Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

In the Arms of a Highlander by Michele Sinclair

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Medieval (1066-1540), Middle Ages / Medieval (476-1454), Part of a SeriesLeave a comment

In the Arms of a Highlander (The McTiernays, #9)Barbara’s rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Series: The McTiernays #9
Publication Date: 1/25/22
Period: Medieval – 1322 – Highlands of Scotland
Number of Pages: 352

I’ve waited a day since completing this book because it left me thoroughly confused about how I felt about it. I’m still confused. I think this story tried to be three or four books smushed into one. There were too many characters with too much going on – and well – it just seems disjointed to me. I thought I was going to get an exciting Highlander and his lass coming to find their HEA while investigating and saving the life of her sister’s husband. I envisioned exciting, tense, gripping battles and chases with lovely romantic interludes intertwined. What I got was a very exciting beginning that rapidly slowed down to a crawl. If you add all of the page time together, you’ll probably find that the characters from the previous books take up much more time than our current pair. Then, there were so many pages of descriptions of who was who that I began to get them all mixed up and I’ve read the previous books. All of that said, I actually liked Brodie and Shinae, and would have loved to have more of their story in detail rather than just glossed over quickly. I had liked Shinae’s sister in her book, but not this one. They hadn’t seen each other in five years and she made no effort to hurry to get to the castle to see Shinae – and when she did arrive, it was just “Hi, how are you?”.

The first page in the Prologue starts out so very exciting! If that had continued throughout the book, I would have given it 10-stars. The English are going from abbey to abbey in Scotland and burning them to the ground. When they arrive at the abbey where Shinae is a knife-carrying, dissatisfied nun, Shinae decides to do whatever she can to buy her fellow nuns the time they need to escape. She singlehandedly takes on and defeats five English warriors before escaping herself. Just as she is defeating the last of the warriors, a man appears in the doorway and she’s not sure she can take on another soldier. Luckily, he is there to help. When he learns she’s related by marriage to the McTiernays, he asks her to take on a mission for King Robert. Since that mission involves saving her sister’s husband, she doesn’t hesitate to accept.

Chapter One begins with Shinae and an uninvited companion, Isilme, having trekked (on foot) toward Lochlen Castle where ALL of the McTiernay’s will be gathering for celebrations. Though it is summer, the rain and wind are freezing them. They are almost to the castle when they just can’t trudge further. If they don’t find shelter, they’ll be dead from the chill by morning. Luckily for Shinae, she’s found and rescued and manages to ask her rescuer to look for her companion. So, Brodie rescues Shinae and his friend, Dunlop, went to rescue Isilme. Thus, our two romances are set up.

Then, all of the myriad legs of the story branch out and ultimately leave you scratching your head in confusion. Well, not totally, I could certainly follow it, but goodness I shouldn’t have had to work to do so. So much of it was totally superfluous and disjointed.

So, I liked Brodie and Shinae and their story. I liked Dunlop and Isilme and their story. The McTiernay’s portion of the mystery was okay, but – the entire solution was about 2 pages and the rest was chaff. Then, there was the Mahon thing – I guess it was there for a red herring, but it just added another layer of superfluous nonsense as far as I was concerned. IF we had broken this down into more than one book OR put more of the feature on the romances and much less on all of the McTiernay stuff, it would have been a much more enjoyable read. Yes, I understand this is part of the McTiernay series, but – they could have made cameo appearances and taken on a supporting role rather than the starring role.

I wouldn’t read this book a second time, but I am pleased to have met Brodie, Shinae, Dunlop, and Isilme. I loved that Brodie wasn’t a Laird and wasn’t becoming one. I liked that he was floundering with finding his place within the clan and I loved that Shinae was proud of him and supportive of him no matter what he chose to do. It was nice to see the ‘common’ folk get their HEA.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Indecent by Darcy Burke

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Indecent (The Phoenix Club #4)

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: The Phoenix Club #4
Publication Date: 1/25/22
Period: Regency – London

The end of the last book, Intolerable, left us scratching our heads and wondering what was going on with lady’s companion Prudence Lancaster. When Charlotte and Ruark arrived at the inn to collect Prudence, they found an empty room and a note from Prudence. The note said she’d eloped. Since Prudence was quiet and secretive about her personal life, they assumed it was possible and left for the beginning of their HEA. But …

Prudence endures hours of pain and discomfort from being trussed up, head covered, and bouncing on the floor of an old coach. When the villains finally drag her into a room at an inn and remove her head covering, she realizes her abductor is none other than Bennet St. James, Viscount Glastonbury. WHAT! He is as stunned as she is because she is NOT the woman he’d paid the thugs to abduct. No, he’d expected to see Lady Charlotte and to convince her to elope with him. Now what?

After Prudence gives Bennet a thorough dressing down and he totally expresses his sorrow and mortification at being part of such a heinous act – and he continues to apologize ad nauseum, she finally begins to believe he is truly remorseful.

Bennet is an exceedingly desperate man. He and his estate are destitute and he has a plethora of much-loved older family members to support. If he cannot come up with the wherewithal to pay his father’s debts and get the estate operating profitably, those very eccentric old ladies will have no place to live nor anyone to care for them. Lady Cassandra and he had met and liked each other and she had even intimated she was amenable to his suit – but – when her father told him that his suit wouldn’t be welcome, Bennet thought it was just from the father and that Charlotte would still be amenable. That is why he had her abducted – and he certainly didn’t intend for any lady to be treated as those thugs had treated Prudence.

Bennet and Prudence concoct a plan to get her back to London before she is missed too much. If they handle it right, they can get her back without her reputation being damaged and she can continue to work as a lady’s companion. Fate, however, has other plans for these two. A storm rages for days preventing travel at all – and it also causes a tree to fall on the inn’s stables – where Bennet’s carriage is stored. The carriage is left beyond repair – and he certainly doesn’t have the money to replace it.

Through all of the trials of the storm, Bennet and Prudence come to truly like each other – and more. However, they each know they will have to become strangers after they return to London. Bennet absolutely must marry an heiress and as a lady’s companion, Prudence wouldn’t be in the company of a peer. Things seem bleak indeed.

After they return, Prudence is welcomed back into her former life and Bennet continues to seek an heiress for a wife. Then there are some shocking discoveries made and life changes. Can the two of them make a go of it? Can Bennet resolve himself to accept his new family situation? Will Prudence be welcomed into either of her new families?

I thoroughly enjoyed the read, but just could never come to respect Bennet for his choices. I am sure we’ll see more of what happens with Bennet and Prudence in the next book, Intolerable, because that book features Ada Treadway (Prudence’s best friend) and Maximillian Hunt, Marquess of Warfield (Prudence’s half-brother).

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

View all my reviews