MY LORD MONLEIGH by Jan Cox Speas

PUBLISHER: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956
RESSUED: Avon, 1978
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: Scotland, 17th century
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Scotland was a land divided. The rightful Simon Stuart had been driven into exile in France, his country ruled by the dour Presbyterians who had ridden into power on the coattails of Oliver Cromwell's rise to power in England. All who opposed them were rebels and outlaws, to be hunted down and branded as traitors. And the man with the highest price on his head was Monleigh.

Anne Lindsay met him first on the windswept moors, though when first she saw him she had no idea who he might be. She knew only that he was handsome and that he did something to her heart, that here was the one man who could bring warmth and happiness into a life seemingly forever chilled by the bleakness of her early childhood. . .

MY THOUGHTS: I was disappointed in this. I finally bought it for $13 after searching for several years then horded it for another 4.5 years before reading it. I can't understand why only one person on Goodreads has mentioned the rape. I know it happened but I was seriously doubting it until I got to a review that mentioned it. It was written in such a weird way that left me really confused. The story was too condensed and felt shorter than 297 pages. If I hadn't read on Word Wenches blog I'd not have known this took place in the 17th century. I had no sense of the timespan but someone said it was no more than a month. I don't know how old Simon is or anything about his background except what really happened to his wife. I only know he's got dark hair and gray eyes.

I like bad characters so I liked Margaret Clennon (and Walter) but I was also hoping something bad would happen to her as punishment for being a nasty person. I really like the dark and drab tone of the book and that Anne seems depressed. You don't get that much in historical romance so it was a nice change.

Rape scene is here. You can read the book for free at Archive.org.

The 1978 Avon reissue, pictured on the right, has a beautiful cover. The pages are edged in red too.