This one is actually the 3rd installment in the School For Heiresses series, and I read them out of order. As it turns out, it didn't really change my experience much, if any, since there didn't seem to be any particular continuing story lines in the series.
This one is about Venetia Campbell, a Scot whose mother died in childbirth of her second child. Her father, the Earl of Duncannon, was so heartbroken, he took Venetia to London, and left their Highland property to an overseer to run.
Lachlan Ross, who is also the Scottish Scourge, is after the earl because the earl borrowed money from Ross's father which he never has repaid. The Ross clan is now suffering and needs the money, but the earl is refusing to pay. So he's taken up highway robbery, mostly from Duncannon's friends (which he did in an earlier book). And now, in desperation, he kidnaps Venetia - his childhood friend that he hasn't seen since the family moved away so many years ago.
Venetia had a childhood crush on Ross, and so her first reaction is actually that she is glad to see him and learn that he isn't dead, as was reported. But after she realizes what is happening, she becomes pretty feisty and tries on several occasions to get away. He intends to hold her for ransom so that her father will repay the loan.
But there is a reason the loan was actually forgiven by Ross's father - a reason that the earl doesn't want to reveal, and Ross Sr. never told anyone about before he died.
The attraction between Lachlan and Venetia is more believably written than the protagonists' story in book 4 (Let Sleeping Rogues Lie) and they end up getting married (sort of hand-fast) in Scotland before her father comes to pay the ransom, and before the real reason is revealed. Once revealed, Ross is so ashamed at how he bullied the earl that he almost succeeds in sending Venetia back to London with her father - but, as in all good Romance novels, they finally reconcile and get their HEA.
There's a secondary romance with an older couple, Venetia's aunt and Lord Seton, Lucy Seton's widower father.
I enjoyed this one - 4 stars.
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