After years of brutal torture, Callum MacKinloch is finally free of his captors–but his voice is still held prisoner. He’d never let anyone hear him scream. Although Lady Marguerite de Montpierre’s chains may be invisible, they threaten to tie her to a loveless and cruel marriage.
When Marguerite discovers Callum waiting to die, her heart aches for the warrior beneath the suffering–but they can have no future. Yet she is the one woman with the power to tame the rage locked inside him. Maybe he can find another reason to live…for her.
Lady Marguerite is at the home of her betrothed when she is awoken by a scream. Despite her fear she heads out to the bailey to find a man near death as he has been whipped. But he wasn’t the man who had screamed as he cannot speak. Callum has been a prisoner since he was just 10 or 11 years old. He has learned to keep his screams to himself as they seemed to give his torturers greater satisfaction when he let them out. Because of this he had more or less not only blocked his screams but his ability to speak as well. When a woman who seems like an angel comes to his rescue he’s sure he’s died and gone to heaven. She treats his wounds and then lets him know that she’ll never forget her.
Callum is eventually freed by his brothers and her fiancé is killed in a battle but that doesn’t stop her father from arranging yet another marriage for her. Her father takes her away to his home but Callum follows in order to fight for her. The problem is, no matter what either of them want, money and power will overpower their love. Marguerite’s father thinks he’s doing what’s best but doesn’t pay attention to what his daughter wants. He forces another engagement on her and when he finds out about Callum sends him far away.
I can’t possibly tell you how heartbreaking this story was. Even toward the end I just couldn’t see how Callum and Marguerite were going to manage to have their happily ever after. So many obstacles were standing in their way but they still fought for each other.
Callum was great. He seemed like a much older man than his 19 years but I guess being a prisoner and slave for most of your life would age you. He was fierce in his love for Marguerite and I loved his strength and perseverance. Sure he had times of thinking that he wasn’t good enough as she had grown up with lots of money and he was just a poor third son but he quickly squashed those thoughts and moved on. He was quite the hero and I was pulling for him through the whole story.
Marguerite was the type of heroine that I thought I would dislike but really she was quite amazing when it all came to a head. At first she knew that she had to follow her father’s wishes but as the story went on she began to realize that she had a brain and feelings and she should use them and make others pay attention to them. I loved how she finally stood up to her father which I imagine back then was A) not done and B) extremely hard for her to do. How she eventually made her way back to Callum showed her strength and stubbornness and I loved it.
Overall it was a great book but not really one that I would say was a happy tale. Callum and Marguerite fight to be with each other for most of the book and it was quite heart-wrenching at times and this made for major angst. It was well worth the read though and I’m so glad I read it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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