The Christmas Bookshop is a sweet, holiday offering about a woman finding the place she was always meant to be. It is loosely tied to Jenny Colgan’s Kirrinfief series and fans familiar with those volumes will recognize some of the characters – and plot motifs – from those books in this narrative. You don’t have…
The Vanished Days is a historical novel following the life of a young Scots woman from 1683 to 1707. A deeply turbulent era politically, this time period saw the ordinary lives of everyday citizens upended as everyone was affected by the machinations of the great men who were desperately vying for power. Queen Anne’s commissioners…
The Highlander’s Secret Son has a few things going for it. I liked Jeanine Englert’s style, and her writing – and research – are very good. The book’s real problem is its characters, however. Oo ee, these characters, who betray and think the worst of each other over and over again. Clan Campbell and Clan…
Narrated by Steve Worsley Dance to the Storm is the second book in the Storm Over Scotland trilogy by author and historian Maggie Craig, and if you enjoy meaty, well-researched historical fiction with a compelling, star-crossed romance at its heart, then I suggest these books might be right up your alley! I’ll say straight off…
I want to find a Viking romance that immerses me in the setting and blows me away. Conveniently Wed to the Viking is competent, which makes it stand out in this subgenre, but not exceptional. Sandulf Sigurdsson is on the trail of the assassin who murdered his sister-in-law, whose death led his widowed elder brother…
As someone who regularly asks the question posed by the title of Jenny Colgan’s mid-2000s novel Where Have All the Boys Gone?, I don’t know if I’m comforted or horrified by the proof that women have been pondering this mystery for at least a decade and a half. Regardless, I’m quite glad that the publishers…
As a big fan of May McGoldrick’s historical romances, I’m sad to say that Highland Jewel was a bit of a disappointment. While the first book in the Royal Highlander series, Highland Crown, balanced romance and action perfectly, Highland Jewel loses its way, leaning heavily upon action sequences, and giving us a hero who moralizes for…
I had high hopes for this anthology when I saw two of the names attached to it (Dal Maclean and Josh Lanyon), and Footsteps in the Dark more than met my expectations, although in the end, all but one of my favorite stories were penned by new-to-me authors (yay!). None of the eight stories are…
Sometimes there’s nothing better for the soul than a good, sweet romance about two people asserting their right to be in love and battling back the demons that threaten to keep them from being so. Elisabeth Hobbes’ A Runaway Bride for the Highlander is the third book in the multi-author, cross-century Lochmore Legacy series, which…
Sophie Jordan’s Rogue Files continues with This Scot of Mine, the cliché-ridden story of a lady who fakes her own disgrace and a laird who struggles under a dire curse. The plot makes use of pretty much every Scottish Romance trope known to man, the characterization is mediocre, the hero and heroine bicker like children, and…