Avon
January
29th, 2013
978-0-06-202780-1
Historical
Romance
Mass
Market Paperback
Reviewed
by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)
Obtained
by Publisher
Catriona
Cameron was once famed for her beauty, envy of all the ladies and lusted by the
men. That is until a deadly accident leaves her with scars-inside and out.
Hiding from the world, Catriona is determined to not let anyone break through
her walls as she flounders, day in and day out, angry at the world and lost
without the beauty that she was all her life. In comes Mark Thorburn, her
aunt’s last hope to draw Catriona out from her exile and back into the world
again. But Mark is hiding a secret and when a danger from Catriona’s past comes
back to take his revenge on her, Mark will do anything to save the woman he
loves even as his secret becomes one that may break these two apart.
I
got to admit, I didn’t read the first book that was her sister’s story, A
Scandalous Scot, but when I first started Catriona’s book, I was hoping for a
rich, detailed story and I got that and more from author Karen Ranney. Catriona
begins as brat, spoiled and determined, famed for her beauty and charm until a
deadly accident destroys more than her looks but also her spirit. Hiding from
the world, determined to see no one, living in exile, she walks in darkness,
foregoing the public and everyone around her. Yes Catriona is selfish and
spoiled but there is something about her that I fell in love with. Her world as
we see in the beginning after the accident was dark and forbidding until Mark
Thorburn kicks her door down and brings the light back into it. I got to admit,
Catriona grew on me through the course of the story. She gradually lets herself
find acceptance in herself as well as accepted the changed circumstances she
now found herself. Mark Thorburn is a man who is a doctor first and an heir to
an Earldom second. He is drawn to Catriona and remembers the vivacious beauty
from years before. The author is famed for giving us complex characters and in THE
LASS WORE BLACK is no exception. Her characters are very well-detailed,
have hidden vulnerabilities and layers that get peeled away slowly as the
reader turns the pages. With each page, I was drawn more and more into this
wonderful story and fell in love with Catriona as she found herself falling in
love with Mark. The sub-story of her past is very well written into the story
and the author does a marvelous job in keeping the reader glued till the very
end. I didn’t need to read the first book, A Scandalous Scot, which featured
her sister, Jean to understand the way Catriona was but plan to in the future.
THE
LASS WORE BLACK
is a story about redemption, forgiveness and finding love when you least expect
it. It is about learning to love yourself even when the world shies away from
you in horror, to having your head held high and letting no one see the tears
in your eyes. Ms. Ranney delivers a wild, poignant story of a woman who rises
like a phoenix and finds her true self in the arms of a man who loves her for
herself, not her beauty or her wit but the woman she is under it all, that she
hides away. The story is rich with
historical details, lush backgrounds that take the reader from London to
Edinburgh and a story that redeems an unlikely heroine into someone you can’t
help but fall in love with and root for.
If
you are looking for a wild ride from start to finish, then I recommend grabbing
THE LASS WORE BLACK and settling in for an afternoon of reading fun. I
can’t wait to see what else this author has for her readers in the future.
This
is an objective review and not an endorsement
