The Secret by Julie Garwood

4 stars
This was my first Julie Garwood novel and like another book I just read it has an omniscient narrator.  I enjoyed it and plan to read more of her novels.  There appears to be many, many, many of them out there for me to get my grubby little hands on. 

Judith is English and only four years old when she meets her best friend, Frances Catherine who is Scottish.  Neither of them understood they should hate each other and by the time they did they were besties for life.  Frances Catherine ended up marrying a highlander and is pregnant.  Judith promised to be by her friend’s side when she gave birth.  The problem is that the clan that Frances Catherine married into is very closed off from outsiders and very set in their ways.  Frances Catherine had to do some pleading and petitioning in order to get her friend to be able to visit. 

It just so happens that Frances Catherine married the Laird’s brother and it is in fact the Laird who ends up going to get Judith.  It is no secret that Judith and Iain Maitland (the aforementioned Laird) struggle to resist their attraction.  Their dynamics are quite comical at times and Iain expects to be obeyed always and immediately and Judith has a bit of fire in her blood. 

I loved all the characters.  They were likeable (except when they weren’t meant to be, like Agnes, I am sure glad that she got what was coming to her) and three dimensional.  I loved Gelfrid and Graham (two of the elders) and how Judith had to be careful with their pride, but was able none the less to win them over and make much needed changes to the clan. 

The biggest problem turns out not to be that Judith is English, but actually that she is only half English and her father is an enemy of the Maitlands.  Iain knows this to begin with, but Judith doesn’t know that Iain knows (I hope you followed that!).   

Favorite Quote (there were many amusing parts, this is just one, although it occurs to me that one might need to know the context: As little girls Frances Catherine told Judith that women get pregnant when they drink from a man’s goblet after they have spit into it):

“I specifically remember we both promised never to drink from any man’s goblet of wine.  From the looks of you, Frances Catherine, I’m thinking you broke your word.”