Bookit Review: A Highlander Takes a Bride

Title: A Highlander takes a Bride (book 3 in the Highlander series)
Author: Lynsay Sands
Publication Date:
Grade: B-

This book was a harder read for me then the last two.  Mostly because I had to keep looking up terms I was unfamiliar with, like Applemoyse (An apple dessert) and tincture (a medication dissolvable in alcohol apparently). There were also a few names I had to google for pronunciation. This is medieval Scotland, so its well before the unification of Britain.  However, they keep it quite vague as to who is King of Scotland, or England.   Just that they exist.  So the exact time period is a little vague.

In this book, we follow Joan’s new friend Siadh, who after visiting Joan while she gave birth to her son Bearnard, goes to visit a cousin named Fenalla, who has lost her fourth husband in suspicious circumstances.  Saidh isn’t sure what to think as her cousin did in fact kill her first husband.  And the book keeps you guessing if the woman had in fact killed her husband, or if it was someone else.  Someone who is now after Saidh.  The result of that mystery is actually quite surprising when you get to it.

The romance end of it is Saidh catches the eye of Greer MacDonnell.  He’s the new Laird, having inherited the position after his cousin Allen’s death.  He immediately is fascinated with her, and she with him.  It’s not long before he decides they should be married (abit more because he wants to have sex with her but she’s a noble lady so no sex till the ring is on).  Which introduces us to the vast amount of brothers Saidh has, all who play a role with the story, and the next two according to the summaries.  I found the brothers, and Alpin who is Greer’s squire, to be interesting.  The romance was bit quick in my mind, but considering it is a romance novel, and you only have so many pages to develop a relationship and solve a mystery its understandable.

I did think the injuries were a bit much, especially when they seem to switch from major to something minor later on. In one scene Saidh is hit with an arrow through her upper chest that ends up being pushed through to the other side, but within a day or so seems to be alright to carry around the castle and have a love scene with her husband.  Alpin’s illness is never really explained, only that he is ill, but I suppose his minor character status would allow for that. And I have to feel sorry for Milly, who gets used by Greer pretty much (and apparently turns into a bitter person for it in the next book when she’s mentioned.)

Still not a bad read, so I gave it an C+  Great characters, but I feel it was bit too much about the sex that it took away some of plot.