Hello everyone!
It's Thursday and for once I actually had more than one book to choose from when it came to picking for this blog post.
I know: shocker!
This is because I've been reading up on some of my old favourites and catching up on actual physical books. If you'll recall, after I got my Kobo, I tended to read most everything in e-format, because it was simply easier and a lot more practical. If, say, I was heading on vacation, all I had to do was slip the e-reader into my purse and away we went.
Now though, the magic of paging through a tome is back, and I've been catching up on some series that have been woefully ignored before. One of them being Monica McCarty's Highland Guard, which I began, came somewhere around halfway, and then stopped.
I have the good luck that my mother reads the same series. So I snatched The Raider while she was away.
I think that, despite having read at least half the series so far (or more), I've only really reviewed The Chief, the first book. In any event, the link can easily be found down below.
At this point in time, the Highland Guard, or Bruce's Phantoms, have pretty much reclaimed Scotland for their king, but the border territories are still seriously in dispute, and pretty much everyone and their mother is kicking at each other. The English raid - the Scots retaliate. The Scots raid - the English retaliate.
This is how Raider, aka one Robbie Boyd, and Dragon, Sir Alex Seton, end up in the hands of Clifford, who is the English holder of Scotland (or at least the border region).
They might have even perished there at that castle if not for Clifford's sister, Rosalin, who secretly helps Raider escape, and the two share a brief kiss before he disappears into the night.
But that was six years before the actual beginning of the story, where Raider has been sent to the borderlands to establish peace, and force it out of the English barons if he has to.
Oh and also Bruce is currently besieging a castle so he needs a supply line.
As it happens, the English try and prevent him from doing that, but Raider decides to steal all that food back. In the process, he also grabs two unwilling hostages: Clifford's firstborn son, and Rosalin.
Although Rosalin immediately recognises the Scot she'd rescued way back when, it seems that the man she remembers is nowhere to be found in the brute who carries her off. Still, things don't get any easier when Raider figures out just who she is - with a little help from her, natch.
You think he'll let her go? Nah. Why should he?
With Clifford's heir and sister in his grasp, Raider believes he finally has what it takes to force Clifford to the treaty table, and actually have him comply. And while Dragon is hissing through his teeth about what he calls conduct not befit a knight, Raider just wants to get the job done.
Especially because he's very much in lust with Rosalin and wants to return her to her brother untouched.
Not that she's having any of it. She feels the same thing he does, with the added benefit of love underlying everything she does. And while in previous novels (a whopping seven of them to be exact) I've always felt that the interactions between hero and heroine lacked something or other, or I wanted to bang my head against the wall for a decidedly modern woman somehow trapped in what should have been a 14th century one, this is FINALLY different.
I knew there had to be some payoff from sticking to this series.
In this book, while thrown together in the war camp Raider bases his activity from (this after Rosalin gets her nephew safely back to his father), Rosalin and Raider manage to not only get physically closer, but their interactions actually make sense.
Raider is a man who lost everything, from the Wallace rebellion on, and he isn't sure he can even open himself up to love anymore; his primary emotion is generally anger, and he consistently reacts that way throughout the book.
Rosalin, meanwhile, is FINALLY a female character who uses the brains God gave her, and isn't scared off by his barking. Instead, she either stares him down, or logically overturns whatever he's mad about.
And while it's not an easy truce, they certainly get to A truce between each other, and that's everything.
Because I swear I would have screamed bloody murder if another heroine would have gone OMG MY POOR FEELINGS Y U HAVE TO SHOUT AT ME SO WAAAAAH.
Things aren't exactly smooth from there on either, however - Rosalin is almost raped, but thankfully Raider gets to her in time. Then they relocate after her English betrothed finds their location and, despite Clifford's agreement to a treaty, tries resucing her. Raider heads to the castle owned by Black Douglas, where he and Rosalin are left alone within four walls ... and you know what happens.
Rosalin is convinced she can make her brother agree to her marriage to Raider, but Raider isn't so sure. And when word comes in that Clifford has apparently broken the truce and attacked a village, he sees red.
This is also where Dragon gives Raider an arse-kicking and then deserts the Guard (because somehow his knightly sensibilities keep getting offended), taking Rosalin back to her brother while he's at it, because she's done waiting for Raider to trust her, especially since he promised to attack her hometown in retaliation.
Luckily for the lot, however, both Black Douglas and Raider take a better look before they attack.
And realise that the attack hadn't actually happened.
Rosalin's betrothed WANTED to attack the village - but Clifford came after him and kicked him back to the castle, then to England proper. Now all Raider has to do is get Rosalin back.
He does so by trusting her word that her brother won't kill him - which is how he ends up before them in chains.
But they also manage to have a good, normal conversation in which things are aired out and Raider almost has a heart attack when Clifford wants him to name his firstborn Clifford, but he and Rosalin take off into the night, with a little assist from the Highland Guard.
Also, Raider got knighted - and Rosalin shares news that Dragon had destroyed the tattoo each Guard member has so that he wouldn't be identified and couldn't betray them.
This isn't really much help, but in the epilogue, however, Rosalin gives birth to a baby boy, named Thomas after Raider's friend she initially tried to save back in the day, and with Raider by her side even through the birth, she knows they'll get through anything.
Together.
Almost a whole series in the making, and I finally got a couple that was REASONABLE, despite the fact that Raider was a hot head. This is probably my favourite book so far, unless any of the subsequent ones turn out to be even better.
Historically, there wasn't much in this one considering Robert Bruce was preparing for the final showdown at Bannockburn, but there were enough tidbits to keep a history nerd entertained.
And I mean, you still need to love the Highlanders.
It just goes to show that patience really does pay off.
xx
*image not mine
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