A Highland Captive (Highland Chronicles Tale #2)

MEDIEVAL:  The Scottish Wars of Independence in the late 1200s make and break alliances between countries and families based on victories and losses in battles and arranged marriages. Lady Isobel de Moray is a sheltered heiress who inherits her family’s keep in a strategic location after her father’s death, making her the target of an attempted forced marriage. Warrior Cailean MacDubhgaill owes a debt of honor to the de Moray family. He sets out to rescue Isobel. Many rounds of fighting, escaping, running, and hiding begin. 

Elaborate descriptions of the physical and political landscapes offer a vibrant background for the violent skirmishes between the various Scots and English groups. A potent sense of time and place anchors the foundation of this love story about unexpected, messy transitions in life. Isobel is the weak spot in this otherwise solid tale. Her lack of practical skills is consistent with her position as a protected young woman of the privileged class, but she behaves with little common sense and blunders from one crisis to the next like a reckless child. She acts in haste, then regrets in detention. The sections that focus on her thoughts stall the narrative pace almost to a standstill in comparison with the dynamic rush of the fight scenes, making them seem like two disconnected story threads that both just happen to include Cailean’s character. Creating a deeper backstory between Isobel and Cailean would have closed the emotional gap between the two story lines. 

Fans of sweet historical romances filled with an impressive assortment of panoramic research details about thirteenth-century Scotland will devour this story. 

Cardyn Brooks