The Other Worldly

As if it weren't challenging enough for Rowan Layne to address Britain's Parliament on behalf of the otherworldly, she has alien misogynists gunning for her. They even follow her from London through Scotland with her newly knighted, former MI6 friend Red MacLeod, though her pointy shoes prove very useful against them.

Accompanying Rowan and Red is the Red Orbiter Robertson-Wilde family, with rapidly growing toddler triplets. Rowan, honorary aunt, needs to be more careful what she says around the wee aliens. Little Ferus keeps calling her Lady Rowan in a strange Gaelic accent, and she's having enthralling visions of kilted strongmen in ancient stone circles, with bagpipes echoing on the wind.

Will Rowan survive shoe shopping with Mom when her family arrives to golf at St Andrews? They join her to tour Urquhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness, but is it Nessie she should fear or crazed anti-alien bigots of the human kind? And what of those mysterious murmuring voices stirring whirlwinds in forest glens?

Rowan makes intriguing new friends, discovering more about her hybrid DNA within fascinating tales of the Scottish Highlands. Paramours treat her to titillating trysts at Stonehenge, the Isle of Lewis standing stones, Edinburgh, Inverness, and the Isle of Skye-where everything seems to be named for fairies, including Highland clan artifacts, but the coastal cuisine is scrumptious.

Is it possible Rowan might finally be nudged to choose from sexy suitors who continue to grow in number? It's a whopping gem of a dilemma, truth be told.