Tracy’s review of The Warrior Laird by Margo Maguire
Haunted by horrors of his childhood, Dugan MacMillan has sworn to protect his clan at any cost . . . even if he must search for a rumored treasure and kidnap a beautiful thief to do it.
The MacMillan laird has never crossed paths with anyone quite like Lady Maura Duncanson. After he saved her from certain death, the comely vixen had the audacity to disappear with his treasure map, his only key to restoring his clan. Dugan has no qualms about taking Maura hostage, especially when he learns she is to wed a wealthy old baron who will pay him a fortune in ransom . . . a fortune his people desperately need.
But, of course, Maura has no intention of returning to her despicable fiancé. And the longer Dugan spends in the bewitching hellion’s presence, the less willing he is to surrender her to any man . . . at any price.
Dugan MacMillan is on a mission. He is the Laird of his clan but sadly doesn’t own the land that he and his clan live on. He’s told by his landlord, the Duke of Argyll that he needs to come up with three thousand pounds in 30 days or the clan will be kicked off the land. Dugan is desperate to get the money and knows that no cattle raid will get that much money for the rent. His grandfather had given him part of a map that supposedly told the location of a stash of French gold. Dugan and his men head out to get another portion of the map that will hopefully tell where the money is.
Maura Duncanson is also desperate. Her father, who cares nothing for her, has sent one of his men to ferry her off to marry a Baron who is about 50 years her senior. She’s heard about the man and knows that not only would he not be kind to her but he certainly wouldn’t take in her crippled sister, Rosie. She makes a plan to get away from her guard and head north to the highlands to get Rosie so that they can live together in peace. While in her travels Maura overhears Dugan’s man speaking about the French Gold and since she happened to have a portion of the treasure map herself she decides to take Dugan’s portions.
Of course Dugan follows her to get his maps back and though Maura is determined to get away from him to go to her sister she can’t help her attraction to the big highlander. Maura figures out, for the most part, where the treasure is located but won’t tell Dugan or his men as she fears they won’t share it with her and then she’ll have no way to support her sister. Dugan is annoyed by Maura as well as deeply attracted to her. He knows he shouldn’t be as her family played a huge part in the death of his parents and brother but he can’t seem to help it. He’s sent his men to tell her soon-to-be-groom that he’s holding her hostage and plans on handing her over to the old goat for the price of three thousand pounds. It’s a constant fight between the hero and heroine to get what they want and neither is sure who will win.
I love medieval highlander stories. Something about the huge strapping men in their kilts; their fierceness and loyalty to their clans – it just gets me going every time. This book had that in spades and kept me turning pages.
Now the worries that both Maura and Dugan had were valid. She didn’t want to be handed over to her intended and wanted to live peacefully with her sister. Dugan wanted to save his clan no matter what he had to do. But when all was said and done and the arguments were over they each realized that their wants and desires had changed to include the other person. They weren’t sure how that was going to work but they still wanted it.
I thought that Maguire did a great job of getting us involved in the story but there seemed to be a few too many repetitive thoughts in there for my liking. If the highlander thinks that a cattle raid would get enough money for the rent, then ok. But when he thinks the same thought 3 times in the first 50 pages it gets a bit old. Maura of course was pretty single minded and understandably so but that seemed to get a bit old as well.
The story was good but while the group was traveling and searching for the gold in the story it still seemed to me that there was not a lot going on. I know this was to develop the romance and I did appreciate that but it just didn’t bowl me over.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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