A Scot Is Not Enough by Gina Conkle
Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: Scottish Treasures, #2
Release Date: April 26, 2022
After helping her clanswoman Anne complete her mission, Cecelia MacDonald has become the de facto leader of the group of women committed to restoring some of the things taken from their clan after the Jacobite uprising. With Anne’s mission to find the clan’s gold completed, it is up to Cecelia to find the MacDonald’s ancient ceremonial dagger and restore it to the clan’s chief. And now after years of searching, she knows where it is and just needs to figure out a way to gain access to Sir Hans Sloane’s collection, but first, she needs to shake the man following her.
Alexander Sloane is a man with a dream, he wants to be appointed a Baron of the Exchequer, and to attain that goal he has left his family’s legal practice, where he served as a barrister and has taken a job as the undersecretary to the undersecretary to the Duke of Newcastle. Currently, he is tasked with examining Bow Street’s funds and deciphering a Jacobite ledger. But when the magistrate of Bow Street asks him to follow a Jacobite sympathizer and report her day-to-day activities to him, in exchange for help getting appointed to the Court of the Exchequer, Alexander has no choice but to comply. However, once Alexander meets Cecelia everything changes, and soon protecting this fiercely independent woman becomes more important than any appointment.
Trust doesn’t come easy to Cecelia, but Alexander is unlike any man she has ever known and when he suggests a partnership, she is tempted to believe that it could work. But in her heart, she knows that an upstanding, honorable man like Alexander has no future with a displaced Jacobite sympathizer like her and that she will need to guard her heart. Working together proves they are a good team and she begins to think she might actually succeed at her mission, but when a villain from her past with a score to settle sets, Cecelia, in her sites, any chance for a HEA seems to disappear, and she can only pray that she doesn’t take Alexander down with her.
This second installment of the series is just as intense as the first book and packed with more than one surprise. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book after meeting Cecelia in the previous story, but she is not the woman I thought she was, Cecelia has lots of layers that she keeps in place to guard her tender heart and she meets her match in Alexander. This book has wonderful characters, a lot of sexual tension, a couple of mild love scenes, a hero that is sure to win your heart as he did Cecelia’s, a bit of betrayal, intrigue, some live and death moments, great secondary characters, cringe-worthy villains, and a sigh-inducing HEA. The story starts a bit slow and if you didn’t read the first book, you might not understand the significance of certain things, but overall it is a good read and I would happily recommend this title.
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*