Did Not Finish: Secrets to Seducing a Scot by Michelle Marcos

I'm a big fan of Michelle Marcos's Pleasure Emporium series --

It's been 2 years since her last book so I was very excited when it was announced that she had a new book coming out.

I pre-ordered it and, when it arrived, it was at the top of my to-be-read pile.

And I tried to read it --

But I can't get over how annoying the heroine is --

Michelle Marcos intended Serena to be a Carrie Bradshaw-type who meets her own Mr. Big (Malcolm) during a forced trip to Scotland.  (I felt she misunderstood Carrie Bradshaw and her version of Carrie is off.)

I'm certain M. Marcos intended to emphasize the shallowness and pettiness of Serena's character (Will this lead to some sort of epiphany towards the end and she'll change her ways?) -- but I'm halfway through the story and Serena has become a terribly flat, terribly one-sided character.  Selfish and self-centered -- intent only in pursuing her own wants and needs.  (It annoyed me that she could not be bothered to know how to pronounce her Scottish maid's name and calls her "Quinny" --)

To add to Selena's irritation, the girl's brogue was so thick that Serena could understand only every third word that the mousy young thing said. And just calling her seemed an insurmountable task -- her name, Caointiorn, was impossible for Serena to pronounce.

True to form, Caointiorn said something that sounded like words a drunkard would say. Backward.

The hero doesn't save this story either -- he's definitely an Alpha male but ... that's all that he is. The prologue is Malcolm's back story -- about what happened to his family and what motivates him -- but I think he has forgotten about this and doesn't seem to have any sort of singular driving will.

M. Marcos's story deals with the Scottish rebellion -- and I felt her musings on the subject lacked ... finesse. While the author cannot be responsible for the comments made by her characters (or can she?) and while this is a work of fiction, I felt that some of the ideas her characters were spouting were outrageous (and not in a good way).

If M. Marcos's intention was to portray her women to be silly, vapid and shallow, she has succeeded -- but, sadly, this success is the reason why her story failed so miserably for me.

... I stopped reading this but I'll probably pick it up again some time in the future just to see how the story goes.

The second installment of this book is coming out in February 2012.