{Victorian Rebels Review} The Scot Beds His Wife by @Kerrigan_Byrne

The Scot Beds His Wife (Victorian Rebels, #5) by Kerrigan Byrne
Series: Victorian Rebels #5
Published by St. Martin's Press on October 3rd 2017
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The Scot Beds His Wife is the next lush, captivating Victorian romance in the Victorian Rebels series by Kerrigan Byrne.

They’re rebels, scoundrels, and blackguards—dark, dashing men on the wrong side of the law. But for the women who love them, a hint of danger only makes the heart beat faster.

Gavin St. James, Earl of Thorne, is a notorious Highlander and an unrelenting Lothario who uses his slightly menacing charm to get what he wants—including too many women married to other men. But now, Gavin wants to put his shady past behind him...more or less. When a fiery lass who is the heiress to the land he wishes to possess drops into his lap, he sees a perfectly delicious opportunity...

A marriage most convenient

Samantha Masters has come back to Scotland, in a pair of trousers, and with a whole world of dangerous secrets from her time spent in the Wild West trailing behind her. Her only hope of protection is to marry—and to do so quickly. Gavin is only too willing to provide that service for someone he finds so disturbingly irresistible. But even as danger approaches, what begins as a scandalous proposition slowly turns into an all-consuming passion. And Gavin discovers that he will do whatever is necessary to keep the woman he has claimed as his own...

I received The Scot Beds His Wife (Victorian Rebels, #5) for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Also in this series: The Duke (Victorian Rebels, #4), The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo (Victorian Rebels, #6)

Gavin St. James, the Earl of Thorne, has found a way to get out from underneath his brother’s thumb and lead a prosperous and fulfilling life. All he needs to do is purchase the land situated next to his in Wester Ross, Scotland. One big obstacle is the owner of the land, Miss Alison Ross, is in America and has no desire to sell her land to the son of the man who killed her father.

Alison has the misfortune of traveling across America by rail with plans to sail back to Scotland. When she becomes an unwilling participant in a train robbery gone wrong, she finds salvation in the train robbers wife, Samantha Masters. Sam takes Alison’s place and travels on to Scotland to escape her husband’s family while Alison goes back home to marry her fiancee.

Masquerading as Alison is harder than Sam first imagined. While she’s a million times better equipped to the harsh life in the wilds of Scotland than Alison ever would’ve been, an unforeseen obstacle stands in her way in the form of Gavin St. James. Sam knows in her heart she should hate the man as Alison should, but time and time again she feels the opposite. While Gavin never imagined Alison would be able to work her land as diligently as she seemed to, he is impressed and attracted beyond reason to the last woman he should be. When a tragedy bigger than anyone expected occurs, Sam accepts Gavin’s offer of marriage.

Bryne gives us an unusual pairing between the sassy American Sam and gruff, opinionated Scot Gavin. I loved Sam the instant she stepped up and saved a life in the botched train robbery. Her strength in the midst of an absolute bloodbath made her one of the fiercest heroines I have read in recent memory. While trying to hold on to her Alison persona, she couldn’t help but let the real Sam shine through.

At first, I wanted to beat Gavin about the head with a shovel for his assumptions about his neighbor. But, his opinionated ass got handed to him when he rode over the hillside and found his neighbor beginning to make the neglected land prosper again. I had to take a break from reading at that point to have a laugh at Gavin’s expense. Even with that first misconception, he continued to doubt Alison/Sam’s ability to prosper.

By the time they became husband and wife, passions erupted in waves for our fated couple. Through more than a few horrific trials, Gavin and Sam along with a strong support system, triumphed and flourished in a way I didn’t think would be possible. This series is only getting better as it continues. With two more books planned, I can’t wait for more love, lust, and adventure from Kerrigan Byrne!

Read my review of book 4 in the Victorian Rebels series, The Duke.