Highland Crown

May McGoldrick, aka Nikoo and Jim, hit all the right notes for me with this book. The Radical War of 1820 makes a suspenseful backdrop for this tale, the characters are vibrant, and Jean is great at stealing the scene from Isabella and Cinaed.

I read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is one of those books that I'm not sure if my thoughts on it would different had I read it at another time. I usually complain about romances not having enough story to them and this is one that definitely had enough story to it. Isabella is on the run from both sides of a conflict and faces danger everywhere. She's trying to keep her sister and step-daughter alive and make it to another country, but gets caught up in another plot while in hiding. There is rebellion, war, sneaking around, deception and yet, I wasn't always interested in the story. This might be my current mood though.
There is a ton of history here and it feels like the author did a lot of research to make it sound authentic.

I wasn't invested in the romance. I like the characters separately– Isabella is smart, determined, and generous, while Cinaed is protective, a leader, and caring– but together their chemistry felt a bit forced, or too quick for me. I anticipated more suspicion and reserved behavior between them, but they seemed to trust each other very quickly. I also want to mention that Isabella's position on the rebellion seems to do a 180, which is fine, except that the way its written makes it seem like it was her position the entire time, and that just didn't work for me.

There are also events that seem anti-climatic or just didn't make sense to me. On the other hand, there are some great scenes, dialogue, and budding relationships between characters. Which leads me to putting this book at a 3 star rating. I really enjoyed some of this book, but some of it dragged or didn't quite make sense, so I can't lean one way or the other.

I probably won't read the next one unless I'm really looking for something historical. This book is great for people looking for more history and story in their historical romances. The backdrop of the Scottish Rebellion isn't one I have read about before, which made the setting and events fresh and unique to me.