BOOK REVIEW- WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shy, pretty, and talented with a drawing pencil, but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: she invented a sweetheart.

A Scottish sweetheart. One who was handsome and honorable and devoted to her, but conveniently never around. Maddie poured her heart into writing the imaginary Captain MacKenzie letter after letter . . . and by pretending to be devastated when he was (not really) killed in battle, she managed to avoid the pressures of London society entirely.

Until years later, when this kilted Highland lover of her imaginings shows up in the flesh. The real Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives on her doorstep—handsome as anything, but not entirely honorable. He's wounded, jaded, in possession of her letters . . . and ready to make good on every promise Maddie never expected to keep.  AMAZON 4STARS

Maddie was odd, totally likeable but she wasn't the expected normal woman.  She was creative and terrified of crowds.  This is how the engagement to the  "imaginary" Captain Logan MacKenzie came about.  It gave her the ability to live her own life and in her own way.  Imagine her shock when the real MacKenzie showed up.  Her Aunt was also eccentric but also such a good addition to the story.  Logan had lived so much of his life without love, or much kindness even as a young child.  So the letters of the foolish young girl of sixteen warmed his life and that went on for many years.  He was not beyond blackmailing her with her letters, all to make a home for the surviving men from his battalion.  They had become his family and had followed him through many dangers.  They were Scottish men who came home to nothing.  Homes were gone, lands which had been in their families for years also gone.  Loved ones, gone too.  

He'd do just about anything to give  them a new life and home.  So many of the interactions between Maddie and Logan were funny. She might have been terrified of crowds but she did meet him toe to toe and was pretty clever in her attempts to outwit him.  It was an enjoyable battle of wits.