| Series: | Highland Fairytale #2 |
| Pub. Date: | Aug. 31, 2017 |
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Narrator: | Ruth Urquhart |
| Length: | 9 hrs 25 min |
| Source: | Publisher |
I love retellings of fairy tales, and the historical Highland twist just makes them too delicious to pass up. When a Laird Finds a Lass is very loosely based on The Little Mermaid. I actually had to think about this one a bit as I didn't see many correlations between this book and the Disney adaptation, but there may be more similarities between this story and the original written work (which I have not read).
Malcolm ban MacDonald was making a living as a lawyer in Edinburgh when he unexpectedly becomes the Highland laird of Dunbronach and is forced to return to his childhood home. Malcolm has been a lowlander for most of his life, so he returns home as an outsider and not fully trusted by his clan. They don't like his lowland ways or dress, and he doesn't believe in the magic, legend and superstition that is bandied about by his clan members. So Malcolm finds himself undertaking many tasks and responsibilities for which he was not prepared, though the clan has only given him one rule really - he must marry a Highland lass, and not one from their dreaded enemy, the MacLeod clan. Malcolm is not your typical Highland laird or Highland hero. He is not an alpha male, nor a rough and tumble Highlander. He has book smarts and some street smarts, but is more comfortable with a rapier than a claymore. Admittedly I prefer a more typical Highlander with kilt and claymore, but Malcolm was still a good hero. He was honorable and wanted to help his clan and our heroine both, even when those desires were at cross purposes. Our hero experiences a good amount of personal growth in this story and discovers that book learning is not the only way to approach the world. He also gets some of his belief in magic back, but I also liked how he made some magic of his own by things that he did for the clan.
