I liked the story of Wren and Briar. The story moved along with romance at the forefront. Wren was a strong Scotsman who felt it was sworn duty to protect Briar from Percy. The story is a page turner. I thought that story does have its moments of surprises from the characters, but other moments that book feels somber. The story is an interesting read.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Wren is a gardener at Blakeley manor the home of Dare Aka Duke of Dareford hence the nickname!
Lady Briar Blakeley sister to Dare is from a very unconventional family who believes in marrying for love!
Wren Spencer which is the last name of his adopted family has a differ name and vocation.
Both Laird Renfrew and Briar were entirely too trusting!
Obvious signs and a man that trusted laid out the treachery and they almost lost their lives and someone close to them died from their foolishness!
This is a wild ride, kidnappings, bandits, and wedding on the run.
When estate matters don’t add up and a murderous cousin also very abusive to his own wife surface well slowly almost too slow Wren questions his realty.
A life and death duel will have one winner? Will it be Wren who fights for the clan and his found happiness or a man who has lost his soul! Bravo!!

I'm a fan of this series and the families involved. They are different enough and leave the manor house enough to make it fun!

I never expected this to be so action packed and dramatic. It was so much more than the usual romantic fluff piece I thought it would be. I like the characters and the story but could do without all the action

Not normally the type of read I would choose. Out of my comfort zone however I found it an intriguing and great read. I read it through very quickly.

An exciting blend of romance and adventure. A kidnapping takes Wren and Briar on the road to Scotland where they are forced to marry. Wren is a sweet man and it's no hardship for Briar to choose him over her neighbour, Percy who has proved to be quite undeserving. I really disliked him in the beginning but he redeemed himself as the story moved on.
Someone wants Wren dead and this puts Briar in danger as well. There is a lot of drama and suspense and as danger mounts Wren realises that he has fallen in love with his wife. The pair make a lovely couple but they still face threats and danger when they reach Wren's castle in Scotland.
I liked Wren's friends especially, Angus. I would like to see Bessie's story get resolved with a HEA of her own at some stage in the series.

THE REVIEW
Lady Briar Blakeley is the sister to the Duke of Darefield. She is happy to postpone her come out and enjoy her independence a while longer. But a childhood friend appears claiming that they have been betrothed for years and he is ready to marry her. Briar is shocked, appalled and kicks Percy out. But he will not give up easily and attempts to force her to accept his hand.

Wren Spencer is the gardener at the Blakey estate, but he has his secrets. He fought in the wars for Scotland and never returned home. When trouble with Percy causes Briar to seek out Wren as an escort, he starts to soften towards her. But Percy goes to far and engages some ruffians to kidnap Briar and Wren, only Percy is caught in the mix as well. And this unfolds a wild tale of discovering deceit within Wrens family and hopefully restoring him to his rightful place as Laird!

This was a very very enjoyable read. It was a great mix of romance, adventure, plot and swoon! Wren was just such a love and he protected Briar from the start and, although he didn’t want to love, he wasn’t too stubborn when it inevitably happened. Briar was probably my favorite though. She was independent and didn’t want to marry right away, but she wasn’t pushy and feminist about it. She wasn’t thrilled to be forced to marry Percy or Wren after being kidnapped and thus compromised, but she wasn’t completely adverse to Wrens charms. Over all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to dive into the next in the series featuring Briar’s brother, Dare the Duke of Darefield!

TROPES
Historical Romance, Regency Era, Scotland, Beta/Cinnamon Roll Hero, Damaged/Tortured Hero, Highland Warrior Hero, Soldier/War Hero, Protective Hero, Runaway/Jilted Groom, Orphan Heroine, Virgin Heroine, First Cut is the Deepest, Married in Scandal/Forced Marriage, Abduction/Kidnapped, Forced Proximity, Hidden Identity, Lost heir, Road Trip Trope, Romantic Ride Sharing, Betrayal Trope, Suspense/Danger/Murder, Outdoor Steam, Five Star, Two Flame

This was book one of the Blakeley Manor series and this was my first read from this other. Briar was a great character that I found to be the perfect regency heroine. If you love a regency novel that offers the forced proximity trope along with the forced marriage trope. I am going to be reading more books from this author.

What a great book by Fenna Edgewood. Last Briar weds the scot is such a fun book to read. Love the characters as well as the plot. The story flows beautifully. Great job.

Lady Briar Weds the Scot by Fenna Edgewood is a wonderful historical romance. There are HOT, HOT, brawny men, mistaken kidnapping, and love. Briar is a rather headstrong young woman. She is loved by her family and is incensed by her neighbor who has insisted that they are going to marry. She is in control of her life until she was kidnapped with the gardener and the hated neighbor.

Only to find out that the gardener was a Laird - Wren Spencer. His clan, which he had left, was sent to bring him back. (The story of leaving etc is explained.) Briar was in the company of two unwed men along with the clansmen, meaning she was ruined before her life had begun. Wren offered to marry her to save her reputation. Neither imagined they would fall in love or be fighting for their life.

What a great read by Fenna Edgewood! I enjoyed her writing and will add her to my list of ‘to read authors’. The story was intriguing with the mysteries, hot with the Wren and Briar, and we were left with other storylines that hopefully will turn into books.

This is book 1 in a new series for author Fenna Edgewood. The story is about how Wren and Briar become an unlikely couple. It takes you through a bit of her life and then twists to become a story in Wren's hometown. Through the challenges that they face they become amorous of one another and grow to love one another. The side characters were well written also and I am excited for the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Fenna Edgewood and WOLD Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this lovely book.

What happens when you get kidnapped? And have 2 men to choose from? One clearly unreliable and another a very large dour Scot? Who was working as your family Gardener until he extremely unexpectedly inherited a Dukedom. Inherited because all the previous heirs mysteriously died. Hmm.
A liked this idea of choice and quick marriage, not over the anvil but even better, just say the words. I wonder if divorce was as quick?
Briar was a good character to empathize with. She had little choice in the fact of needing a groom and husband after her kidnap and journey. But she made the most of it and set herself up to bear with whatever she would find at the end of her journey.
A good version of this genre and trope, that was fun to read with interesting ideas to contemplate about a woman’s place in society. A grand romp.

Lady Briar is the youngest of the Blakeley family, young, beautiful and the sister of a duke but she has no desire to marry.

After turning down a marriage proposal, she meets the family's gardener, Wren, who has not returned to Scotland after fighting in the war, but the past will seek him out.

They are kidnapped and as she is ruined for spending a night out in the company of men outside the family, he asks her to marry him to save her reputation. He intends to give her his name, but not her heart.

As they try to circumvent the dangers of the kidnapping and the return of Robert Renfrew (Wren) Spencer to his homeland, we are introduced to a passionate, courageous, intelligent couple who care not only about their well-being but that of other people.

Once again the author manages to provide us with charismatic characters and a great story.

Briar Blakeley, the beloved youngest sister of a duke is abducted from her home at Blakeley Manor with their newly appointed Scottish gardener, Wren Spencer, when she is mistaken for Wren’s wife. She finds herself forced to marry him but soon realises her feelings run deeper than she thought. Wren finds himself risking his legacy for Briar, when he realises she is the most important person for him.
Great characters to begin this interesting series. The characters of Wren and Briar were very engaging and I found myself thoroughly engaged in their romance. Their interactions were lively and interesting. Briar whilst innocent was so supportive of Wren, who with her support, could accept his role in the clan. A lovely romance.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and my opinions are my own.

who rescues whom?
Briar and Wren´s story is nothing new: a greedy relative trying to bully his way to the top of the heirs´ list by lying and not even shying away from murder, a couple marrying in order to prevent scandal and falling in love afterwards...
Still the characters in this book are wonderful, there´s loyalty, passion and even elements that make you wonder who the real culprit is - a really entertaining read.
I received this book as a review copy.

Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of you. It might take a kidnapping, misperceptions of marriage, and forced proximity to make two people realize they’re meant for one another. Lady Briar Weds the Scot is a charming tale of two people who stumble into love when circumstances move them beyond their societal standings and their assumptions of one another.

The title gives away the crux of the plot: Wren and Briar must wed when Wren’s kidnappers assume she’s his wife (they are riding in a closed carriage, after all). But those kidnappers also bring along Briar’s spurned suitor, they turn out to be not just kidnappers but double-crossers of Wren’s double-crossing relative, and they’re actually returning Wren to a legacy he didn’t realize he had. Talk about a fair amount to unpack!

I liked both Briar and Wren, though Briar’s assumptions of the best of everyone made her at times seem very young and naïve to me. Then she’d have a moment of great wisdom and insight. So I wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Wren has the opposite problem—he doesn’t tell Briar enough about what they’re facing, and that leads to some unexpected difficulties when they finally reach their Scottish destination. The cast of secondary characters features some stereotypes but also some nicely rounded and surprising characterizations. And I did wish for more of a sense of closure with Wren’s family.

But charm can go a long way, and the amount of charm Edgewood invests Lady Briar Weds the Scot with is plenty to make for an enjoyable romance read.

I received this novel, Lady Briar Weds the Scot by Fenna Edgewood, as an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this novel, but I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped I would, based on other’s reviews. For me, the novel started out with a bang, and I was cruising along, enjoying it immensely and on board with this being a 5-star review for perhaps the first half of the novel. For that part of the novel, there were many things to recommend it: it was well-written and interesting. I liked the main characters mostly and thought they were well-developed. I liked that even some of the questionable characters had a growth arc, and I thought the author did a great job with the Scots dialect. I could hear the characters’ way of speaking in my head, and it felt true but wasn’t so over the top that it became difficult to understand or interrupted the flow of reading.

What I didn’t like after the first half of the story centered on things that I don’t like in my historical romances, that the characters, both main and secondary became morally gray, and that there was too much violence in this story for me. The villain is a smiling sociopath, but even his long-suffering wife made me mistrust her motives right up until the very end, making her less sympathetic to me overall. Several characters end up killing other people - and while one case may have been justified, the other time or two by the hero did not necessarily, in my mind, have to take place. I think I would have appreciated Wren showing more restraint as a man and new laird than killing men who could have been taken captive rather than killed. I also had a really hard time accepting a certain character death - and I‘m not sure that part even needed to happen, especially after substantial character growth. I was almost done reading at that point - with about 20% left of the novel to go. I’m not sure redeemed secondary characters need to meet a terrible end - that’s like killing your darlings. I personally don’t like that in my romance novel, but other readers perhaps don’t mind. I would say - just be forewarned because it did my heart in.

Which leads into my next problem with this novel. It starts out in the early 19th century, but then it feels like it then goes back in time to medieval times in Scotland, where people may have been more likely to commit violence and banish people for their misdeeds than put them in gaol. And this is when the story started to drag for me a bit - when I lost my connection to the hero, Wren and wasn’t as invested as I had been in the first part of the novel. I also didn’t appreciate him calling his wife “a silly lass” the first time he tells her he loves her - a little harsh for such a big moment between the two of them. A little demeaning for her, and I was taken back to not thinking of them as being on the same level emotionally as man and wife - but as a 30+ year old man sort of belittling his 19 year-old wife. I have to admit, it was a little bit of a disconnect for me.

That being said, the story was original and had some really good parts. I liked the author’s writing style, but I personally don’t like my hero being overprotective to the point of fatally harming others, no matter if it comes from a place of devotion and love. There are other ways of dealing with “bad men” than merely eliminating their existence in this world.
3-3.5 stars

This is a story of Lady Briar, who is a sister to the Duke of Daresford. She has decided to wait another year before going to London to participate in a season. Briar asked Wren, her brother's gardner to accompany her on a visit to the home of a family who lived on her bother's estate. As they were traveling to the visit, they were stopped by armed men and kidnapped. They soon found that Percy, her neighbor was responsible for their kidnapping as he also was taking along with them. Wren was able to recognize one of the kidnappers and soon learned that someone had sent them to kill him. The kidnappers took them across the border into the Highlands of Scotland. After they had been gone without being found by Briar's brother, Wren told her that in order to protect her reputation she needed to marry him or Percy. Briar opts to marry Wren and after they are married they are faced with other armed assailants coming into their camp attempting to kill them. After they finally arrive in Scotland at Wren's family castle, they face more deception, mayhem and murder among their clansmen.

I received this story as an ARC from Netgalley but I am voluntarily leaving a review

I’m surprised how much I enjoyed reading this! I was a bit cautious at first because it seemed fairly straightforward: forbidden love and an obnoxiously annoying villain. What ultimately made this story was a fantastic redemption arc, the bonkers plot with humor and danger to boot, and the development of the romance. It was also steamier than I anticipated! I do wish the FMC was aged up slightly, too much happened off page that could have been shown, and finally, I don’t believe part of the ending was necessary to drive the plot forward.

Steam: 🔥🔥

Thank you to NetGalley and WOLF Publishing for the advance reader copy. All thoughts are my own.

Character development is amazing and has you questioning what will happen with the other characters. Amazing story of Scotland meets England with some laugh out loud & shocking moments. I have not read the other books but I look forward to them! The ending leads me to believe a great Scottish based book is coming in the near future!