Lawson’s review of The Night Before the Wedding by Debra Mullins
Historical romance released 29 Jan 08 by Avon

A wealthy heiress, a handsome scotsman and a curse between their families that requires her to marry him. Though she’s been raised in England, Catherine Depford is the daughter of a Scottish woman and takes after her mother. Sometimes this can be a good thing, but the farce of a curse kind of ruins the idea of any sort of true feeling or romance between these two people.

The reader finds out in the first chapter that Catherine’s mother was called Mad Glynis due to very real insanity and throwing herself out of a window when Catherine was six. Obviously this would scar any young child and when Catherine turns 18 she starts dreaming of a Scot and hearing the curse chant over and over in her head. She is now afraid that she’s gone mad like her mother, especially when she sees the Scot from her dreams across a ballroom.

Gabriel MacBraedon is a highland chief used to getting what he wants and the fact that he has to court Catherine instead of just taking her for his bride goes against his leadership instincts. He does his best, but eventually gets to the point where he partakes in a wonderful Scottish tradition: kidnapping Catherine away to Scotland.

It’s hard to make a romance out of the fact that one of the people go mad if they don’t get married. It’s also hard to make a romance when there seems to be a little of the Stockholm Syndrome going on, though Catherine stands up for herself quite often and makes sure her wants and needs are taken care of. She gets accused of being spoiled, but it comes more down to the fact that she’s accustomed to a certain life and some of the Scots believe she should change her mind in an instant and marry Gabriel because it’ll satisfy the curse and bring prosperity back to the clans.

It’s too much of a stretch to have a believable love story between these two with Gabriel’s highhandedness and Catherine’s stubbornness. The secondary characters don’t help when they expect 18 year old Catherine to have excessive sympathy for people she doesn’t know and want to save everyone by marrying Gabriel, even though she doesn’t know him at all.

Grade: D+

Blurb:

     To win the woman destined to be his bride . . .

     Catherine Depford is the wealthiest heiress in London, and she is all but promised to a proper English lord . . . so why is she having dreams of a Scottish warrior claiming her for his own? She can’t imagine that her heated fantasies would come true . . . until she locks eyes with the stranger of her dreams in a crowded ballroom.

     A Scotsman will do anything

     Highland chief Gabriel MacBraedon has come to London in search of Catherine, the woman an ancient curse dictates to be his bride. But he can’t very well sweep the English beauty into his arms and carry her off to Scotland in the dead of night. Or can he? Nothing is impossible when a Scotsman’s passion is making the rules . . .

     Read an excerpt.