... fighting fate and a red headed mate!
Enjoyable highland romp with a delightfully fresh heroine and a handsome braw Jacobite hero. Complete with with a traitorous, leering, despicable Scotsman red coat officer, Lieutenant Balfour MacLeod, a kidnapping and a rescue and so much more. Balfour was a great villain to dislike.
Sir Donald MacDonald, Baronet of Sleat and Mary of Castleton clash at every turn. Not helped by their first meeting when he thought she was a lad and took up her challenge to a shooting match. Hmm! Completely dismissing her, he is drawn into an involvement he doesn't want when Mary is taken by force from Dunscaith Castle, and to add insult to injury, in Donald's sea galley.
The thing is Mary is just so brash, not at all the sort of wife to fit into the life he leads as a leader of society. That sentiment certainly smacked of vanity, misunderstanding and elitism.
About then Sir Donald was shown for the unthinking clod that he was capable of being. This motherless young woman had neither the guidance or influence that most women in her position would have had. Really! Talk about fighting fate! I thought she'd done an admirable job, given her history.
Don hasn't counted on the strong attraction he feels for Mary whenever they are together. I was quite cross about the 'despite his fears about her' attitude of prejudice he displays towards her. Still he comes to his senses and realizes how much Mary means to him. Indeed he does reclaim himself somewhat when he tells her how much she means to him, particularly 'the memory ...of [her] red tresses that pick up the breeze and flicker like fire.'
I found the feisty Mary a delightful heroine, the dour Donald, not so much but thankfully he does grow. In the end this is a pleasing addition to the series.
A NetGalley ARC
****
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