Book Review: A Devil in Scotland (No Ordinary Hero #3) by Suzanne Enoch

Rating: 5 Stars

Expected publication: January 30th 2018 by St. Martin's Press
Summary: The dawning of desire...

1806, Scotland: Wild, reckless Callum MacCreath is in no hurry to become someone’s husband. But when his responsible, steady older brother Ian announces his engagement to their childhood friend Rebecca, Callum makes a startling discovery: he wants the lovely young lass for himself. But it’s too late, and when Ian banishes him for his duplicity, he’s only too happy to leave Scotland forever…

...is delicious and dangerous.

1816: Marrying Ian was the practical, logical thing for Becca to do. But once Callum sailed away to America, she missed his rakish charm and lust for life. Now, ten years later, Becca is a widow when a much-changed Callum returns to his Scottish homeland. Will he remember their spirited, fiery connection, or does he blame her for his brother’s unexpected death? This time neither of them can deny their scorching attraction, but will their hearts be burned in the blazing heat of scandal?
(from Goodreads)

Review: This was my first Suzanne Enoch, and only my second or third historical romance about highlanders. You know you found a great book when you immediately go on Goodreads and start marking all of their previously published books as "To Read," haha.

I love Suzanne Enoch's writing style. Her characters are so multi-faceted and full of depth, flaws, and redeeming qualities. The dialogue is wonderful and often witty. Both our hero (Callum) and our heroine (Rebecca) go through quite a journey of personal growth, after suffering a significant amount of pain and heartache. I love that Callum and Rebecca were childhood besties, and that Callum doesn't even realize his feelings for her until he finds out she's engaged to his brother. I also really appreciate that while young Becca is drawn to Callum, she also knows she needs to make a wise decision for her future and the drunken, volatile brother is not that choice. This is a friends to lovers story while also being a second chance romance and, because of the situation that brings them back together, also sort of an enemies to lovers story as well. It's so multi-layered and multi-faceted, and Enoch weaves it all together with great skill. I had a really hard time putting this book down!

I thought I was nae going to like all the Scottish accents, ye ken, but it wasnae too annoying for me. I think that consistency and moderation are key when writing dialects authentically, and if the whole book had been full of spellings like "oot" for "out" and whatnot, I'd have DNF'd this in a hot minute. Mostly it was use of aye, nae, and ken to give the Highlanders an authentic feel to their dialogue, which kept me remembering where we were set (like you could forget with all the men in kilts!!) without alienating me as a reader. Enoch manages to strike a really great balance, which I think can be difficult to do.

This is the third book in a series. It does touch on the plotlines for the first two books, including what is likely plot twists and outcomes of plotlines. The characters/plotlines from the previous two books have some bearing on what happens in this book, but what you need to know to understand is covered/recapped in this book so it doesn't affect the readability at all. While this book can definitely be read as a stand alone, beware spoilers for the previous two books. If you really care about that sort of thing, read Hero in the Highlands (No Ordinary Hero #1) and My One True Highlander (No Ordinary Hero #2) first.

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.