Devil of the Highlands

Devil of the Highlands is a historical romance by the Canadian writer Lynsay Sands, published by Avon in 2009. It is set in medieval Scotland and it uses the reputation of a Highland laird as the obstacle the story turns on.

Evelinde's position at home has become intolerable, and marriage to a man she has never met is the escape available to her. The laird she is given to carries the nickname of the Devil of the Highlands, earned through a career of fighting and a manner that does not encourage conversation, and the book follows her arrival in his keep, where the household is not quite what she expected and her new husband's silences are not what the rumours promise either. Sands writes the story from Evelinde's point of view, and much of the novel concerns the practical business of living in a fortified house: the staff, the meals, the nearby clans with their own grudges, and the long winter that keeps everyone inside.

The author writes in the tradition of Scottish historical romance, in which the setting supplies the customs, the disputes over land and a marriage that is decided by other people before the couple have any say in it.