Guest Review: My Brave Highlander by Vonda Sinclair - 3.5 Wine Glasses!

My Brave Highlander 
(Highland Adventure #3)
by Vonda Sinclair 
ebook, 297 pages
Published July 18th 2012
ASIN B008N1UZVC
Copy courtesy of author

Battle-hardened warrior Dirk MacLerie isn't who everyone thinks he is. He's Dirk MacKay, heir apparent to the MacKay chiefdom and Dunnakeil Castle on the far north coast of Scotland. When he returns home after a long absence, will his clan know him and will the duplicitous enemy who tried to murder him twelve years ago kill him in truth this time?
Lady Isobel MacKenzie is a beautiful young widow betrothed to yet another Highland chief by her brother's order. But when her future brother-in-law accosts her and threatens to kill her, she is forced to flee into a Highland snowstorm. When she runs into a rugged and imposing man she thought dead, she wonders if he will turn her over to her enemy or take her to safety.
Dirk remembers the enchanting, dark-eyed Isobel from when he was a lad, but now she is bound to another man by legal contract—an important detail she would prefer to forget. She wishes to choose her own husband and has her sights set on Dirk. But he would never steal another man's bride… would he? The tantalizing lady fires up his passions, testing his willpower and honor at every turn, even as some of his own treacherous clansmen plot his downfall.

Goodreads
Purchase at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Crystal L’s Thoughts:


This is my first Vonda Sinclair book, and I have to say that it was not bad. I do love my highlanders, but admit that I can be rather picky about them as well. I felt a little disjointed with this book and the main hero, Dirk. I'm guessing this is because this is the third book in the series, and I have not yet read the previous two books. That being said, Dirk was your typical brave, hiking-the-kilt-up-to-get-shit-done, and protective Scottish Highlander. He was also rather sweet at times.

Dirk heads home after being away for twelve years because he's received a missive that his father, Chief McKay, is gravely ill, and possibly dying. He hurries home to see his father with one of his best buds, Rebbie, in the hopes that he can show his father that he is in fact alive, after being gone for so long. Dirk's Da thinks he's dead because twelve years prior someone tried to kill him by pushing him off a cliff two hundred feet above the beaches by his home. He luckily landed on a ledge and survived, but the same murder pushed his cousin Will off the same cliff, and Will died. The person who hired the man to kill Dirk was his own stepmother, Maighread.

On the way home, Dirk finds two women out in a snow storm practically chattering themselves to death. After they get lodging her finds out that it is a maid and her Lady Isobel. Isobel and Dirk know each other from when they were children. Isobel is betrothed to Chief Torrin MacLeod, but runs away when his brother Nolan tries to rape her. After Dirk gets the story out of her he vows to help her. But on the trip to his home, and during the battle Maighread and her pain in the butt son Haldane, Dirk and Isobel develop feelings for each other. Feelings Dirk struggles with because Isobel is still technically contractually betrothed to Chief Torrin.

Will Dirk survive his stepmother's attempts to kill him? Will Dirk and Isobel find a way out of her contract so that they can be together?

This was a lovely well written story. I'd recommend Sinclair to those that like to read historical romances. My only complaints are that I wasn't able to make a total connection with Dirk, and I'm still guessing that is because it was the third book in a series I had yet to read the two previous books in, and I felt that if the author had inserted just a tad of humor in it, then the story would have been phenomenal. Still a good read though! I give it a three and a half wine glass salute! Enjoy!

Rating: 3.5 Wine Glasses