Bookfanatic reviewed on
You're either going to love this book or find it pointless. I have mixed opinions so I'm hesitant to recommend the book unless you're dying to read a 900 page book. The book isn't horrible at all, but neither is it the next Great American Novel. I was satisfied with reading the book, but not so thrilled that I am going to continue to read the rest of the books in the series.
The author clearly did an incredible amount of detailed research on life, fighting, culture, customs of 18th centry Scotland, but the level of detail is overkill. There are also an incredible number of secondary characters and backstories to remember.
The hero is intially very sweet, loving, and I hope I don't spoil this for anyone - is refreshingly a virgin, which is a rarity for a hero in this genre. It's actually the heroine who is more sexually experienced since she's a married woman. The hero has some really heartbreakingly lovely lines in the book - the kind that would make a grown woman swoon. However, this is more than a romance novel. It's a mishmash of romance, time travel, and historical. The author could have shortened the book by 300 pages without damaging the story. The plot should have been about her being torn in two since she loves her husband in contemporary time and she also cares for the 18th century Highlander. She seems to barely love her husband in the 20th century. You really don't get a sense of their connection and frankly her husband doesn't seem like a villain either so it's baffling why the author allows the heroine to quickly adapt to life in the past. She doesn't seem surprised by all the things in the past. She also manages to remember an astonishing amount of historical details (names and dates) for someone who wasn't a historian.
As the previous reviewers have mentioned, there's a lot of sex and at inappropriate times. Now I'm a big fan of smutty books so sex is perfectly good with me, but the sex here is not erotic or passionate. The sex scenes could have been better.
This book is not for anyone who has suffered any kind of abuse. I could see some of the things here being a trigger for bad memories. You should know there are some disturbing scenes of male/male rape (described in detail), wife beating with a strap (she can't walk or ride for days afterward), violent sex, lots of death, references to previous beatings, torture, whipping, at least three attempted rapes, branding, witch trials, and lots of fighting. I can't count the number of times the hero recounts, sometimes happily, the beatings he received from family members and others. I realize this book depicts life in a thankfully bygone era, but my gosh the author went overboard with the violence. Violence and rape are two big themes in the story. This is not light-hearted reading. This book will dig into your psyche. The sections leading to the ending are quite violent, and honestly the scene where the heroine tries to revive the ghostly memories of her husband's time in the dungeon was disgusting. Nor did I buy his quick psychological turn around either. People don't recover from trauma that quickly. I've watched enough Dr. Phil and Oprah to know this - I knew those shows had some value.
For those that care about the point of view, you should know this book is written from the heroine's first person point of view.
The author clearly did an incredible amount of detailed research on life, fighting, culture, customs of 18th centry Scotland, but the level of detail is overkill. There are also an incredible number of secondary characters and backstories to remember.
The hero is intially very sweet, loving, and I hope I don't spoil this for anyone - is refreshingly a virgin, which is a rarity for a hero in this genre. It's actually the heroine who is more sexually experienced since she's a married woman. The hero has some really heartbreakingly lovely lines in the book - the kind that would make a grown woman swoon. However, this is more than a romance novel. It's a mishmash of romance, time travel, and historical. The author could have shortened the book by 300 pages without damaging the story. The plot should have been about her being torn in two since she loves her husband in contemporary time and she also cares for the 18th century Highlander. She seems to barely love her husband in the 20th century. You really don't get a sense of their connection and frankly her husband doesn't seem like a villain either so it's baffling why the author allows the heroine to quickly adapt to life in the past. She doesn't seem surprised by all the things in the past. She also manages to remember an astonishing amount of historical details (names and dates) for someone who wasn't a historian.
As the previous reviewers have mentioned, there's a lot of sex and at inappropriate times. Now I'm a big fan of smutty books so sex is perfectly good with me, but the sex here is not erotic or passionate. The sex scenes could have been better.
This book is not for anyone who has suffered any kind of abuse. I could see some of the things here being a trigger for bad memories. You should know there are some disturbing scenes of male/male rape (described in detail), wife beating with a strap (she can't walk or ride for days afterward), violent sex, lots of death, references to previous beatings, torture, whipping, at least three attempted rapes, branding, witch trials, and lots of fighting. I can't count the number of times the hero recounts, sometimes happily, the beatings he received from family members and others. I realize this book depicts life in a thankfully bygone era, but my gosh the author went overboard with the violence. Violence and rape are two big themes in the story. This is not light-hearted reading. This book will dig into your psyche. The sections leading to the ending are quite violent, and honestly the scene where the heroine tries to revive the ghostly memories of her husband's time in the dungeon was disgusting. Nor did I buy his quick psychological turn around either. People don't recover from trauma that quickly. I've watched enough Dr. Phil and Oprah to know this - I knew those shows had some value.
For those that care about the point of view, you should know this book is written from the heroine's first person point of view.
