The Night Before the Wedding
Debra Mullins
Avon, Feb 2008
ISBN: 9780060799311

In spite of her money, wealthy heiress Catherine Depford knows her husband choices are somewhat limited in her first season in London due to her parentage. Her father is a merchant and her mother is crazy a victim of the ancient cost of a broken vow that demands each generation a MacBraeden chief marry a Farlan or else; her mom chose the doom of love. Still she figures with all that money behind her Catherine should have some choices amidst the poorer segment of the aristocracy.

With famine threatening his people and that of his neighbor, Scottish Laird Gabriel MacBraeden, not wanting to risk further blight nor the wrath of those who believe in the broken vow, comes to England to marry Catherine. However her father, who blames his wife's insanity on the MacBraeden clan, refuses to allow Gabriel to court his daughter. Gabriel ignores her father and abducts the woman he intends to make his bride. Neither he nor Catherine expected a love match would forge between them; yet both also expect the marriage to fail.

This is an entertaining historical romance with a hint of the paranormal that serves as a catalyst for the two lead characters to meet. Gabriel is a strong leader who knows the end does not justify the means but his people's welfare comes first so kidnaps the one woman who can silence the whispers. Catherine is his equal as she refuses to go meekly into the night until she comprehends his people need her. However, it is Catherine's father who steals the show as he fears his daughter will go the way of her mother and lose her mind; he does everything he can to keep her safe and his guilt when he fails is palpable Debra Mullins is at her best with the powerful THE NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING.

Harriet Klausner