This book contains two stories:
For Now, Forever
Daniel MacGregor is a 30 year old Scottish immigrant millionaire businessman in Boston in about the 1940/1950's when he decides that what his life needs is a good obedient wife to give him the sons and daughters to carry on his name. It's at a party that he first sees Anna Whitfield and decides she's the one. Only unlike the society girl he's dancing with at the time, Anna's not so interested. She's in training to be a surgeon and doesn't want a man ordering her about, insisting she will marry him within a year and telling her that he admires a woman who speaks her mind...until the point where it becomes unfeminine. Anna is unimpressed at first, but Daniel is persistent and when he starts visiting a cherished patient at the hospital Anna begins to melt for him. She still refuses to marry him but now she's willing to compromise on living together. But at the time this could cause quite the scandal and Daniel isn't sure he can let people think less of Anna.
This story is told sandwiched between present time when Daniel and Anna's kids are all grown up and visiting the hospital after Daniel is in a car wreck so we know all along that Anna will still become a doctor and marry Daniel. Knowing that didn't change just how much Daniel pissed me off for the first third of the book. His attitudes towards women were quite openly ridiculous and we didn't see anything encouraging from Anna so all his domineering actions just really made me quite angry. Were I Anna I'm quite sure I may have phoned the police, or at least tried to beat him to death. For instance, she obviously doesn't want anything do to with him, so he arranges to finagle her into his box at the ballet the next night and manipulates his way into taking her home in his car where he already had a bunch of white roses (he stalkerishly determined her favorite without asking) and continues to send her roses each day. Maybe all that sounds romantic but the way it's written in the book, as in against Anna's wishes, without her consent and with complete disregard for her feelings, really upset me. The whole book really raised my blood pressure I'm afraid. There's one scene where Daniel bets Anna that she will wear his ring within the year – I can't even begin to tell you how much I wished she would hold out for a year and a week, just to prove it to him. I think the book and I just weren't on the same page the whole time.
In From the Cold
Ian MacGregor is a Scottish immigrant to the British colonies in North America – only he hates the English so he's all up in the movement against them, taking part in the Boston Tea Party, and getting shot by a Redcoat. He takes off on his horse but seeks shelter in a barn where he passes out and Alanna Murphy Flynn finds him. She and her father and brothers take him in and she tends his wounds. When he is healing however he is no calm, proper gentleman. He speaks to her younger brother about war, and professes to Alanna that he'd like to marry her. He asks for her hand and gives her a ring, but although Alanna makes love with him (she is a widow) she refuses to marry him in her fear of war. Will Ian give up so easily?
SPOILERS: Yes, he flees to his aunt's estate in Virginia and the aunt is the one who gets them back together, inviting Alanna down to thank her for saving Ian's life and convincing her love is worth the risk.
I've got to be honest and say that if this story wasn't immediately following For Now, Forever it might've been a better read. As it is, just about all the themes felt repetitious (a woman sleeping with the man and then refusing to marry him even tho he assumed her sleeping with him meant yes, in particular), although its pretty repetitious in and of itself (particularly all those people boycotting tea and hating the English – there were some people who were Loyalists you know). I also spent some amount of time trying to understand how Ian can be Daniel MacGregor's ancestor if he's in the US, and rolling my eyes at tired plot devces such as the relative/friend who says “tell me about her/him” followed by the hero/heroine saying “how do you know there is a man/woman” etc. I also thought (and maybe I'm wrong) that it's hard to believe Alanna would make the trip from Massachusetts to Virginia back in those days to meet Ian's aunt and that the epilogue where all the aunts and Ian are gathered in the birthing room in Boston is a little far fetched. So this book wasn't really for me.
