The Lady Most Willing...: A Novel In Three Parts [Mass Market Paperback]

The plot of "The Lady Most Willing," is what makes historical romance such an entertaining genre. The notion that an aging Scotsman would kidnap Scottish ladies in a hope that his half-Scottish nephews will marry a Scot so that their children can be mostly Scottish is outlandish and hilarious. Add in the names Connie Brockway, Eloisa James and Julia Quinn, have them work together on a collaboration and you have gold in the form of a beautifully written and well constructed story.

Better than an Anthology "The Lady Most Willing" is a story told in three parts about a group of titled gentleman and well to do ladies who are thrown together in a frozen castle. Because its the highlands during a snow storm no one is able to leave the castle and no one is able to come to their rescue. They are stuck together and must make due.

Julia Quinn brings charm, hilarious dialogue and her beautiful writing to the story of Catriona Burns and the Duke of Bretton. Kidnapped by accident, Catriona because she was wearing a similar shade of blue to one of the other ladies and Bretton due to the fact he was asleep in his carriage when it was stolen by Taran's men, Catrina and the duke are forgotten and left to their own devices. They bond over a warm fire and the bond of friendship soon turns into something more heated. It becomes a question of whether two people can fall in love, not at first sight, but at first serious conversation.

The ever controlled lord Byron and the spectacle wearing Fiona with the tarnished reputation are brought to life by the romantic descriptions of Eloisa James. Having escaped to Scotland after his engagement was ended amidst scandal, Lord Byron is shocked when his uncle kidnaps a gaggle of women for he and his cousin to choose their wives. With duty and honor in mind, Byron decides not to look a gift horse in the mouth and sets his eyes on the beautiful Marilla. After one interaction Bryon changes his mind and takes refuge from the young lady with her older sister, Fiona. What starts as a means to an end, transforms into romance and Byron must decide whether he can shame his family by marrying a fallen woman.

Robin the "Prince of Rakes" and Cecily who is "every mother-in-laws dream" is the creation of Connie Brockway. In the case of Robin and Cecily it's love at first sight. The minute they lay eyes on each other they both know they have found the partner of their future life. Believing no lady could love him, Robin does not make a move. Unwilling to lose her chance at what could be forever love, Cecily decides to take matters into her own hands and seduce the Prince of Rakes.

Three different stories from three different authors with different writing styles. all three authors are talented and tell well formed short stories. Julia Quinn takes the first third of the book and while she beautifully crafts her own story, she drops in subtle hints to foreshadow the other stories. By the time the story of Catriona and Bretton wraps up, Quinn has dropped enough bread crumbs that you simply must read the rest of the book.

Personally, I enjoyed Quinn's story the best, but was so invested in the tale I kept up with the story and thoroughly enjoyed.

Rating: A- ... Heat: Sweet/Warm

What kind of trouble can ten young ladies and gentlemen snowed in at a Scottish castle get into? Well, when the party includes a duke, an earl, a French comte, and a highland laird, the answer is: quite a lot.

Four young ladies, one by accident, and a duke, by coincidence, are kidnapped from a winter ball by Taran Ferguson, laird of Finovair castle, in hopes of matching three of said young ladies with his two nephews. Trapped at the castle for at least three days, many many hijinks ensue.

We first meet Catriona Burns, a gently bred young lady who, unfortunately, comes from a poor family. Which is why kidnapper extraordinaire, Taran, is surprised to see her get out of the getaway carriage. He wanted heiresses for his two nephews, which immediately disqualifies Catriona. Also there by coincidence is the Duke of Bretton, John Shevington, who was asleep in his carriage when it was `borrowed' for the kidnapping. Finding themselves not part of the planned match making, Catriona and John find amusement with each other.

Part one was full of wit and humor--really, it's Julia Quinn doing what she does best. Cute and sweet with a dash of fun. I loved every single second of Catriona and John's flirty and fun banter. It put a constant smile on my face, which is why I wasn't ready for it to end! Oh, sure, it's wrapped up nicely, but... I wanted more of Catriona and John! Much more.

Next we meet Fiona Chrisholm--a bespectacled heiress with a less than stellar reputation. And, when compared to her half sister, Marilla, Fiona doesn't expect to be noticed. But Byron Wotton, an Earl and the nephew of Taran Ferguson, can't help but see the bookish and fiery redhead. Byron is... a bit tetchy. Grouchy and stuffy for someone his age. And Fiona can rile him up like no other!

Part two took me by surprise. Eloisa James always manages to pack such a punch in her novellas, I really shouldn't have been surprised that I invested so much in both Byron and Fiona. But who can blame me? Byron was such a fuddy-duddy that you can't help but smile every time he says or does something particularly fuddy-duddy-ish. And Fiona's heartbreaking (and unfortunately sort of hilarious) fall from grace years earlier only endeared me to her more.

Lastly comes Cecily, a quiet but determined young lady. Unlike our previous couples, Cecily is not willing to let the man choose her. She is going to choose the man. And she has set her hat upon Robin Parles, Comte and Taran's nephew and heir. With a bad reputation as a rake, somewhat deserved but mostly not, Robin doesn't feel he deserves Cecily. So it's up to her to convince him otherwise!

I love the role reversals of part three. It was great to see the lady be the pursuer, even if poor Robin was less than thrilled. I haven't previously read anything by Connie Brockway, but I enjoyed her writing immensely. There was an understated, quiet humor to both Cecily and Robin--I particularly enjoyed the image of poor Cecily stuffing bed drapes down the front of her borrowed dresses to maintain her modesty (the busts were much too spacious)!

If you are a fan of love at first sight romances, A Lady Most Willing is definitely for you! I love the idea of a novel in three parts--not quite an anthology, not really a novel, but something entirely unique. And so, so fun to read. Truly, I loved reading three different author's voices tell us three different tales set in the same time and place. Just... magical. And refreshing.

I'd actually been looking forward to this book, the second collaboration by these 3 talented HR authors, following the previous The Lady Most Likely...: A Novel in Three Parts. It takes place in Scotland and the description made it sound like fun.

Scottish laird Taran Ferguson has no children to carry on his family line and his two nephews are not cooperating by finding good Scottish lassies to marry, so when they are visiting at his castle, he decides to supply the lassies for them. He sends his men to a ball to abduct 3 lovely heiresses and bring them for his 2 nephews to choose from. I guess 3 seemed like a good selection to him but it turns out his bumbling men bring 4 lassies and a duke, the extra young woman not even from a rich family. The accidental abduction of the duke was because the bumblers used his coach to abduct the women and did not know he was asleep inside.

Now we have 4 young women and 3 young men at the castle and 50-something-year-old Taran, who must be counted for romantic reasons you will discover as you read. Each author pairs off 1 man and 1 woman in her section of the book and this time, as opposed to what happened in THE LADY MOST LIKELY, the characters stay pretty much true to form throughout the book. Since they're so shallowly developed, that wasn't too hard to do.

But what I thought would be a rather more volatile, exciting story, what with the abductions and all, turned out to be just another boring house party. And because there were so many romances, they were rushed, with all the pairs falling into unconvincing insta-love. The whole thing was a very superficial, shallow and predictable read with cookie-cutter characters.

I suppose one could blame the set-up of the book for the lack of depth, with each author writing only a short novella (or perhaps long short story) within its framework. But authors such as Courtney Milan can get a lot of depth into a very few pages. These 3 authors are talented and should be capable of the same, but they didn't even try.

In addition, there were some silly mistakes, probably typos and not the authors' fault. One was a reference to "dangling" a child on someone's knees. That sounds pretty uncomfortable. I imagine that child would much prefer a "dandling". Then there was the reference to fashion and bosom exposure during the reign of George VII. Considering that the last English king George was George VI and he was present Queen Elizabeth II's father, I'm thinking that should be a reference to George III in the book.

All in all, I found myself to be the wrong reader for this book: I'm too old, too easily bored, and have read way too many HRs to find anything original in this one. I preferred the authors' first collaboration to this one and now am not sure I'll read the third one to come, unless I find it at the library.