Lady Cristina Macleod is the oldest child and her father insists that she must marry before her younger sisters are wed. It's been the frustration of many suitors, because Cristina's younger sister, Mariota, is such a stunning beauty that all want her first. When Hector Reaganach rescued Mariota as her dress caught on fire, he fell hard for the beautiful girl. But the girls' father is superstitious, absolutely refusing to pledge Mariota to Hector before Cristina is married. Hector stands firm, refusing to marry the older sister, never dreaming that the laird would resort to trickery to get his way.

Cristina tries to defy her father, knowing that it will go ill for her when Hector discovers the trick played on him. But her father is never shy about disciplining his children and when he threatens to turn his anger to Mariota, Cristina goes along with the plan.

This is a surprisingly dark story. We're used to bad guys --

there does have to be a plot, after all. But in LORD OF THE ISLES, the father is not a good man, Mariota has definite hints of evil to her personality and the storyline, in general, is ridden with overtones of evil. I like that Hector begins to see Mariota as the self-serving wench that she is, and I found his character believable. I did have some trouble that Cristina didn't react more strongly to her sister's decidedly interfering nastiness. Her goodness was just a little too good to be believable. Overall, though, this was a good book, combining those dark elements into a readable story with a well-done plot.