Jan Cox Speas

“The Scottish Highlands, lashed by surf and storm, seething with the restlessness of the dethroned Stuarts—this is the setting of a new romantic novel by Jan Cox Speas. …There is bloodshed and many a narrow escape from death…in this angry interlude in Scottish history….One knows that the fate of the lovers is in kind hands….”
– NY Times June 10, 1956

Chiefly the reader is enthralled by a charming love story with descriptive passages of rare beauty, a hero alive, arrogant adventurous, a heroine with copper-colored hair, green eyes and a sweet mouth, as wayward and winsome as ever won a man’s heart.”
– Toronto Globe and Mail Jul 28, 1956

“Mrs. Speas…has turned out another rollicking tale of an 18th century Scotland on fire….Perhaps in ye olden days it was proper that a lass take 184 pages in deciding to lose her virtue…but the story does not falter because of her indecision. There is action aplenty.”
– Washington Star, May 27, 1956

“Pitched battles between Scottish rebels and English soldiers on windswept moors, nights of intrigue and mystery, plus a dash of heady romance—the typical ingredients of a historical novel—are cleverly interwoven by the author in this story of hardy Scots who rebelled against the rise to power in England of Oliver Cromwell….Mrs. Speas has succeeded in inserting, for the reader, a genuine thread of suspense into a good historical novel.”
– Boston Post, May 27, 1956

“For sheer pleasure of reading, this romantic novel should rank among the best of the season.”
– Houston Chronicle, May 27, 1956

“Mrs. Speas now gives us a second novel…but places the emphasis on the psychological development of the characters rather than on the turbulent action itself. Good story for fiction readers.“
– NY City Library Journal

“My Lord Monleigh in principal is a love story but it also portrays the exciting events of the times in excellent and exciting narrative.”
– Ottowa Evening Citizen June 16, 1956

“This haunting and wistful little tale may be read for pleasure or profit: for the latter if you wish enlightenment on some of the darker aspects of Puritanism; for the former if you want entertainment.”
– Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Another good story for fiction readers is this exciting novel of Scottish Border warfare and, as in her first novel, it is packed with romance, action and breathless suspense.”
– Lowell Sun-Telegram

“Jan Cox Speas has created a novel of rare beauty and excitement.”
– Dallas Times Herald

“With so turbulent a period of history and with emphasis upon the character of the Scottish Covenanters, Jan Cox Speas has written a dramatic novel that underscores the bitterness, the violence and the searchings of this historical period.”
– Fort Worth Star

“This unpretentious novel has a hunting charm which will please the general reader. But there is more to My Lord Monleigh than ripples the surface. There is a quiet, cool, deadly indictment of the darker aspects of Puritanism; and there is a most vivid re-creation of the dour atmosphere of Cromwellian Scotland.”
– Durham Herald Sept 9, 1956