Princess Tatiana Octavia Linnet Rocheneau of Sedonia comes in disguise to Teleere in order to observe the Laird Cairn MacTavish in order to see who he really is before she will send a marriage proposal. She barely sets foot on the shores before she is accosted by none other than the Laird himself. He accuses her of being a well known thief Megs no matter how much she denies it. She doesn't tell him who she really is and he wouldn't have believed her anyway. Tatiana is about to learn more about the seedy underbelly of Teleere than she ever could have imagined.
Between Cairn's extreme stubbornness and distrust and Tatiana's never even attempting to reveal who she is until pretty much the end of the book caused me some fury at points. There was lots of interesting side characters and even a small assassination plot line. It would have been a bit better if the author had spent slightly less time on making Cairn accuse Tatiana of being the thief Megs over and over and maybe actually worked in a little more information on the assassination plot. In the end the main plot was all resolved very quickly while still leaving unsolved subplots. (hopefully resolved in the other 2 books?) But I enjoyed it and it was still good so I will read the next book. ( )

Like a clergyman waking up in a seedy strip club, I have no idea how or why I found myself reading this highland romance. The Scottish Highlands, Texas ranches, Greek yachts, Arab harems are places I fear to tread.

No wonder I found myself completely lost in the narrative. For most of the book I wasn't sure if I was reading fairy-tale fantasy or historical romance masked with a few fictional place names.

The quality of Ms Greiman's writing gives impetus to the narrative, but the story demands complete suspension of disbelief (hence the suspicion that this was intended as a fairy-tale romance). The princess of one fictional country travels incognito to another fictional country to forge an alliance by marrying a laird with an evil reputation. Within minutes of landing on the laird's island she's under arrest, shuffling between the laird's dungeons and prisons and his bed chambers. Meanwhile, the piratical laird metamorphoses into a criminal interrogator and the battle of wits and heavy breathing begins.

I surprised myself by reading this book through to the end, and even taking a quick peek at the second volume in the series, which is tied very closely to the events in the first.

Even though I enjoyed [b:The Princess and Her Pirate|1444513|The Princess and Her Pirate (Sedonia, #1)|Lois Greiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183670974s/1444513.jpg|1435188], it confirmed my aversion (there's a paradox for you!) to this particular sub-genre and probably explains why I abandoned [b:The Princess Masquerade|508093|The Princess Masquerade (Sedonia, #2)|Lois Greiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298562158s/508093.jpg|496117] part-way through. ( )

This a book for someone to read if they are looking for a conquering pirate romance. ( )