Some Like It Scot

Enoch’s colorful fourth Scandalous Highlanders 19th-century kilted romp (after Mad, Bad, and Dangerous in Plaid) demonstrates her theory of what her readers want: namely, powerful fictitious clan leaders. Munro “Bear” MacLawry is the huge and handsome youngest brother of the MacLawry clan’s laird. Bear’s siblings, all recently settled into marriages and bairn-raising, consider him just a big buffoon, handy in a brawl but not overly bright. Feisty trouser-clad Catriona “Cat” MacColl and her English half-sister, Elizabeth, are on the run from fate-worse-than-death engagements to unbearable Englishmen. When Bear finds Cat hunting deer to feed herself and Elizabeth, initial mutual mistrust inevitably flares into luscious lovemaking. Enoch handles her genre’s conventions with aplomb while developing convincing characterizations. Returning fans will appreciate glimpses of Bear’s siblings’ own courting complications from previous books, but it’s the joy of the hunky, often shirtless hero taming the spunky but virginal wildcat that carries this frothy tale along to its predictable but satisfying conclusion. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (Oct.)