Guest Review: A Highlander Christmas by Dawn Halliday, Cindy Miles and Sophie Renwick

A lost beauty melts the cold heart of a Jacobite warrior in Dawn Halloiday’s “Winter Heat.” Stranded in a blizzard, Maggie MacDonald is rescued by Highland warrior Logan Douglas. But a tempest of another kind brews when Logan discovers that Maggie has been promised to a cruel suitor.

Sophie Renwick brings two strangers together with an unexpected Victorian “Yuletide Enchantment.” Isobel MacDonald is spending Christmas at her ancestral Highland estate when she loses her treasured clan pin in the woods. The enigmatic Prince Daegan offers his help in finding it, but the stranger’s charms are more powerful than she imagines.

And the haunts of the past bring new meaning to the holidays in Cindy Miles’ contemporary “A Christmas Spirit.” Paige MacDonald’s Highland tour takes a surprising turn when a storm forces her to seek refuge ina forbidding castle already inhabited by the dead-sexy spirit of Gabriel Munro.

The Scots of today have a way of declaring something they really like as being “lovely.” It is one of their favorite words, and truthfully, this collection of stories about members of the MacDonald Clan is lovely! Each novella has a very readable story line, with characters that hold their own and who engage the reader from the beginning of each story. The varied timeframes add to the interest but the unique spirit of the Highlands permeates each story. The first story is built around that unreal cultural tradition—at least to us who are alive now—that prohibits women from marrying someone of their own choice except in rare situations. The feudal ownership of women by the laird of each clan is hard for us to accept and even harder to read about nowadays, and this story is no exception. But the warrior who saves Maggie’s life is a man of honor and principle and their growing attraction and eventual love seem doomed by the laird’s friendship with a cruel and abusive clansman.

The second story is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. Who would dream of coming to a friend’s home in the Highlands and being abducted and enthralled by a ancient fairy Prince with whom the heroine falls in love? It is a seemingly gentle and quiet story but the writer surprises the reader as the tension grows and the happy ending of the story is in doubt.

The third story is quite unusual—who would have thought that a curator at the Smithsonian on vacation in the Highlands would fall in love with a nine-hundred-year-old ghost who is everything that Paige has dreamed or desired. How this crazy and wonderful relationship between a live and warm woman and a gorgeous Scots warrior ghost develops is just delightful and I found myself thinking of these two after finishing the story.

I love Scotland and I love Highland romances. So I am biased about this anthology and enjoyed it very much. Each of the writers has crafted a tale that is hard to put down and is, in its own way, inspiring. The power of love does indeed inspire all of us—that’s why we love to read romance. Whether in the Middle Ages or contemporary settings, everyone loves a lover and there’s lots to love here.

I give this book a 5 our of 5 rating

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

This book is available from NAL. You can buy it here or here in e-format.