This touching story introduced deep and abiding live to two deserving people. Meanwhile the importance of family easily flowed throughout the pages. All in all this was a marvelous read, and a great start for what is certain to be a promising series.

His Convenient Highland Wedding is the first book in the Lochmore Legacy series. Interestingly, these books take pace across different eras. The other titles are, in order - Book 2, Unlaced by the Highland Duke by Lara Temple, Book 3, A Runaway Bride for the Highlander by Elisabeth Hobbes and Book 4, Secrets of a Highland Warrior by Nicole Locke.

Many thanks to Harlequin and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

His Convenient Highland Wedding by Janice Preston is book One in The Lochmore Legacy Series. This is the story of Flora McCrieff and Lachlan McNeill.
Flora turned down a Duke's marriage proposal which set her father off and open her eyes to their family need for money. Lachlan is looking to get his whisky business to do better and he needs a wife that has the connections to open some doors for him. Lachlan is willing to marry Flora site unseen due to her family connections, but of course the sparks fly when they do meet. Flora is unsure of Lachlan since he is a man of few words but they slowly start to learn more about the other.
Really enjoyed their story and looking forward to more books from this series.

This is book 1 of the Lochmore Legacy and I'm hooked already!! What a splendid job Janice Preston did with this start of the series. So many emotions went through me while I was reading, my heart really went out to Flora and Lachlan!

Lady Flora McCrieff is forced to marry a stranger (she meets Lachlan at the altar!) because her family needs money and after a year of being ostracized by her family for creating a scandal by refusing to marry a lecherous duke, her father has had enough and forces this marriage on her.

Lachlan McNeill, a business man, feels he needs a wife with a title so that he can be part of the ton and have rich men do business with him and his whiskey distillery. Unfortunately, he didn't know that Flora was not welcome and was being ignored by the ton.

Lachlan has some secrets that he's keeping from Flora and many misunderstandings occur between them, leaving Flora hurt and exasperated that she can't seem to get through to him. All she's ever wanted was to be loved and have a family....Lachlan feels he's no good for her because he comes from a very poor childhood and has been to prison. A lot of heartache happens until Flora decides to fight back!!

Then there is the mystery of the brooch that Flora finds in a tower in her childhood home....

I received a free copy of the book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Though I’m suspicious of new-to-me authors, I was willing to give Janice Preston a try because: a) MOC is my favourite trope and b) the word “highland” in the title always evokes a frisson of excitement and anticipation. What I found was an enjoyable, uneven romance. But, first, to the plotty details!

Because His Convenient Highland Wedding is the first of a four-book, four-author series centring around a mystery, Preston’s novel opens with a silly scene of the heroine’s discovery of a creepy tower and mysterious brooch. Flash-forward seven years and heroine Lady Flora McCrieff, having refused the lecherous old goat her father had arranged for her to marry (important to saving the straitened family estate) is in disgrace with fortune and her family’s eyes. To make up for her refusal to save the family fortune and marry within her class, her father compels her to marry second-best, wealthy but from lowly beginnings whiskey-baron Lachlan McNeill. Lachlan is looking to make inroads to the aristocracy for his whiskey and hopes Flora will help him achieve his goal. Little does he know, Flora is in social purgatory …

Preston’s romance sees its finest hour in the first half. She captures the awkwardness and misunderstanding between two well-meaning people who don’t know each other working out physical and emotional intimacy. It is to Preston’s credit that she makes it easy to see how Lachlan and Flora may fall into a cool, courteous, unhappy marriage. But it isn’t what they deserve. Flora and Lachlan are brimming with the need to love and be loved, kind, and giving. However, they were beaten down and have a hard time leaving their reticent shells. Lachlan is too much aware of his inferior status, his humble beginnings à la Jean Valjean, lack of breeding and education. Flora is too aware of her family censure, which has diminished her, and is embarrassed and guilt-stricken that Lachlan was promised an influential wife who can’t deliver social sway. Thankfully, Preston doesn’t make too much of these details, but concentrates on the cringe-worthy hurts and misconceptions the MOC trope delivers.

Lachlan and Flora are also stiff and humorless and I couldn’t embrace them with liking. But I understood their predicament, appreciated it, and wanted them to resolve their marriage woes and be happy. They were deserving, if charmless. Flora’s dog, on the other hand, Bandit, was an utter charmer and he made every scene better by providing much-needed comic relief. What worked regarding Flora and Lachlan was how they entered their marriage as unhappy people and how Preston slowly but surely, with equally forward movement and missteps, brought them closer and gaining in confidence and happiness. Unfortunately, Lachlan’s secondary narrative, his search for a lost family member, derailed the romance’s last third. It was abrupt and the new character was over-the-top screechy. Her response to Lachlan’s re-connection didn’t make sense given the character’s circumstances.

The other problem with the romance’s resolution was what I call the too-much-happiness factor. In the last few chapters, there is so much reconciliation that it made for a clunky conclusion. There were character turn-abouts in response and motivation that give reader-whiplash and eye-rolls. Moreover, the insertion of an ominous return to the initial tower mystery felt conveniently thrust into the narrative, lest we forget and not read the series. Sadly, this didn’t work for this reader and she’ll end her relationship with the series at book one, thank you very much. With Miss Austen, we say Preston’s His Convenient Highland Wedding offers “tolerable comfort,” Mansfield Park.

Janice Preston’s His Convenient Highland Wedding is published by Harlequin Books. It releases today, April 1st, and may be found at your preferred vendor. I received an e-ARC from Harlequin, via Netgalley.

It was a nice read though I would have liked a little more work in the plot. The couple did not have much to overcome to be happy, all they needed to do was talk with each other. I received a free copy via NetGalley.

His Convenient Highland Wedding (The Lochmore Legacy, #1)
by Janice Preston

Tis another buy buy book!

While I did not give it five stars for a small reason, this was a wonderful read. Had elements that were unexpected. Characters you could like and enjoy and written in a fashion that makes the reader want more. I had some frustration at times for I felt it needed a little boost in life but the overall story and the creative mind and writing of the author saved it to be a very good read. The plot of marrying to raise yourself in society while not a new one was carried out in this book in a very different manner. The heroine , was a little too soft at times but while the story unfolded she becomes stronger and saves the way you think of her. All in all because this author is so very creative and witty you will definitely enjoy this story. I was given this ARC via NetGalley. All opinions expressed here are voluntary and my own. Regards, Anna