My mother might be Candace Camp's biggest fan. After
picking up one of her books at the library early last
year, she then proceeded to read the entire back
catalog in 2015. (And people wonder where I get my
love of reading from!) I hadn't encountered Camp before
my mother's deep dive, and with other commitments last
year, I never got around to picking up the voluminous
number of paperbacks now in bags passed down to me so
ENRAPTURED is my first trip through this world.
And holy cow, do I understand my mother's obsession.
ENRAPTURED is set in Scotland, the Highlands to be
precise, on the sprawling estate of Duncally, where the
two previous books in the Secrets of the Loch
series were also set. Coll is the estate manager,
appointed when his sister married the lord of the manor,
and Violet is a budding archaeologist who leverages her
social position for the ability to work on ruins recently
discovered on the Duncally property.
ENRAPTURED is adjacent to the enemies-to-lovers trope,
because while they do not outright hate each other on
sight, it's pretty close, and they take a bit of time to
warm to each other. Violet, as you can imagine being an
archaeologist in Regency United Kingdom, is not your
typical society woman. She's brash, direct, smart as a
whip, and does not believe in the institution of
marriage. Coll is insanely attracted to her, but also
completely confused by her. When I told my husband about
Violet and Coll, he remarked that brash, smart, sexy
women still simultaneously turn on and confuse the hell
out of men, so his sympathy was with Coll. Coll, for what
it's worth, is the most dependable and honest of men,
someone who loves his land and his job and his family and
is faithful to a fault to all of them. Part of his
frustration with Violet is that she disrupts his
patterns. Heroes never do well with pattern disruptions,
do they? Bless.
I adore Violet. She may, for some readers, be
frustrating but I've worked in "male" professions, and I
understand every layer of defenses she's erected around
herself. I get why she needs to work harder than everyone
else, sleep less, read more, work more, know more. I've
been in so many situations where the men in a group with
me can get away with knowing just enough where if I am
not the most prepared, I am excluded from decisions. It's
crap, this patriarchy, and I feel for her. Which, of
course, only made me root for her happily ever after all
the harder, and I was so pleased when she got it.
Add into this story a dash of mystery with a missing
treasure, spending time with characters from the previous
books in a way which only makes the story better and not
prohibitive to those of us jumping in at this one,
cracking dialogue and melt the pages orgasms, ENRAPTURED
is not to be missed.
In the enticing new novel from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Candace Camp’s “poignant, sensual, emotion-packed” (RT Book Reviews) Regency romance series, Secrets of the Loch, an unlikely duo discovers love may be the greatest prize of all when they join an exciting treasure hunt through the Scottish Highlands. When Coll Munro finds himself supervising an archaeological dig on the sprawling Highlands estate of Duncally, the handsome Scot’s only worry is his former crofter friends, who seem to delight in making his job as hard as possible. Little does he know his biggest problem comes in a much smaller package. Gorgeous Violet Thornhill is an exasperating, meddling bluestocking who came to the site to examine the ruins and instead finds herself studying Coll. The unyielding Highlander and the headstrong English beauty clash at every turn. But when a midnight intruder threatens Violet and the excavation itself, these polar opposites must work together to solve a decades-old mystery. As Coll and Violet race to decipher long-buried clues, will they discover riches hidden years ago...or an unbridled passion more precious than gold?