The Highlander’s Prize

Plenty of historical detail peppers a complicated romance plot intertwining England’s Wars of the Roses and Scotland’s monarchical crisis of 1487. Inept King James III of Scotland, conniving with the hated English, intends to face his young son on the field of battle. Clarrisa, illegitimate daughter of England’s Edward IV, is sent by her family as a reluctant potential bride for King James. Highlander laird Broen MacNicols kidnaps her both to get revenge for his father’s death and to prevent a union that could destroy Scotland. One gripping plot twist follows another: dastardly English trickery, complex Scottish alliances, and kilt-tossing, sheet-incinerating lovemaking. Whether the chilly Highlands ever harbored such a clutch of oversexed lairds or the House of York ever spawned such an independent bundle of “warm tingles” and “carnal ideas” as Clarrisa hardly matters amid the torrent of unleashed desires. Agent: Jill Marsal, the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Apr.)