Warner Books (Paperback), ISBN 0-466-61026-7
As a faithful follower of Amanda Scott's Border Series (Border Storm, Border Fire and Border Bride), I hoped that Abducted Heiress, the first volume in the Secret Clan series, would steal me away to the Amanda Scott-land I know and love. While I enjoyed the read, the fields weren't as green as I remember, nor the mountains as high.

Abducted Heiress begins with an intriguing premise. When Adam, Lord Gordon dies, his brother Archibald, Earl of Angus, steals the heirs to the fortune away from their mother. Powerless to halt the abduction, but with a few moments to spare, Lady Eleanor marks her daughters so that she may one day find them again. Strangely, quite some time elapses before she goes out looking for them.

Time flies all to quickly and haphazardly. The Earl of Angus reports Eleanor died in childbirth -- a circumstance not investigated or questioned to a believable degree. In addition, due to the intervention of a pair of lusty fairies, Angus loses control of the marriageable Molly Gordon, Maid of Dunsithe and surviving heir to her father's fortune. Molly proves too easily acquired by the warrior called Wild Fin, a man who wishes to control both the Maid and her treasure.

Regardless of the inclusion of intriguing elements such as a feisty warrior, a reluctant but brazen bride, a treasure hunt and fairies, the characters sagged and the plot lagged. .

Abducted Heiress veers from predictable at the last moment. However, because the journey wasn't that smooth, the book never rises to the level of satisfying. That said, I must admit that the resulting twist certainly perks an interest in the second book of series, Hidden Heiress.

For the most part, I didn't find any pleasures and treasures in Abducted Heiress. Yet I still harbor hope that I might find them, just below the surface, in Hidden Heiress.

Lynne Remick

Lynne Marie Pisano is a freelance writer, poet, book reviewer, SCBWI Metro New York LI Critique Group Coordinator and Co-Chair of the Long Island Children's Writers and Illustrators. She lives in New York with her husband Michael, her son Kevin and a daughter named Kayla, and Dante, a Schipperke.

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