4 out of 5 stars! For the past year, Quinn has suffered the loss of his wife who died unexpectedly, but now for his young daughter's sake he plans to find a suitable woman to marry. Rowena is an idealistic young lady who is a romantic at heart and loves children. These two meet at a house party and soon their lives quickly change for the better .... or so Rowena believes, Quinn may come around once she helps him "see the light."

This is the first historical novel that I've read that is based in the Edwardian era, and I can definitely say that I liked it! Sassy and heartwarming, with just an added flare of fantasy into it ... captured my attention from the start. The "modern accommodations" with the "old time flare" aspect was fun too. I just couldn't get enough.

Though I will admit that I loved the electric romance that happens between Quinn and Rowena, it was actually Rowena and her generous heart that hooked me the most. She is just too sweet and how she fights for her little family from the beginning charmed me. As for Quinn, I loved how he did care for Rowena even when he didn't want to. I do believe they might just have been made for each other.

I recommend this standalone novel—that is within a series—to anyone wanting a matchless historical romance!

Review By: From Me to You ... Video, Photography, & Book Reviews
-- read more of this review and a TEASER on my blog --

***Review posted on The Eater of Books! blog***

A Scottish Lord for Christmas by Lauren Smith
Book Three of the Sins and Scandals series
Publisher: Forever Yours
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
Rating: 5 stars
Source: eARC from NetGalley

Summary (from Goodreads):

The best gifts come wrapped in a kilt...

Beautiful Lady Rowena Pepperwirth can have any man her heart desires. Unfortunately no gentleman has elicited even the slightest flutter—until she meets the brooding Lord Forres at a holiday house party. With just one look at the dashing Scottish lord, Rowena suddenly knows what she wants for Christmas.

Quinn MacCauley, Lord Forres, is in need of a wife. When he meets the lovely Lady Rowena, he knows she'll be a good mother to his daughter and a capable household manager. But Quinn doesn't count on Rowena being the most tempting woman he's ever met. He's determined not to risk his heart, but Rowena's just as determined to give him the greatest holiday gift of all—a chance at true love.

What I Liked:

This short novel was absolutely lovely. Maybe I'm in a very Christmas-y mood? Maybe I've been in a reading slump and this book has me feeling more confident in my reading? Maybe it's just Lauren Smith's amazing stories? In any case, I loved this story. Quinn and Rowena are a fantastic couple, and their story is tugged at my heartstrings and made me sigh happily.

I read A Gentleman Never Surrenders earlier this year and really enjoyed the story. This new book is about Rowena, the younger sister of the female protagonist in the previous book. Rowena is eighteen, a new debutante, and a sweetheart. She is very caring and kind - and she is fascinated by Lord Forres. Everyone knows about s fly whenever he and Rowena are around each other. Quinn can't help but be drawn to her, even if he thinks he isn't ready to love again. But what if he is?

I actually loved both characters equally, which is surprising because usually I like one more than the other. Rowena is so sweet and selfless, and she really wants to share her life with someone else, and have many children. She has a kind, good heart, a gentle nature, and a tenacious will.

Quinn, on the other hand, is the strong silent brooding type. He rarely smiles but he is very polite and formal. He needs a wife and mother for his daughter, but he isn't ready to love anyone yet. Quinn is selfless in his own ways, and very protective. But he also never tries to change Rowena or command her. He is so considerate of her feelings and thoughts. Quinn is a really good guy and the type of alpha male that I absolutely love.

The two of them together are really cute, but also super hot. They meet at an event for the debutantes, and they connect instantly. They have a great emotional/mental connection, but also a physical. There are some very steamy times between them! They have great chemistry.

It takes some time, but they grow to love each other. Their relationship is really sweet. My heart broke for Quinn and his grieving heart, but I was so happy whenever he let Rowena in. Don't get me wrong - the romance is sweet and wonderful. It took Quinn longer to let himself love her, but he definitely did from the start. This book, while rather short, takes place over several months. It ends in the Christmas season and it's so great! I love the holidays, especially when in romance novels.

This book ends in a lovely HEA! Quinn and Rowena - and Quinn's daughter - are a cute family, and I was so happy to see things work out. There was basically no drama, no crazy family, no blown-out-of-proportions misunderstandings... this story was great.

What I Did Not Like:

Nothing specific that I can think of!

Would I Recommend It:

If you like historical romance novels, this one is good. It's rather short, though I'm not sure if it is considered a novella (I don't think so). The story reads quickly and I was never bored at any point. I flew threw this novel and was looking for more by the end. At the same time, the ending is very wrapped-up and neat. I recommend A Gentleman Never Surrenders but this novel is even better!

Rating:

4.5 stars -> rounded up to 5 stars. I so rarely give out the 5-star-rating so you know it has to be good! This short novel made me so happy. I was cheering for Quinn and Rowena and I'm so happy they got their happy ending. Quinn especially! He is a trooper. I loved this book!

A Scottish Lord for Christmas was probably the gut wrenching of all the Sins and Scandals series. So, we have Lady Rowena Pepperwirth, she's the younger sister Milly. She's sweet, biddable, and about to enter her first season. Everything is new and exciting, but she catches the eye of Lord Forres. Quinn MacCauley needs to find a wife to raise his daughter, and fill some other needs. He's taken by Rowena and how much she cares for his daughter. His goal is to make her his wife and keep her at arms length. However, there is one problem, Rowena is the kind of person to love everyone with her whole heart. Plus, she's willing to take on the challenge of healing Quinn with her love.

Oh man, see where this can break your heart. We have one who is willing take a chance on love, and the other too scare to love again. A Scottish Lord for Christmas is a fairly fast read, and with little conflict other Quinn battling his feelings for Rowena. After all he never wants to forget his first love. Can he learn to love Rowena the way she's meant to be love or is he going to suck the life out of her. It doesn't help that his servants want to continue to honor the memory of his first wife. They are a bit nasty to Rowena. Fortunately, she has his daughter and his sister on her side. Overall, a pretty good read. Mainly a sweet one too.

Copy provided by Forever Romance.

A Scottish lord for Christmas is my favorite novella in the series. It felt more like my kind of book. The other two novellas felt too modern time-y for me. This one was closer to my reading taste when it comes to historical romance and I was happy. Rowena was the best heroine so far. She is a strong person and has a great character. I loved the connection she had with Quinn's daughter and it was clear that she loved the child very much. Rowena and Quinn had chemistry and everything worked out for me in this book. I don't want to spoil the end of the novella, but Rowena's actions there made me like her even more. All the ladies in the series are good, but Rowena is a little better than the other two. She didn't need to shout her independence from the rooftops to prove anything. I feel like as the series is processing the characters are becoming better and better. The book can be read as stand-alone, so if you haven't read the previous two don't hesitate to read this one.

I don’t like a romance where the hero is still in love with his dead wife or girlfriend. I guess I should’ve read more reviews before picking this up, but I enjoyed the previous book so much I just barreled on ahead.

Quinn “needed” a wife to be the mistress of his castle, and mother to his three-year-old daughter, but I didn’t know he had just lost his wife one year earlier otherwise I would’ve never picked this up. I imagined a completely different scenario. Start of hidden spoiler: [He marries Rowena, just eighteen years old mind you, all the while saying that he’d share his bed but never his heart. Quinn’s doesn’t enlighten Rowena before they marry, though, which completely ticked me off. He as good as tells Rowena’s dad, and I was ticked that the dad didn’t insist more time go by for courting once he had this knowledge! I mean, it wasn’t like Rowena didn’t have excellent prospects for marriage. She’s titled, beautiful, and rich!

After they were married Quinn hurt Rowena over and over by giving into passion and then withdrawing; cold immediately after. I wanted to strangle him when he said these words, words that Rowena overheard: “Kenna, I don’t love her, and she isn’t here for me but for my child. That is all.” And Rowena just rolls over and takes all this!

Yes, this is a romance so of course he turns around, the light of love dawning on him, but it was too little, too late in my opinion without nearly enough groveling.

In addition to a completely disappointing romance, I found certain aspects of the story ridiculous. Blair starts calling Rowena “mama” after only two days? The doctor asks Rowena to assist at his clinic like two seconds after meeting because she gave soup and ice chips to Blair when she had a fever? I don’t know, maybe that was advanced care back in 1911, but still, it seemed like a stretch to me especially since the doctor barely knew her. End of spoiler] Who knows, it could’ve been that I was so irritated by the romance that everything else was grating on me, too.

A copy was kindly provided by Forever Yours via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Christmas, the food, the games, the presents. Eyeing that big package under the tree wondering what on earth it could be…it’s all very exciting. However, in the realm of Christmas books I rarely have much luck and that once again seems to have run true with A Scottish Lord for Christmas, it’s like coming downstairs on Christmas morning and realising that aforementioned big package under the tree isn’t yours after all. Very disappointing.

What bugged me about this book was the age difference. She was 18 and he was 28. Now, usually I don’t mind age differences too much and you come to expect them in historical romances. But, what bugged me was how the characters viewed the age difference. He kept referring to her as being “so young”…after a while it began to creep me out. If he didn’t view her as an adult, why did he marry her? And, to be a little fair on him she acted so young! She figured she could “fix” him with her magical love, it was a little nauseating and more importantly I just didn’t buy the whole relationship.

So, not a winner for me! The more I read the more irritated I became, it did not leave me with much Christmas cheer, although it did almost drive me to some Christmas spirits.

What’s it About? Rowena Pepperwirth hasn’t had much luck finding a man she would consider marrying. It’s not because she isn’t popular, in fact she could have any man she wanted but she just isn’t interested in any of them. Until she meets Quinn MacCauley, Lord Forres at a holiday gathering. Quinn is looking for a wife, a woman who will be a mother to his daughter and he decides that Rowena with her kind and gentle heart will do. He has no plans of falling in love with her no matter how she tempts him but Rowena is determined to make their marriage a love match.




Overall reaction to the story? Laruen Smith has been one of the most surprising and delightful discoveries for me this year. Her style of writing really appeals to me and I find myself falling more and more in love with her characters with each one of her books I read. A Scottish Lord for Christmas is a warm, charming read with two characters that were so perfect for each other.


Rowena is almost too perfect but at the same time she still has that youthful exuberance that you can’t help but love. She has such an infectious optimism that I never doubted she could get Quinn to fall in love with her. And as for Quinn? He needed someone like Rowena. Her gentle persistence and giving nature was what he didn’t know he needed. I love that Rowena was cast in the role of Quinn’s savior and she didn’t need to use anything more than her patience and love to save Quinn and his daughter. Definitely a more emotional read than I expected.


Click It or Skip It? Click It. A Scottish Lord for Christmas certainly brings warmth and love this holiday season. Quinn and Rowena’s romance is just so sweet!

when rowena saves a little girl from falling into a well, the last thing she expects to happen is that she'll meet the man of her dreams. it's her first season, and she is looking for love. a sweeping, romantic love. and from the moment she meets lord forres, she's halfway there.

but quinn has already had that kind of love in his life. his late wife was the woman of his dreams. she was the girl he spent a lifetime loving, and it was cut tragically short. he's not interested in finding love. he just wants a woman to help him raise his daughter. a woman to keep his house. a woman who will keep him company. he knows that rowena wants love. and even though that's the last thing he wants to give her, he discovers that he is just selfish enough to want to keep her anyway.

quinn needs to realize that the heart is more resilient than he gives it credit for. that the capacity for love is boundless. and that if he lets himself believe these things, what he can build with rowena is something beautiful. this was a sweet short story with some real emotional depth.

**a scottish lord for christmas will publish on december 5, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/grand central publishing (forever) in exchange for my honest review.

This was adorable and heartwarming.

Rowena captures you from the very beginning with her effervescent spirit and her open heart. How she just lets Quinn and his daughter in her heart and never gives up hope on them loving her back is so wonderful and precious you just warm to her instantly.

Quinn takes a little time. He has you melt with his interactions with his daughter and how he has such respect for woman that he feels they should have a say. You also melt with his love for his deceased wife. What drives you batty is his confusion and stubbornness in letting Rowena in his heart. She is already there yet he keeps trying to shut it down and gets a wee prickly at times. Watching Quinn realize life is to live and love and that his heart is big enough for many is heartwarming and at times heartbreaking because you see he doesn’t want to cause any pain but is afraid. He is a great guy just lost in grief. It is Rowena that helps him move on and live once again.

Together these two are wonderful. Their personalities mesh and they just belong and fit. Rowena helps quinn become more outgoing and sweet. Quinn gives Rowena the chance to shine and be herself. The love they have and capacity to love is wonderful and beautiful. The way they become a family and their journey to love, acceptance and being a family is sweet, sometimes rough but always joyful and even at times sexy. Those kisses wowza. A wonderful sweet heartwarming story filled with love, family and friendship where you fall in love with the characters and feel like you are amongst friends when you are with them in the story.

Scrumptiously, deliciously different tale of love. Lauren Smith always delights us with her wonderful way of developing wonderful characters and writing compelling stories for them. This book – and this series certainly attests to that.

This stories in this series begin with a house party in book one of the series. Leopold Graham, Earl of Hampton was almost ‘pockets to let’ and needed to find a rich wife. He had his sights set on Millie, but he didn’t like her very much. So, Leopold gets his HEA in the first book and Millie gets hers in the second book – and now, in the third book, Millie’s sister gets her HEA.

As this tale begins, Leo and Ivy are engaged and Owen has just ‘ruined’ Millie so they have to marry. Millie and her parents leave Rowena at the house party while they go to their neighboring estate to make arrangements for Millie’s wedding to Owen. Rowena is so nervous because she’s just had her first season and this is her first house party. She’s afraid she’ll make a mistake and fall flat on her face even with Leo’s mom as her chaperone.

During dinner that night, all of the ladies are all a’ twitter about Quinn MacCauley, Lord Forres, a Scottish Earl. Rowena is half-way down the table from him, but she finds his voice mesmerizing and her eyes are constantly drawn to him.

The next day, while taking a walk in the gardens, Rowena sees a small girl running her chubby little legs off – directly for the slippery, frozen fountain in the garden and there is nobody running after her. Rowena hikes up her skirts and takes off at a full run and manages to snare the little sprite just before she pitches headlong into the fountain. She is about two or three years old and she was looking for ‘fishies’. Rowena hugs her close and falls in love with the child. She has no idea who the child belongs to or why she would be all alone in the garden. Then, the child’s nurse comes puffing up to Rowena and explains that the little girl is a bit of an escape artist and that she is the daughter of Lord Forres who is a widower. At about that time, Lord Forres himself runs up and is surprised to see his daughter, Blair, being held in the arms of a stranger because she will not usually have anything to do with people that she is not totally familiar with.

Quinn was totally, completely, profoundly and irrevocably in love with his wife and her death devastated him. If it weren’t for his sweet bairn, he wouldn’t have made it through. Now, he has decided to find himself a wife – not because he wants to, but because Blair needs a mother and he needs someone to oversee the household part of the estate so he can be free to manage the rest. He wants someone who is totally different than his first wife because he doesn’t want any reminders. Since Maura was a Scot, he looked for an English woman, etc.

Whomever Quinn decided to marry, she would have to understand that there would never be love between them. It would always be a marriage of convenience – no love, probably not even affection. However, he couldn’t help but be attracted to Rowena who was sweet, gentle and kind – and she genuinely cared for his daughter. Once he decided to propose he was really surprised when Rowena accepted.

Their journey, most especially Quinn’s journey, to finding love and happiness is a delightful read. I couldn’t put it down. The characters were wonderfully developed and I was truly invested in the story and their happiness.

See my reviews for the first two books:
An Earl by Any Other Name – Book 1
A Gentleman Never Surrenders – Book 2

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

I've been looking forward to this book since we where introduced to these two earlier in the series and it was just as good as I had hoped.

This story is just heartwarming from start to finish. It's a story about learning to love again and accepting that love can happen anytime and that it is worth the risks.

It's a delicate balance for Quinn and as a result he has some great character growth. You watch him struggle with a range of emotions and thoughts when it comes to his feelings for Rowena. It just gives his character a genuine edge that I really enjoyed as a reader. This is very much Quinn's story about embracing the past but moving forward to the future.

In comparison, Rowena is very confident in her feelings and so she doesn't have as much character growth as I expected. Instead, she's more of a solid foundation to build this story up. In a way it was nice to see the female character be the "stronger" one who doesn't have to learn or become more comfortable with herself.

While the chemistry is there from the start with these two, I found the sexual tension took a little longer to build. I think it's because their initial meeting is so rushed and Rowena's feelings are almost insta-love that it took me awhile to feel the sparks between them even though I knew they worked well on paper. But the romance between them definitely heated up the more I read.

Overall, it's a great read in time for the holidays and a solid installment in this great series!

Thanks Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and netgalley for this ARC.

These novellas are the perfect length. Sweet, sinful, and wrapped up with a bang.