Hope you all are having a wonderful day. So, you all know I'm a self confessed highlander romance addict. So, somewhere between starting Jane by April Lindner, which I reviewed here and finishing it, I read Never Seduce a Scot. I'll admitt to being a little ADD when it comes to reading at times. Sometimes in the middle of one great story, I want to jump into another. I can't help it. I've been like that since I was a kid. Anyway, here is my review of Banks' newest novel.
Summary from Goodreads.
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Mass Market Paperback, 372 pages
Published September 25th 2012
by Ballantine Books
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Graeme is intrigued by the mysterious Eveline, whose silent lips are ripe with temptation and whose bright, intelligent eyes can see into his soul. As intimacy deepens, he learns her secret. But when clan rivalries and dark deeds threaten the wife he has only begun to cherish, the Scottish warrior will move heaven and earth to save the woman who has awakened his heart to the beautiful song of a rare and magical love.
Review
I barely read the blurb of highlander romances anymore. It's like my brain does this: highlander? Check. Romance? Check. Read? Check. It seems anything and everything that is a highlander romance is landing on my to be read shelf these days. They're always a treat.
Never Seduce a Scot is the story of two warring clans, the Montgomerys and the Armstrongs that have been commanded by their king to form an alliance through marriage. Neither is happy about this, but neither can do a damn thing about it. Further complicating this unsought alliance is the outrage both feel about the bride: Eveline Armstrong is thought to be daft and her family are protective of her marrying a Montogmery, an emeny who they think will treat her badly. And Graeme Montgomery is seething mad to be saddled with a bride that's addled in the head and can never give him heirs.
That is, until he learns that Eveline is not only beautiful and sweet tempered, but not daft at all, just deaf. This fact changes everything for both Eveline and Graeme, both of who, despite their family's long and bloody history of hatred, feel drawn toward one another.
It was wonderful to see how Eveline won her freedom from her family. Not that they were cruel to her by any means, but they had inadverently caused her to feel trapped enough that she allowed their misconception of her hearing loss to continue to be understood as a loss of her factulies of understanding. She sees Graeme as both someone she's attracted too because she can hear his voice to some degree, but as a man that she might have a happy marriage with. She doesn't fear him, rather, she feels safe enough with him to begin to try and speak with her own voice. And Graeme becomes something more than the just and honourable laird of his clan. He becomes a man who can show his true feelings because with Eveline, all he has to communicate his love for her is actions. I totally loved the last scene where he both shows and tells her he loves her by shouting it out loudly enough that she can feel the words in her ears, even if she can't hear them. And to do that in front of everyone was very telling as well.
I thought the writing was clean and fluid, and the story telling was great. I loved the characters Banks created, and I got to say, I thought Eveline was kick ass. Very forgiving, very accepting, but also very strong and unflinchingly loyal. And very, very brave. It had to cost her a lot to sit in silence for three years to protect herself from an unwanted marriage to an evil man. And it cost her a lot to throw that aside and use the truth as her shield instead of her silence. I also thought that this love story was a wonderful story of hope: the Montgomerys and Armstrongs lay aside their hatred in the end for the love of Eveline. It reminds us that there are things in this world more pure and stronger than hate.
4 glittering stars
2 comments:
Sounds like a good read - I'll have to add it to my to-read list. :)
You'll love it. I find her highlander books similar to Garwood's in tone.
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