Highland Brides, Book 6

I Picked Up This Book Because: Continue the series.

The Characters:

Aulay Buchanan:
Jetta:


The Story:

I love Lynsay Sands and I love this series. The characters are all so perfectly flawed. Aulay with his scar and Jetta with her memory loss, even the would be murderer had a complex bit of story. I really enjoyed it.

The Random Thoughts:



The Score Card:



4 Stars

Argeneau, Book 29

I Picked Up This Book Because: I love this series.

The Characters:

Santo Notte:
Petronella Stone:
Margueritte Notte, Julian Notte, Parker Peters, Quinn Peters

The Story:

I find myself without much to say about this installment. I like Santo and Petronella together and I love little Parker. It will be interesting to see what happens with Pet’s twin, Quinn in the future. I’m a little behind on the overall story arc as I haven’t read the two books before this but I’m working on catching up.

Overall this was a great addition to the series. I love the characters and the wit Ms Sands always brings to her stories.

The Random Thoughts:



The Score Card:



4 Stars

For once, nobody does anything stewpid for lols. Yay. And the niggles are side characters or last minute drama.

The h is aware of immortals, being as how her mother was one's lifemate. She's also an orphan because apparently her stepdad was an enforcer who was targeted by a crime ring. (I'd actually like to know what happened with that. I'm sure there are plans somewhere or it wouldn't have been mentioned and left dangling like a carrot). She has a twin sister, sister's husband, and a nephew. Sister may or may not remember what happened.

Dressler has shown up...sortof (we never actually see him), and the story opens with the kid calling 911 to report the elderly neighbor being possibly in danger and possibly having Reinfeld's syndrome. Being as how the child - 8 - is exceedingly gifted and how the parents - a surgeon and an oncologist - apparently let google raise him... The kid is a niggle. His being exceedingly smart I can handle. His complete disregard of safety...not really. He's 8. He should know better than to charge the front door to greet a complete stranger.

And then there's Santo - H. He first appeared many books ago in Christian's tale. He takes tall, dark, and silent maybe a bit too far as he speaks a combination of trollish and si/no. This infuriates the h who asks him a question and gets a grunt.

Eventually, they get together. Eventually, the h is turned (and I'm not so sure it wasn't by accident as it seemed to happen awfully fast). And everything is mostly going great until... Oh crap; I need x number of pages. Let's introduce some DRAMA in the form of cousinous interruptus and revelations about the H's PTSD, which results in his bolting because as the h tells him, he's an ass. It does work out in the end but I'm a bit vindictive and he would have groveled for running off with his tail between his legs.

The Wrong Highlander - Lynsay Sands

It started off well. What happened?

Oh I know what happened. Flow was tossed out the window for awkward sex scenes that I skimmed.

The first half of the book was choppy. You have the opening salvo (good), you have a bungle that really makes no sense. I realize the H isn't the healer she thought he was but he'd worked with his brother enough to know you don't put someone in bed with a sick person. And this was essentially a setup for him to trip and fall into the h's father's bed, followed by nearly nailing her (beside her father?!). Someone walked in, otherwise...

Then we're told that days pass while dad is healing from an infected boil on his arse. He then metaphorically dons the kilt he'd tossed aside 14 years ago when his wife died, and presses the h into going on an expedition with the H for the sole purpose of getting the two of them in a compromising position, also known as awkward sex scene #1, because a) he sent her cousin to spy on the two and b) the H was under the impression she was a bored lonely widow. This ends abruptly when a)he discovers that widowhood apparently occurred before the wedding had been consummated and b) she takes an arrow to the chest.

We're told they spend several days playing chess (I think) before his brother tells him he needs to get a move on with the seduction business. Then we get improbable fondling where a woman who can't walk across the floor to a table without being out of breath is apparently able to handle multiple orgasms. The day after, she's nearly drowned in her bath, and while she's recuperating from this, he's out trying to find WhoDunIt and getting stabbed in the back. He passes out while being stitched up, having suffered falling down secret passage steps and getting stabbed, and yet, somehow has enough blood left to power two heads. She still can't walk across the floor but she's up to a sex marathon.

Somewhere around here it stops telling and starts showing as to all the castle goings on. So we're treated to a day's worth of wild goose chase which ends when everyone leaves her alone in her room. Well, the secret passage is locked...isn't it? Oh. Right. Nobody ever checks.

So...choppy. The first half treats us to an hour here, an hour there, few minutes to the side, then the second half hits and it's almost play by play (includes a trip to the garderobe even)