This Scot of Mine

In Jordan’s satisfying fourth Rogue Files Regency (after The Duke Buys a Bride), a Scottish laird burdened by a family curse tries to avoid death by avoiding love. Lady Clara Autenberry, a duke’s daughter who’s about to marry the dangerous Earl of Rolland, gets out of her betrothal by convincing Rolland she’s pregnant by another man. Her reputation in London now ruined, she moves to her brother’s home in Scotland to live out her life. Her brother’s friend Laird Hunt MacLarin, who becomes infatuated with her after he encounters her in a roadside inn, hears of her situation and thinks it might be the loophole he needs: if she bears another man’s child, he won’t be subject to the curse that kills each Laird MacLarins between when he sires an heir and when the heir is born. He proposes to her, and they marry—but then she confesses that she’s not pregnant after all, and Hunt and Clara must try to find a way to break the curse. The balance of heat and suspense will delight Regency romance readers. Agent: Maura Kye-Casella, Don Congdon Assoc. (Mar.)