Everybody Needs A Little Romance

If you’re new to my reviews, you can safely read ahead without fear of spoilers. I don’t talk plots because once I get started on a plot I love, I can’t get my trap shut without telling the whole story. Instead, I highlight the things I loved about the story. More often than not, it’s the characters.

Our February Must Have is Highland Warrior by Monica McCarty. And OH, MY WOWSERS! I’m talking mouth hanging open nearly the whole time while I read. And this is a 359 pg book!

Our poor hero, Jamie Campbell, has racked up quite the reputation while trying to enforce some bit of law in the highlands.

Poor guy, he’s only fighting for what he feels and knows is right in his heart and the man is ruthlessly hammered for it. His nickname? Henchmen. Women fear him. Men fear him. Children fear him. The only person who doesn’t fear him (well, not fear him in a sense of is-he-going-to-kill-me? fear) is Caitrina Lamont. Our heroine.

And why is she not afraid, you ask? Is the girl some spirited young lass who flaunts about challenging everyone she knows? No. That’s what I love about Monica’s books. She can create a strong heroine while the heroine still falls in the boundries of what was expected out of women at the time.

Caitrine met the hero and had a bit of a conversation, you could say, before she found out who Jamie was exactly. She learned enough about Jamie in their first meeting that even when she finds out who the man is, The Henchman and a Campbell to boot, she can’t control her attraction.

She fights the draw. Fights it with everything she can.

Jamie doesn’t make her fighting easy. He hadn’t set out to find himself a wife. Not that he doesn’t want one, he’s simply been busy trying to enforce the law. But a man has to marry and after meeting Caitrine, she’s the one he wants.

But things can’t be simple at all. Remember the above tidbit about Jamie being a Campbell? Well, Caitrine is a Lamont. The Campbells and Lamonts have been fighting for a long time. In Caitrine’s eyes, she doesn’t care how badly she’s attracted to him because in her sheltered life, she will never bind herself to a Campbell.

But, life happens and Caitrine and the woman we’ve grown to love is broken when her home is attacked. And your heart breaks right along with her. Through circumstances and desperation to reclaim her family’s land, she marries Jamie.

Now both Jamie and Caitrine’s loyalities are put to the test. Do they trust in their hearts and their new not sure if it’s love or do they side with their families (remember the Campbell/Lamont fighting)–putting them at ends with one another? It’s an intense read.

You can see why I had my mouth hanging open so much. Really, I think this book is the fastest I’ve ever read. And you know what? I’ve got it sitting at my elbow right now. The first chance I have to pick a book up, I’m going to have to bypass that TBR pile and go for another delectable dive into Highland Warrior.

If the above isn’t enough to make you run to the nearest copy, Monica has an excerpt on her site. By the way, it’s from the opening when Caitrine meets Jamie and is one of the best openings I’ve read. It made me snuggle down in the couch cushions just a little more as I laughed aloud.

The Campbell Trilogy continues with Highland Outlaw and Highland Scoundrel in back to back releases. So no long waits between books!

From the back of the book:

The ruthless enforcer of Scotland’s most powerful clan, Jamie Campbell will use any means necessary to vanquish lawlessness and unrest among the feuding Highland clans. Seduction is a game as easily played as subterfuge, but when Jamie poses as a suitor to a rival clan’s daughter in order to expose treason, the line between duty and pleasure is suddenly blurred. Ebony-haired, ruby-lipped Caitrina Lamont defies him, denies him, and arouses him like no other woman.

Caitrina has no intention of forsaking her beloved father and doting brothers for a husband–especially a hated Campbell. But Jamie’s raw, sensual strength and searing kiss melt her resistance. When her idyllic world is shattered, Caitrina’s only ope to save her clan lies in the arms of Jamie Campbell, the enemy she holds accountable for its ruin. Can their tenuous truce, born in the velvet darknes of passionate nights, forge a love as strong as the sword that rules the Highlands?

Keri Ford

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