NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING, THE
Debra Mullins
Avon Books
ISBN:9780060799311
February 2008
Historical Romance

Highland clan chief MacBraedon knows what has to be done. Despite the woman he would chose as his bride, he will bow down to the damnable curse set upon his many great grandfathers and marry the woman with the dagger birthmark to save his clan as well as his own. He can not bear to watch his clansman starve and he will do his duty, even if that means traveling all the way to London to find her. He will try to court her and obey the silly English betrothal customs but he will do what must be done. Even if that means literally throwing her over his shoulder and taking her back to Scotland by force.

Catherine Depford is the wealthiest heiress in London and she has a secret that no one must find out. The madness that took her mother and made her jump to her death, has it's grips on Catherine. Although she tells no one, not even her beloved father or best friend Beth, the ceaseless chants she hear in her head were getting worse. The voices were growing louder by the day. Chanting, always chanting the same thing, over and over. They had started the week she turned 18; the same week she began dreaming about him. This wonderfully sensual Scottish highlander who's voice and visage she can see clearly in her mind but isn't actually real. When he steps out of the crowd during a ball, Catherine is convinced she has sunk deeper into the madness than even she realized. Now, she's seeing visions in the middle of a crowded room. She must find a husband soon. Someone like Lord Kentwood who was so good to his own mother would be an excellent choice. When the madness takes her for good, surely he would continue to care for her.

Can Gabriel convince Catherine that he isn't a figment of her imagination and only with their marriage can they save two clans from the curse that had gripped their families for generations before it's too late? This is the kind of book that makes people fall in love with romance novels. Sensual, eloquent, extremely well written - Outstanding!!!

Reviewed by Jennifer Harden
Rating: 5