Publishers Weekly
12/21/2015
Ranney concludes her American Civil War trilogy (after Scotsman in My Dreams) with the Scottish branch of the MacIains family inserting itself into the Confederate cause in order to support Rose, who they think is the wife of their American cousin, Bruce MacIain. In actuality, Rose is Bruce’s New York–raised, abolition-minded sister-in-law. She dodges the Charleston blockade and travels to Glasgow in order to offer mill owner Duncan MacIain the opportunity to purchase 1,000 bales of South Carolina cotton with gold. Despite having been abused for helping several slaves escape, Rose is determined to go back in order to rescue her sister, her niece, and the remaining slaves from starvation. Duncan is reluctant to allow Rose to place herself in danger, but he recognizes that her determination will not allow her to stay in Scotland or even in Nassau, where their relationship deepens as the danger increases. Ranney sensitively writes about a sad and ugly period of American history, and her thoughtful, multidimensional depiction of the enslaved characters avoids stereotypes and whitewashing the past. (Feb.)
OCTOBER 2016 - AudioFile
The last audiobook in the MacIain series takes American Rose O’Sullivan to Scotland to seek help from Duncan MacIain. Narrator Kate Reading does a fine job with the accents, enabling the listener to discern the characters easily, especially the Scottish ones. In 1863, during the Civil War, the pair travel together, enduring danger, the terrors of war, and heartbreak. But Reading doesn’t convey the intensity of these events with her performance. A treacherous storm aboard ship occurs and frightening challenges are presented, but listeners won’t feel connected to the characters’ emotions. Places are described, not experienced. Still, Duncan and Rose’s simmering attraction could keep some listening to the end. S.H. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2015-12-08
A daring young woman sails to Scotland during the American Civil War to sell her family's last crop of cotton and save them from starvation, facing danger and romance along the way. Ranney (Scotsman of My Dreams, 2015, etc.) returns with the third novel in her MacIain series, set in the Victorian era. New Yorker Rose O'Sullivan is an avowed abolitionist forced to spend two years living with her sister and brother-in-law on their Southern plantation. When her brother-in-law, Bruce MacIain, rides off to fight for the Confederacy, it falls to Rose to keep the plantation's inhabitants from starving. She works in the fields alongside enslaved laborers to bring in one final crop of cotton, then sails to Scotland to try to sell the cotton to her brother-in-law's distant cousin, handsome mill owner Duncan MacIain. She convinces him to buy the cotton for the empty looms at MacIain Mill in Glasgow, but first they have to retrieve it from warehouses in Charleston. That means enduring a storm at sea, evading spies in the Bahamas, and sneaking past the blockade the Union has set up to prevent supply ships from reaching the Confederacy. Rose has misrepresented herself to the Scottish MacIains as Bruce's widow, but Duncan predictably forgives her for lying. The book's main weakness lies in Duncan's hypocrisy. He decries slavery and hopes the Confederacy will lose the war but feels only a small twinge about buying cotton grown under a system of slavery. Rose, at least, is swallowing her scruples to help her sister and her niece, but Duncan sleeps a little too well for one going against his own beliefs. Overall, though, the novel is a great swashbuckling read. The complex political issues of the time give the plot momentum and the characters much room for growth, and the prose is fluid and well-paced.
