The main characters in this book are Fiona Fraser and Alexander Maxwell. After an impromptu "meet cute" in New York City in 2009 and fall instantly in love. Too bad that Alexander is already married. Alexander goes back to Scotland and dreams of Fiona. And Fiona stays in New York and dreams of Alexander.

Fast forward five years later when Fiona contacts Alexander again in order for her to create a Scottish home furnishings collection (yeah I forgot to mention Fiona is a designer and Alexander is an owner of a mill that weaves tartan cloth). Combine all of this with more baggage than a normal relationship could carry, shallow development of secondary characters, and Fiona and Alexander investigating their relatives from 250 years ago you will end up ready to scream.

The main problem I have with this four seasons quartet books is that they are actually spin-offs of Ms. Ware's earlier books. I had no idea about that going in since if I wanted to actually read the back story of the relatives that Fiona and Alexander are investigating I should have started with "Island of the Swans". I assumed (stupidly) that the quartets were connected to each other, but they are not.

I could maybe have overlooked that if this book was just not boring and wrong regarding bloodlines and a few other things.

First of all, reading about people investigating their ancestors is boring. About 60-70 percent of this book was Alexander telling Fiona the history of Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon and Thomas Fraser (supposedly Alexander and Fiona's ancestors). You know how exciting it is to read a book where one character is telling you about everything that went on 250 years ago. And honestly there is no rhyme or reason for this plot to take up so much of the book. Who cares if your ancestors were in love 250 years ago? The fact that Fiona and Alexander spend so much time investigating them made the romance between them when it does occur seem like an after thought and assured since hey if my ancestor sexed up your ancestor 250 years ago this means we are meant to be together!

Second, Ms. Ware tries to bring in a plot-line involving memories through DNA (I hate romance novels that have been doing this lately). It is beyond absurd and just crazy. I felt like screeching DNA does not work like that while I was reading. I could have maybe ignored all of this mess except for one problem. Alexander Maxwell is not a freaking descendant of Jane Maxwell so it makes no sense how he somehow got memories from her. It is explained in pain staking detail in the book and through a genealogy chart that he is descended from her brother. And that the descendant from her brother was a nephew at best who then slept with a chamber maid. Apparently in Ms. Maxwell's world that doesn't matter since DNA just kinds of hangs out for 200 plus years and provides random relatives several times removed with memories. There is a reason for this of course when we read on later in the book but it just jarred me to keep reading about this whole thing and everything saying that Maxwell's family was direct descendants. At one point the character Alex refers to Jane Maxwell as his great grandmother (big sigh).

Third, at times when you read about Fiona's past you think she was raised in the 1950s, 1960s south. I don't want to divulge too much but seriously, it makes no sense about any of the events that she later spills to Alexander. I swear her whole storyline just gave me heartburn. Plus the 180 with her family was not heartwarming to read about. I just rolled my eyes.

Fourth, the author got the main premise behind "When Harry Met Sally" wrong! At one point Alexander tells Fiona about his past relationship and likens it to When Harry Met Sally by saying that he and another woman were not in "love" with one another that way. Seriously? Did the author not see this freaking movie? That is not what the movie is about. It's about the fact that two people who initially could not stand each other met decades later, became friends, slept together, stopped being friends, and then fell in love. It is a movie I break out every time I am having a bad day since it just warms me up from the inside out. To have a misunderstanding this big regarding this movie just kind of thrown into this novel just soured me from that point on.

Fifth, there were just sentences that made no sense. Such as:

"Expensive leather pumps shod her aristocratic-looking feet, and small, simple gold earrings complimented her stylish attire."

I don't even get how your feet can look aristocratic. Are they smoking a pipe?

"Looking directly at her boss, she announced, "There are thirteen million citizens of Scottish descent in the U.S. and Canada alone, and probably another three million outside of Scotland worldwide. There are millions more in North America and elsewhere with some claim to Scottish heritage, and even more who wished they had Scottish DNA."

Good grief. The U.S and Canada are in North America so that next part of the sentence is just basic geographic fail. Second, who the heck is running around claiming to be Scottish or wishing to be Scottish? Is this a thing now? What am I saying. Apparently people like to decorate their homes in Scottish furnishings (the whole point of Fiona going to Scotland to hunt down Alexander). Suffice it to say because of the above speech everyone in the boardroom feels shaken to their core about taking something from another culture and turning it into furniture for people to buy. She even at one point says this furniture may appeal to Saudi princes and Russian billionaires...

So yep, I am done. Happily with this book. I am going off to read "Little Women" to soothe myself. ( )

Sequel to Island of the Swans which I adored. Here we have Alex and Fiona, both descendents of Thomas Fraser and Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, the star crossed lovers from IOTS. Fiona and Alex meet for a day in 2008 in NYC and never forgot one another. A few years later they meet again while she is on a design research trip to Edinburgh for her boss, a Ralph Lauren-esque type designer for her idea of a new Scottish line for furnishings. She and Alex renew their friendship and soon - love, which happens quickly, but we are to assume it is attributed to this strange magnetism they have for one another. He runs a textile mill and shows her all around. It was all very sweet, but it had a tendency to include too many details about the locations, much like a travelogue, in parts. I found it distracting from the main storyline of Alex and Fiona reuniting and their blossoming romance. It brought back many memories of when I was there myself a few years ago, but I preferred the 2nd half of book when the plot centers more on their problems that need to be overcome so they can have their HEA ending which brought the story of their ancestors full circle. This gave the reader (such as moi!) much needed closure from The Island of the Swans, which I recommend reading first. ( )