Heather McCollum

Highland Heart by Heather McCollum
Highland Hearts series #0.5. Historical Scottish romance novella with a smidge of magic.
Chieftain Alec Munro wants revenge from the man who swindled his father. Capturing the man and his traveling companions, Alec is finally ready to move on, but he’s surprised by the feisty and beautiful daughter that stands up to him. She has the power to stop a blood feud if only the men will listen to her. Rachel has healing magic and it could be the key to everything.

An intro to the series, this short novella can be read at anytime during the series and tells the story of Alec and Rachel’s meeting and falling in love.
Wars and feuds are not gentle, nor is Alec or Rachel, but I’d still call the romance a gentle fall into love. Alec and Rachel have to be strong to lead the clan but their love for each other is soft and squishy and delightful.… (altro)

The Highlander & The Lady of Misrule by Heather McCullom
The Queen’s Highlanders series #2. Historical romance. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Greer Buchanan, a Scottish soldier in London, has orders to protect Queen Elizabeth and stop and assassination attempts. He focuses on Lucy Cranfield who comes from a family of traitors. An accidental poisoning has Greer and Lucy investigating together and learning more undercover of darkness. Their time is running out to save the Queen.

Considered the holiday read of the series, this book includes a lot of historical details that were new to me. Not sure if the “can’t poison eggs” is still viable but I enjoyed the subterfuge and the romance between Greer and Lucy. Glad and amused Lucy protested the dogs testing the wine!
The Queen’s Highlanders series includes:
The Highlander & The Queen’s Sacrifice
The Highlander & the Lady Misrule
The Highlander & the Counterfeit Queen… (altro)

Barbara’s rating: 4.3

This was an absolutely perfect ending for the series and exactly the right man for Hannah Sinclair! We’ve watched Hannah through all of the book when her warrior brothers – known as the Horsemen – found their own HEAs. Those warrior brothers are overprotective of Hannah – to the point that she is almost thirty and has no prospects of finding a husband. How could she find a husband when all of the men are terrified of her brothers? So, she has resigned herself to never marrying, but you don’t have to have a husband to make a baby, and she is sure she’s found the right man for the job. He’s a visitor and will be long gone and unreachable before she knows whether she is with child. If he is gone, her brothers can’t kill him, and she’ll have the baby she wants so badly.

Erik Halverson, a Norseman, is a powerful warrior and leader of Wolf Warriors who protect his country’s border with Sweden. Except, here he is in Scotland, on a mission with which he doesn’t agree. However, as a loyal subject of his country, he’ll complete the mission. He has no choice because his beloved sister, his only surviving relative, is a hostage. His mission is to find the Sinclair sister and make sure she is the key to controlling the Sinclair brothers – if she means as much to them as his sister means to him. If she does, he’ll trade Hannah for his sister and his sovereign will be happy.

Hannah’s kidnapping goes smoothly, but Erik doesn’t count on Hannah’s warrior spirit nor the two stowaways, and especially not the storm that blows them well off course. Trapped on the Shetland Islands with a damaged ship, Hannah sees a different side of Erik and begins to think he might be more than a soulless kidnapper. Would he allow her to go free? How many times will he betray her?

There was a bit of wit and humor throughout the story and most of them involved the two little girls who stowed away, Libby and Trix. They are absolutely incorrigible and adorable. One of the best scenes, for me, is Hannah’s conversation with her sisters-in-law when she is trying to discover how seduction and intimacy work. You’ll love it.

This was an excellent, exciting, well-done story and I liked both Hannah and Erik very much. They both love their families and would do anything to save them – and they both prove that over and over. They are perfect for each other – especially since Erik is one of the few men in the world who could go toe-to-toe with her brothers. I had to keep wondering about Erik right up until the end – with so much betrayal, how could they ever truly find their HEA? Ah! But when they did finally get their HEA it was worth waiting for and it made for a wonderful end for the series.

You can surely read this book as a standalone and you’ll still love it. However, if you want to get the full effect of all of the characters and the backstories, you really should read the other books in the series as well. I only rated it down a bit because Erik took so long to get to where he should be. Even at the end, he was still willing to turn Hannah over – and I had trouble trying to figure out how a good and honorable man could ever think it was okay to kidnap one innocent woman to trade for another. To me, that made him as bad as those who were blackmailing him and I had to work to get over that. He was a cunning and powerful warrior, yet he couldn’t figure out another way to rescue his sister.

I hope you’ll love this story as much as I did should you decide to try it. HAPPY READING!… (altro)

A stubborn Sinclair! Hannah’s story.

It’s 1536 and Hannah Sinclair, the Sinclair Brothers beloved sister is approaching thirty and her future as a mother looks bleak. She longs for a husband and family but there’s no one who tempts her. Hannah decides that this might be the time to take what she wants. After all a husband is no necessity for a child. Her sister-in-laws agree to help her. (That chat was rather comic!)
Erik Halverson is a Norseman, blackmailed by Queen Sophie of Denmark-Norway to kidnap Hannah in order to have a hold over the Sinclairs. She’s worried about their power being set against her daughter Anne, wife to King James of England. She holds Erik’s sister as her bargaining chip.
Hannah chooses Erik which leads to some close calls as she tries to seduce him, and of course leads to her eventual kidnapping.
Well, that does call the Four Horseman of the Acopolypse to ride, but not in the way Queen Sophie had envisaged.
The women surrounding Hannah are strong and compassionate. I love the actions of the younger girls Trix and Libby.
A solid, sprightly and often amusing read with a fair amount tension surrounding the tale.

An Entangled invite ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (altro)