A Highlander in a Pickup

The sexy second contemporary romance in Trentham’s Highland, Georgia, series (after A Highlander Walks into a Bar) winningly blends small-town charm with heat. Feisty dance instructor Anna Maitland has enough on her plate, but she agrees to assume leadership of the town’s annual festival, the Highland Games, as a favor for a friend. Then Iain Connors, a dishy but taciturn, kilt-wearing veteran of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, arrives from Scotland having been offered the same gig. Sparks immediately fly between them as they fight over who’s responsible for the event. Fiercely independent Anna, whose demanding mother and undependable father left her with trust issues, doesn’t want to give up control, while Iain hopes the job will free him from his father’s expectations that he will take over as groundskeeper of their Highland estate. Trentham handles the thorny conflicts between parents’ wishes and their children’s needs with sensitivity, carrying this theme through to a touching subplot about Anna’s talented dance student Gabby, whose fundamentalist father opposes her performances. Though the plot takes some unlikely turns, the smoldering attraction between Iain and Anna is deliciously drawn. Romance lovers will savor Trentham’s witty, bighearted tale. (Mar.)