Sold To A Laird-Karen Ranney

Sold To A Laird
Karen Ranney
Avon, Dec 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780061771750

In 1860 London, Lady Sarah busts into a meeting her father the Duke of Herridge has with a stranger. She begs him not to send her ailing mother back to Scotland. Her dad ignores her and turns to Douglas Eston seeking financial backing for his invention and offers his daughter in marriage. Sarah is stunned when Douglas accepts the deal. After he leaves, her father says to her marry Douglas or her mother will be moved from Chavensworth.

Sarah informs Douglas no sex; he agrees saying they need to get acquainted. They marry and head to Chavensworth where her mother is dying. After their arrival, Sarah finds Douglas talking to her comatose mom about their marriage. He reflects back to when he was eight and orphaned and fourteen when Acano took him out of the alleys. When Sarah’s mom dies, Douglas takes charge while she falls into a deep grieving sleep while her dad fails to come to the funeral. Later, Sarah informs Douglas she must go to her grandfather’s home to inform him his estranged daughter died. He is shocked to learn her maternal side is the Laird of Kilmarin, the laird of the largest clan in the Perth area where he is from. As she learns the truth about her heritage, Sarah and Douglas fall in love, but neither makes the first critical move.

This is an entertaining Victorian romance in which the relationship between the lead couple is excellent as it slowly evolves from distrust into one of love while the support cast enhances understanding the motives of the lead couple. Although the hero is too perfect while her dad is too odious; their polar opposite extremes compound how readers see each of them. Sold to a Laird is an enjoyable historical.

Harriet Klausner