Author: Sue-Ellen Welfonder
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: I believe I won this from someone's book blog, but I can't for the life of me remember which blog. If it was you, I apologize!
This was the book I needed. It's currently spring break and as a teacher I enjoy this week off as much as the students do. I'm three days in and have already caught up with a boat load of reading I wanted to do. Afraid of falling behind in my reading schedule again (it's hard to get away from the slow, leisurely pace that is February) I wanted a quick, easy, feel good read. I found it in this novel.
What I liked:
1. I have a hard time enjoying historical romances as a whole. There is a weird line where too much detail is given and I'm turned from the stories to looking up the details to see if they are accurate...or what really happened. This novel only had one such moment....and it was very small. The story was strong and catching enough to keep my attention. The historical details were a well-crafted part of the story. Together there was a great balance that equalled happy brain-candy in my world. (I did look up birlinn just to see what one looked like, though I was able to guess what it was through context clues.) (It's a type of boat incase you didn't know.)
2. Alpha males. I'm a big fan of Highlanders. They just seem to make the best alpha males around. But then that could be due to the fact they almost always seem willing to show that sensitive side to the females....and sometimes other males....in their lives. The alpha in this novel, Darroc MacConacher, may sometimes get tripped up by his weaknesses, but they are also what spurs him on when he needs to go after his girl.
3. Linnet MacKenzie was just given a brief scene or two in this novel as mother of the heroine, Arabella. I want to read more of her tale. She's a strong woman, she's not bowled over by her alpha male husband, she has a touch of magic about her, and she trusts her daughter. While I enjoyed the rest of the story, I was always happy to see Linnet show up in a scene.
What I didn't like
1. There is a strange side story of a ghost who lives in a tower room of MacConacher keep. Throughout the story there are mentions of magics, scrying, old and new gods........all play a part in the tale. I've still not figured out the reason behind the ghost being there. Unless her story is covered in another book, there seems to be no purpose here. The ghost doesn't bring them together or apart. She doesn't seem to have any ability to influence them at all. Other than adding some magic history to the room, she doesn't seem to have a reason to be.
Overall: I highly recommend it to historical romance readers...and to anyone looking for a bit of romance novel brain-candy. This novel is the perfect flavor !
**This novel qualifies as part of my TBR challenge list.**
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