Some Like It Plaid by Angela Quarles

When Ashley Miller sees a Craigslist ad for an all-expense paid vacation to Scotland with a handsome Highland “escort”, she’s all over it. Worn out from working two jobs to pay off the debts her scam artist ex-husband left her with, she just needs a friggin’ break already. Rolling, misty mountains of the Scottish Highlands, here she comes!

 

But one minute she’s sipping a latte and the next she’s zapped to the 2nd century and promptly informed she’s managed to wed her handsome Highlander without even an “I do.” Oh, hell no.

After a devastating tragedy, Connall’s tribe is left with few marriageable women. When his Druid priest suggests a place filled with bonnie lasses, he of course agrees to go fetch one for himself. But nothing prepared Connall for his sassy new wife, nor his tribe for a woman determined to see equal rights for all women.

Now the men are threatening revolt if he can’t rein his young wife in, but it might be too late. The women are demanding the men get “woke”—which of course makes no sense because they already woke that morn—and give women “the vote,” whatever the bloody hell that is. Despite all that, Connall can’t stop wanting to convince his wife to get naked, and he’s starting to wonder if he’s been bewitched.

Only the more he gets to know her, the more he starts to think she’s just what they needed. If only he survives her next demand...

Publisher: Entangled  |  Genre: Time Travel Romance  | Source: Author | Rating: 2.5

The author kindly sent me this book when it released back in 2019 and, sadly, I just could not get into it. I ended up putting the title in my TBR jar and it ended up being the book I pulled for February.  

Here’s what’s going on. After a raid left his tribe devoid of marriageable women, Connall, the chief’s son, seeks help from the tribe’s spell caster to travel to the future in hopes of finding a wife. Once in present day, Connall places an ad on Craig’s List, which Ashley, eager to escape the chaos her ex-husband has caused her, answers believing that she is accepting the job as maid in some type of Scottish estate. Realizing she’s in the past, Ashley has a thing or two she’s determined to change and Connall’s determined to convince Ashley to be his wife in more than just name. Not only does Ashley have to navigate her way through a strange time and place, she has to figure out what her feelings for Connall are and if she’s willing to give up her old life.

This one was a bit slow to start but I did enjoy the direction it was heading. I found the concept of Connall traveling from 156 Scotland to present day San Francisco in search of a wife intriguing but the book didn’t live up to its full potential.

I struggled with the characters a bit. Connall was interesting to a point—it’s all about his duty to his tribe—but I don’t feel as though I was able to figure out who Connell was. I needed more about his character. Ashley wasn’t one of my favorites. She’s okay at the start then gets a little annoying as the book on. What bothered me with Ashley was the fact she wanted to bring her ‘wokeness’ to the tribe (more about that later).

The romance was just lacking in connection. There’s no chemistry between Connall and Ashley. I was waiting for some connection to develop and it never happened. There were a few spicy scenes but those even lacked chemistry. The majority of the plot focused on the workings of the tribe and while I have no problem with that, and do like seeing it when it’s done correctly, I don’t want it to crowd out the romance in a book that’s labeled ‘romance’.

There is a magic system in this book. Mungan, the spell caster, performs several spells in the book and, while I did find this approach interesting, I don’t feel as though it was explained enough. It would have been interesting to learn more about this magic system as it gave both Connall and Ashley interesting abilities. Since Ashley had her phone and laptop with her when she traveled to the past, she ended up with the ability of a search engine, which made the tribe view her as a seer. There was also a difference in which the way time passed. In the past, it’s faster than in the future, it would have been nice to have an explanation.  

I did like the nod to history in this one. It’s does show the turbulent relationship between the Roman’s and the Celtic tribes during this time but, again, there’s no balance. It goes from romance straight into historical fiction.

I’m struggling with the rating for his one. I originally gave this a 3 because it was okay and I don’t think most readers will have the issues that I have but I ended up changing my rating to a 2.5 (and I do feel that .5 is being generous).

What I didn’t like about the book was the lack of research and this will probably be a me thing, something that the historian in me found irksome. Here’s a few of the things that irked me.

Ashley wants the tribe to get ‘woke’, she wants the women to have more of a say in the way the tribe functions. The book is set in 156 A.D., this was a little over 100 years after the death of Boudicca, and Connall’s tribe is the Horse People or the Epidii. They were a Pictish tribe from the Kintyre region of Scotland. Women had power within Pictish tribes. They held leadership positions, they were warriors, they were diplomats, they held positions in council, and so much more. They were not sitting around waiting for the men in the tribe to tell them what to do.

Connall wears a great kilt. The great kilt wasn’t invented until the end of the 16^th century. The lèine, which was a woolen tunic and the precursor to the great kilt, wasn’t invented until the end of the 3^rd century or the beginning of the 4th. Connall would have worn a braccae, which is a pair of loose fitting woolen trousers that was belted at the waist. It’s possible that they also wore a shorter type of tunic.

The last thing that irks me is the lack of Scottish Gaelic used. In her author notes, she states that, “it wouldn’t have been smart or possible” to use Scottish Gaelic when writing from Connall’s perspective. While I don’t think everything Connall said should have been in Gaelic, I do think the author should have included more than just a handful of popular sayings or stopped using the phrase, ‘he said in Gaelic’.  I find it both insulting as a reader and lazy for the author.

Overall, I feel like this was an attempt to jump on the Outlander bandwagon and it fell flat. It needed a bit more chemistry, world building, and balance. While I would struggle to recommend this book, I do recommend the author’s Must Love series.