The Lady Most Willing...

The Lady Most Willing... by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway is a book that is going straight on my Keeper shelf. Taran Ferguson, the Laird of Finovair Castle in Kilkarnity, Scotland is looking for heiresses for his two nephews. He feels like he is coming to the end of his life and is worried that his heir, Robin, Comte de Rocheforte, son of one of his sisters, will never marry and spend his life as a rake. His other nephew, Byron Wotten, Earl of Oakley, just happens to be at the castle with his cousin and uncle, just enjoying the holiday. Taran decides that he will go with his retainers and kidnap some eligible women from the Maycott's home a few miles away, in the midst of a ball. This is accomplished by "borrowing" a carriage to haul the ladies back in. When Robin and Byron hear the commotion out in the yard, they are very surprised by what their uncle has done, but it is too late to take the women back to the Maycott's home, a blizzard has descended and the mountain passes are snowed in. Taran opens the carriage doors and the ladies step out one by one, Cecily Chisholm, half-sisters Fiona & Marilla Chisholm and Catriona Burns. Oh and there was one unexpected person who comes out of the carriage, the person to whom it belongs, the Duke of Bretton. I have never read a book by any one of these ladies that disappointed me. Singly they are forces to be reckoned with, but together, in one book, you've got a book I really did not want to end. The book and its different stories all flow together as though written by one hand. If you did not know that it was written by three very, very talented authors, nothing in the way it is written would give it away. These ladies write romance with a touch, sometimes more than a touch, of humor. I smiled and laughed, teared up a couple of times and could not put this book down, but yet, didn't want it to end. Each lady has obstacles and hurdles to overcome, likewise the gentlemen do as well. Each writer brings together a most unexpected couple and takes them through their falling in love and a short courtship (I think 5 days total) before bringing them all back together at the end, when the passes are open again and their families come for them, only to find all the girls are married. Even the last one I expected to be married and whom she married. I won't tell you which one it is, or whom she married, but just from the brief glimpse we get of them at the end, you know they are truly in love. That, is the best ending of all. A complete and forever, HEA. In historical romance, there is nothing I love better and as usual, I was not disappointed. If you like historical romances, please, pick up The Lady Most Willing... You won't be sorry.