Maya Banks - Never Seduce a Scot

Eveline Armstrong is fiercely loved and protected by her powerful clan, but outsiders consider her “touched.” Beautiful, fey, with a level, intent gaze, she doesn’t speak. No one, not even her family, knows that she cannot hear. Content with her life of seclusion, Eveline has taught herself to read lips and allows the outside world to view her as daft. But when an arranged marriage into a rival clan makes Graeme Montgomery her husband, Eveline accepts her duty—unprepared for the delights to come. Graeme is a rugged warrior with a voice so deep and powerful that his new bride can hear it, and hands and kisses so tender and skilled that he stirs her deepest passions.
Graeme is intrigued by the mysterious Eveline, whose silent lips are ripe with temptation and whose bright, intelligent eyes can see into his soul. As intimacy deepens, he learns her secret. But when clan rivalries and dark deeds threaten the wife he has only begun to cherish, the Scottish warrior will move heaven and earth to save the woman who has awakened his heart to the beautiful song of a rare and magical love. 

Comment: Years ago (probably between 2008/09), when I started to increase my reading horizons towards erotica and m/m, I've read a book by Maya Banks that was quite innovative for me at the time, in terms of a menage plot using a romantic setting. Since then, I had never read anything else by the author because that book was so-so for me but not that amazing to make me want to read more.

Now, several years later I've read somewhere (most likely in a recommendations thread in some site) that the heroine of this historical book had a physical limitation and I'm always up to see how authors deal with that in a romantic context, so there I went!

In this story we meet the clans Montgomery and Armstrong, two of the most important clans in Scotland. However, they are sworn enemies for several reasons but this series being set in a time of peace, the king has ordered the two clans to unite themselves so that Scotland can be even stronger. Therefore, the king cleverly decides that there should be a marriage between two of the clans' members and thus Graeme Montgomery will marry the daughter of Tavis Armstrong.

Neither clan is happy about it but both know to refuse the king could be dire for their futures so they reluctantly accept it, especially because everyone knows the potential bride isn't as "normal" as desired after an accidental fall while riding a horse.

The thing is, Eveline Armstrong is actually deaf but she has reasons to hide that from the others. Marrying Graeme doesn't mean her life will be simpler or quiet but she hopes it will be safer...

I always thought that Maya Banks was an erotica writer but looking at her work, I see she can be quite diverse and has series in different genres. I still had the expectation any series by her, no matter the genre, would focus more on erotica but I was positively surprised to see this is any average romance story type.

The premise of having two families not getting along being forced to unite themselves by marriage gave me all kinds of ideas about how the members would interact, start to trust one another... then the notion that the heroine had some disability that wouldn't stop her from being liked and cherished and even loved by the hero was real catnip for me.

Generally speaking, these two elements were well combined and the story was quite balanced for the most part but some scenes felt very superficially done.

I can understand the focus was obviously in the relationship between the main couple but the secondary characters were key in some scenes. I think the whole scenario was very realistic in how everyone behaved and reacted to this situation, after such a history of opposition between the two clans. But I also hoped for a gradual acceptance of Eveline by the Montgomery people in a sensible manner and not because she was placed almost in the role of victim.

The romance was cute enough, Eveline has a problem but that doesn't stop her from being a sensitive and brave woman and Graeme can be the "chief" of the clan but he is not a brute and respects what he thinks are Eveline's boundaries. Of course their slow realization both were intriguing and gradually special for one another helped them cement their marriage. I liked they were a good team.

However, things weren't as smooth as it could in this regard, because directly connected with their marriage is the reason why Eveline chooses to act dumb and not reveal she is just deaf and also the way the Montgomery clan members differently react to her presence in their midst.

I guess I'd have liked Eveline to have been better accepted or that this was exploited in an angsty way that could be slowly overcome by kindness. We are told Eveline is an angel and tries very hard to be part of her new clan but the scenes around this revealed very basic approaches to why some clan members behaved badly towards her.

I understood better why she was afraid to tell she was deaf but of course this led to a situation filled with clichés. As for her disability having any impact whatsoever in her romantic relationship, I'm happy things were dealt with the way they did and that Graeme was careful about it.

All things considered, this was a good enough story, many interesting elements and characters but there's just something about the whole setting that makes me afraid the other books are as clichéd at times... to consider if I'll read the rest of the trilogy yet...

Grade: 7/10