THE HIGHLANDER'S PROMISE

Highlander Aulay Buchanan discovers a woman floating in the ocean, lashed to a mast. She recovers consciousness just long enough to indicate that she’s in danger, but when she next wakes up, she’s lost her memory and jumps to the conclusion that Aulay is her husband.

Aulay may be laird of his clan, but his scarred face has convinced him he’ll never find a wife—an impression bolstered by his shallow ex-fiancee’s cruel rejection of him after his battle injury. So when he pulls a beautiful woman from the sea and she reacts to him without fear and with attraction, he begins to wonder if perhaps he’s found a mate. Of course the situation is complicated by the fact that she was a captive of some sort, having been tied to a mast that evidently broke off during a storm. Thanks to severe head injuries, she's lost her memory—while she's unconscious for three weeks, Aulay gives her the name Jetta, and when she wakes up she can't even remember her real name so that's what he calls her—and thanks to Aulay’s brother’s advice not to cause her any stress, Aulay decides not to contradict her belief that she’s married to him. This puts him in a complicated position, since she doesn’t understand why he's keeping her at a distance in the marital bed. Meanwhile, it’s clear that someone definitely wants her dead, and since she can’t give them any clues as to who her enemies are, the Buchanans must keep her safe while trying to discern the danger. Aulay wonders if it would be better or worse to marry her for real. Sands returns to her historical romance series revolving around the Highlander Buchanans, and while the story is fast-paced and generally engaging, it depends too much on a psychotic villain whose motivations come across as ridiculously shallow in the end.

Unexceptional.