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Still feeling in the historical mood, I picked up a hyped Maya Banks, Never Seduce a Scot. This is the first in her Montgomerys and Armstrongs series. I was able to use this for the prompts disability/chronic illness rep for the 2nd board of Winter's Kiss and doing 1920s laundry for the Heaving Bosom's 2022 Reading Embrace.
Evaline is being forced into an arranged marriage with Graeme, the laird of the Montgomerys, by the King of Scotland. The Armstrongs and Montgomerys have been fighting for generations and the King needs his countrymen to stop in-fighting. Evaline is known as being less than whole after her negotiated marriage with Ian, the son of Laird McHugh, is cancelled. Evaline had gone riding, fell off her horse into a ravine and was found several days later. After coming out of her fever induced sleep, Evaline was deaf. She masquerades as being more addled though to keep from marrying Ian. Evaline is excited for the marriage to Graeme because she's looking forward to having an adventure and being able to start fresh without the lies keeping her back. Graeme is frustrated though because with the rumors he sees the marriage as a death sentence for his line; how can he expect to have a child with someone that has significant mental deficiencies. When they both open up and Graeme learns the truth about what's actually wrong with Evaline, they quickly move into being a true couple.
Oh my gosh. This book was absolute magic and lived up to the rave reviews that I've been hearing the past couple years on booktube and bookstagram. I loved the way that Evaline and Graeme connected and how much Evaline really fought to be seen as a full person despite her deafness. When Graeme figures it out and starts "talking" to her by just mouthing the words, he is completely mind-blown. What made it even better though was instead of getting angry for the misunderstanding, he is immediately in awe of Evaline for teaching herself how to read lips. That was one of my favorite parts of the books and the entire scene of them talking about becoming true husband and wife was so heartwarming. I really can't say enough good things about this book.
What I found interesting, was in the author's note at the end Maya Banks said that her husband has a similar issue to Evaline. I guess nobody really realized that he was deaf or partially deaf until he was in school for his Master's degree. I feel like that's what helped pushed this overboard for her books. I liked the other books I've read by her, but I feel like having that extra connection is part of what really pushed this book to a full 5-stars for me. I just really loved how the relationship progressed for Evaline and Graeme throughout and just fell in love with both characters whole-heartedly.
I can't wait to read more by Maya Banks, and definitely want to finish this series. I do know that the third book has been on hold for several years at this point and is something that a lot of people are upset over. If I remember correctly, I think I saw something about there being health issues or family issues on top of the 3rd book moving to being published by Avon instead of Ballantine. I definitely need to read the rest of her historical books, but I'm also intrigue by her more romantic suspense series as well.
Have you read Never Seduce a Scot?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Never Seduce a Scot, Maya Banks, 5-stars, 0 days, paperback, 373 pages, published in 2012, traditionally published
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