The Witch of Clan Sinclair
Clan Sinclair #2
Karen Ranney

Avon Books/HarperCollins
April 2014/ ISBN
978-0062242464
Historical Romance (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1872) / Sexuality

Reviewed by Leslie C. Halpern

Mairi Sinclair is a figurative witch, not a literal one. An independent woman who runs the Edinburgh Gazette newspaper, she unexpectedly encounters the Lord Provost (otherwise known as Logan Harrison) while being denied admission to an event at the Edinburgh Press Club – for men only. Her brash manner and determination to hear the author speak, despite strict rules against females, utterly bewitches Logan. In his official role as Lord Provost, however, all he can do is enforce the laws.

Logan meets many prim and proper women who abide by the laws and customs of the time and who would happily become his bride. Mairi, however, beguiles him with just the opposite: her head-strong ways, self-confidence, and quick mind. After she writes a scathing poem about him in a broadside, their relationship strangely begins to blossom. It doesn’t take long for Mairi to realize she was wrong about the man, and the rest of the town (which idolizes him) was right. Logan is nearly a saint — except when it comes to restraining his desire for a certain blue-eyed journalist who dabbles in poetry, when she’s not soliciting support for women’s right to vote.

Mairi’s participation in the rights movement prompts a violent assault on her, followed by anonymous threatening letters and another devastating event. Someone with intimate knowledge of the couple seems to be involved, and Logan’s rat-like assistant and Mairi’s newly-arrived pressman are the prime suspects. But is there someone else who wants to stop her?

Their romance includes increasing sexual tension and playful verbal sparring as the relationship develops. Sometimes enemies, sometimes friends, sometimes lovers, their status seem to change by the hour (or by Mairi’s fickle temperament). The back-story involving women’s rights during this time provides an interesting conflict for the couple – far more enjoyable than Mairi’s inability to trust due to a previous affair that ended badly. Mairi is often as unpleasant as Logan is wonderful.

The language stays lively, with plenty of details to delight the senses and provide vivid descriptions, such as “She picked up her skirts, walked the flagstone path along the mulched beds prepared for winter, past the fountain drained and filled with sand lest it crack in the cold.” The second in the author’s Clan Sinclair series (following The Devil of Clan Sinclair), this novel makes a welcome addition that should have readers eagerly awaiting the third volume.


Reviews of other titles in this series

The Devil of Clan Sinclair #1