Review: When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare is a historical romance about anxious young English Maddie who decides to make up a sweetheart away at war to stop herself from having to be put through coming out in society. She lies and says she met handsome and brave Captain MacKenzie in Brighton, but as he is now away at war, she only communicated via letter. It is now five years later, Maddie, a nature illustrator, has inherited a castle in Scotland from her recently deceased relative, and Captain Logan MacKenzie shows up at her door. Chaos ensues.

This book is delightfully funny, especially in the first half though the humor does remain throughout. This is the fifth book I have read in my historical romance experiment, and it is my second favorite of the bunch in large part due to the humor. I also liked the portrayal of Maddie's anxiety; we got to see the material way it affected all of Maddie's life, the coping strategies she had employed to try to manage it, and watch her develop new methods over the course of the book.

This book does portray PTSD and a traumatic brain injury as well as limb loss. I have experienced none of these things, but I think overall, they were handled alright. I did occasionally think Dare was a touch infantilizing, but this is very much addressed in the book. This book also addresses the way English landlords were ousting Scottish residents; I think she handled Maddie in a way that was ethical in the end but did seem unrealistic. But this is a historical romance and not a gritty true-to-life historical fiction about Scottish oppression. I did end up appreciating that she addressed it. I also appreciated that Dare addressed the issues with the naturalist field at the time.

The romance in this book was mostly quite fun to read. I did occasionally find some of the content questionable, specifically regarding the difference between words and actions. But this was less of an issue as the book went on. I did like the way the different power dynamics in the relationship were approached throughout the book. This book does start out with Logan explicitly not liking her very much at the beginning; it does enemies to lovers very nicely within the fake relationship and sort of marriage of convenience. So many fun tropes at play at the same time.

I would recommend this book to historical romance fans, to people who want a funny romance, and to folks who want to read lead characters who actively deal with their own mental health!

I gave this book three stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.