Review: My One True Highlander by Suzanne Enoch
Marjorie Forrester is an English lady on her way to a house party when her carriage gets ambushed by a band of MacLawry Highlanders led by Graeme MacLawry, who is in the middle of rescuing his idiot younger brother and didn’t plan on kidnapping a woman in the process. Whoops. Now she’s stuck at a Scottish stronghold pretending to be a hostage and trying not to be too charmed by the man in the kilt.
This is my third Suzanne Enoch and I’ve come to understand what she’s doing: she’s writing low-stakes, clever, kilt-forward Highland romances for people who want the Scottish-hero fantasy without the dark trauma plotlines that have crept into the subgenre lately. My One True Highlander is exactly that. The conflict between Graeme and Marjorie is built on misunderstandings rather than gothic damage, the family politics are present but not punishing, and the prose has Enoch’s signature dry humor. The MacLawry siblings are a charming pack and I’d happily read books about each of them, which is convenient since that appears to be the plan.
What it’s not: tense. The kidnapping setup never actually feels dangerous, because Enoch isn’t writing that kind of book and Graeme is way too gentlemanly to make the reader nervous. If you want a romance where the hero genuinely has menace to him, look elsewhere. The historical detail is also light. Enoch is more interested in vibes than in 1817 land-tenure law, which is fine, but Highland romance purists will side-eye some of the costuming.
The real charm is Marjorie’s voice. She’s a planner whose plans keep going sideways, and she’s got a self-deprecating wit that I found genuinely funny.
For who? Fans of Julia Quinn and Tessa Dare who want to detour into kilts. Skip if you want grit, history, or an actual antagonist.
Comfort food. I’ll keep reading the series.