The Wrong Highlander (Lynsay Sands)

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Response

I reread Lynsay Sands’ Highlander Brides series last summer as part of a re-reading project, and it was an interesting experience. There were some highs and lows, but generally, it’s an okay series as long as you’re familiar with her work.

I was worried when I realized that she was releasing another book about a Buchanan brother — there are like a thousand of them, and they’re all the same. I couldn’t have told you their names before she started releasing the books.  I was hoping this book would be about Rory because he’s the only brother, aside from Aulay, that I had any interest it. But apparently it’s about Conran, who I had no idea existed.

The characters aren’t all that interesting, the romance is very uneven, and the plot is all over the place as if Lynsay Sands just hadn’t figured out how to do write this. It actually has a sort of a promising beginning that, for me, never delivers. I mean, if you just want to with a cup of tea, be comfy, and read a book that will probably entertain you but won’t stay with you, this is a good book for that.

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The Untamed MacKenzie (Jennifer Ashley)

Overall Response

I was happy to finally get to Louisa and Lloyd, since both of their characters have been part of the series since The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie and Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage. They shared a moment in the The Duke’s Perfect Wife and The Perfect Gift, so we knew they would end up together. But how would Jennifer Ashley write the story of the illegitimate police inspector and scandalous daughter of the ton?

Naturally, they’re brought together by the murder of a bishop who wanted to marry Louisa. She’s the suspect, and Lloyd is trying to clear her name. Of course, the rest of the Mackenzies make their appearance, and in a lot ways, this novella puts to bed the story of the Mackenzie brothers as Lloyd is the last son of the duke to find peace.

I wrote in my review of The Perfect Gift that Ian is Jennifer Ashley’s favorite Mackenzie to write about because he is in every single book, but Daniel is a close second. He plays a major supporting role here, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. We’ve seen Daniel since the first book as a teenager beyond his years, and here he’s eighteen clearly going on forty. The next book is his, which I’m actually in the middle of reading now, and I just don’t know if I like Daniel. I’m still sorting that out.

I do, however, like Lloyd a great deal, and I would have loved if he had his own full-book treatment. I wanted to get know him more–I wanted to see his romance with Louisa deepen. I wanted a better character development journey from the clearly insane inspector of the first book I like Louisa just fine, and I think she’s a great foil for Lloyd. I’m just not sold on their romance by the end the way I should be.

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Summer Breeze (Catherine Anderson)

Overall Response

There’s always been something sweet and tragic about this particular romance. Rachel is one of Catherine Anderson’s tragic backstory heroines–a trope particular to her writing. Her heroines have always been through the absolute worst and are attempting to dig themselves out. I like this about her writing, but one my critique is usually that the hero doesn’t ever seem to share in this trope, but this is one of the books it doesn’t feel quite so tipped in the one direction. I really liked both leading characters and the path they followed to be together. The romance wasn’t the source of the conflict, but rather solving the mystery of what happened to Rachel’s family.

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