Highland Sword - May McGoldrick

Date Read: May 23, 2020

Review: I thought I would love this book, but didn't. It was nearly a DNF. I wanted to finish it but the first half didn't pull me in. It's not that it wasn't well done, the writing was good but for my personal taste it wasn't what I thought it would be.

Morrigan and Aidan, once they do get together work very well. But the heroine is suffering from PTSD from a rape when she was 12 (content warning).

After their initial meeting it's almost as if they separate for half the book and don't really think of the other. There wasn't the normal interaction between H & h. I think it was 52% into the book when they were in the same space and finally kissed. So, maybe my complaint is... maybe this isn't a romace? If it was non-romance, I think I wouldn't have had the same expectations of having the mains either together for most of the book or thinking of each other when they're not - and that didn't happen until the second half of the novel.

So, I normally only give 5 stars to truly spectacular novels that knock my socks off and have me giddy or crying. 4 is a really good book, in my scale and 3 is average. So, this would be a 4 star for a fiction, but since I expected a romance (tension, scenes together, longing) and I didn't feel it until more than half-way through, I took a star off. The second half is what I expected and was well done and satisfying.

Series: Royal Highlander #3

Type: Highlanders

Heat: 6/10

Tropes: Rivals to Lovers,

Premise: The majority of the book deals with subterfuge, family issues, Morrigan's sexual assault history and hatred of the person who raped her. Aidan's politicing, their butting heads. She's more comfortable with sword-play than the rest of the woman of this time and I loved that. That's what drew me in. I did enjoy the initial "meet" they had and the bruises from it.

The Good:

The Bad: The lack of alone time between hero and heroine for the first half of the book. Need to read more about them together or at least thinking of each other. Rape, in the past, content warning.

Author Website: https://www.maymcgoldrick.com/