August 2018 – Page 11 – Flippin' Pages Book Reviews

Highland Betrayal by Alyson McLayne
Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Sons of Gregor MacLeod, #3

Release Date: August 7, 2018

This book definitely falls into the “Buckle up, this is going to be a bumpy ride” category, but what a ride it is!!

Maggie MacDonnell is done waiting, waiting for Callum MacLean to marry her, waiting for her brother Ross to sober up, waiting for her brother John to return. She has had enough waiting and is ready to act, she will find her brother John, make him return, kick their loathsome cousin by marriage out and hopefully get their eldest brother Ross to overcome his grief and lead the clan again. As for Callum? He can rot for all she cares, he promised to marry her almost four years ago and never came back for her. Maggie doesn’t need him or anyone for that matter, she is cunning, resourceful, deadly with a dagger or bow and has a mind made for planning. She’ll be just fine, so when she learns her nasty cousin Irvin is sending Callum a letter breaking their betrothal, so Irvin can force Maggie to marry him, she knows it is time to put her plans into action.

Callum can’t believe his betrothal has been broken, he loves Maggie, but when his father was murdered not long after his betrothal and he couldn’t find the killer, he decided it was best not to bring Maggie into the viper’s nest and left her waiting for these last four years – now faced with losing her, he sees his mistake, but what to do? Accept it and move on or fight for the woman he loves? Just as he decides to go to her, fate intervenes and brings her to him. His Maggie is spitting mad and loudly and forcefully tells him that she doesn’t trust him and will not marry him. He is sure he can bring her around, well pretty sure, maybe. But he knows for sure that he is not willing to give her up. When she tells him of the troubles at her home and gives him notes she has taken while spying, Callum along with his foster brother Gavin, tell her they will help her. She insists she doesn’t need help, she will find her brother John, but common sense rules and she agrees to let them try.

Just when she thinks she may have given up on Callum too soon and begins to soften, he betrays her again. Again Maggie isn’t going to sit around and wait to be rescued, no, she is going to take matters into her own hands and save herself. Callum feels awful for not telling Maggie his plan and letting her believe he left her again, but while scouting the castle, he watches in horror as Maggie makes her escape, he is terrified and his men are impressed. Callum confronts her and she is surprised he is back, but scoffs when he doesn’t really have a plan for retaking the castle. He agrees to hear her out and they will use her plan. But when Irvin’s men get a little too close and cut off their escape, Callum decides to take her to his home. He also gets Maggie to agree to let him woo her and they even come up with a wager – he wins, she marries him, she wins, he lets her go and helps her find her brother, if they tie, the wager is void and the wager ends when they get to his lands.

Over the course of the journey to his castle, Maggie and Callum grow closer and Maggie begins to rethink her decision, Callum is patient, kind and supportive of her and they are well matched. When the opportunity to win the wager arises, Maggie makes a decision, she lets him win, he knows she did and is overjoyed, she chose him! They declare themselves and make love, it seems like everything is going to work out fine and then all hell breaks loose!

Callum watches Maggie nearly killed and gets her to his castle as quickly as possible, he cannot lose her!! Once she starts to heal, she wants answers, what happened to Callum’s father? Who is the traitor? Are they connected to Irvin? Does this treachery end with the MacLeans or is does this go much deeper? It will take a lot of twists and turns to find the answers, there will be more questions than answers and more death and destruction before our lovers learn the truth and even then not everything will be made clear.

This is a fast paced, exciting read with amusing banter, a heroine who really can save herself, a hero who lets her, wonderful secondary characters, very steamy love scenes, a lot of action, secrets, lies, betrayal and finally a hard won HEA. This is the third book in the series, but it can easily be read as a standalone title with no backstory problems.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher.*

Sleepless in Scotland by May McGoldrick

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Pennington Family #3
Publication Date: 8/7/18

Unfortunately, I decided to begin this wonderful book about an hour before bedtime. From the first word on the first page it pulled me into another time and another place and didn’t let me go until quite some time after I had finished the last word early this morning. It is beautifully written and filled with characters you want to get to know as friends. And the ending – Oh! My Goodness! It is perfect. I am almost always dissatisfied when a book doesn’t have an epilogue – I feel as if I’m not done with it yet. Without an epilogue, this book closed up all of the loose ends and provided a lovely, poignant HEA. There was even a wonderful solution for a street urchin I was hoping would have his own HEA.

This is absolutely my favorite kind of book, historical with a mystery AND a romance. Absolutely perfect. The villain is a mad fiend – sort of a Jack the Ripper type. He’s been stalking the underground of Edinburgh for decades and three years ago he murdered the sister of Captain Ian Kerr Bell of Bellhorne, Fife. Now, Ian haunts the Vaults (huge underground area) of Edinburgh in search of his sister’s murderer. Ian is riddled with guilt – he should have done more to protect her. How did she even get to such a place? She wasn’t a flighty girl – she was intelligent and careful.

Now, imagine Ian’s shock and dismay when he is in the Vaults and hears the sounds of a fight and runs to the location. He finds a crumpled form lying at bottom of a staircase – and a man, dressed in black, at the top of the stairs. As Ian picks up the unconscious man at the foot of the stairs, he quickly realizes that it isn’t a man at all – it is a woman – and a woman of means. Finally, when Ian gets her to his carriage he realizes that it is Lady Phoebe Pennington, daughter of the Earl of Aytoun – his deceased sister’s best friend.

Phoebe is a crusader – a reformer. She’s writing newspaper articles under a pseudonym and she is hot on the trail of a story showing that the charity hospitals, poorhouses, etc. are turning out the sick and infirm in order to make themselves look better for a fact-finding group that is coming up from London. She just needs absolute proof and she has an informant who has agreed to sell her the proof she needs – but she must meet him in the Vaults or he won’t provide the documents. Since she must have the proof, she agrees. However she isn’t an idiot, so she hires Duncan Turner, a surly Highlander, as her bodyguard. As she and Duncan find the place, they get separated and Phoebe sees a man chasing a half-grown boy with the intent of killing him. Phoebe doesn’t even think – she just acts and chases after the two. As she attacks the villain, the boy escapes and the villain comes after Phoebe. When she awakes from her tumble down the steps, she finds she is in a carriage with a furious Ian Bell – her deceased friend’s brothere and a man she was infatuated with in her youth.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Ian and Phoebe have several encounters and some of them open her eyes to what being a good reporter really is. Then, when Phoebe is really in danger – can Ian save her – more than once?

This is a fast-paced book that will hold your interest from beginning to end. The descriptions of the time and place are so vivid that you can smell the fetid bogs, feel the warm sunshine and see the blue skies over Edinburgh and Bellhorne.

This is part of a series, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. I have read all of the other books in the series and highly recommend those as well as this one.

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

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