Judith’s review of Tempted by the Highland Warrior (MacKinloch Clan #3) by Michelle Willingham
After years of brutal torture, Callum MacKinloch is finally at 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.
We often encounter kindness in many forms and most of us realize that kindness is one of the most sneaky human actions. Just simple kindness, the sort that reaches out in small measure, the variety that simply expresses concern and caring in the most minor way, has the unbelievable power to overwhelm depression, hopelessness, and deepest despair, the kind that overwhelmed Callum in a time when slaves and captives were less valuable than manure on the bottom of the shoes of their captors. The torture was extreme and the pain almost unendurable. Simple kindness to Callum at a time when his life was almost at an end was deeply imprinted on his spirit and he kept the small piece of fabric that always represented Marguerite’s kindness, her treatment of him as a man of worth.
This story is filled with seeming dead ends that keep the reader on the edge of the chair, with readers often convinced that Marguerite and Callum have no future. Time and time again it is only Callum’s unflagging determination and Marguerite’s willingness to participate in the intrigue against those who would keep them apart that makes it possible for them to be together at all. All this together with the politics of the times, there is a steady level of tension throughout the story. It is one of those wonderful historical novels that not only entertains but educates as to the politics of the times, the social norms, the attitudes and actions that mark the clear boundaries between nationalities and the prejudices that drive people and their decisions. Yet at the center of this story is the tender regard, the deep love that allows two people to find their way toward each other, the love that makes it possible for a man to once again find his voice. This novel is a beautifully written offering that will please readers who love historical romance that is complicated, involved, and steeped in the social and political context that makes this time period on history so colorful and intriguing to contemporary readers.
I have read other novels from this time period and this author has not trouble, in my mind, at holding her own with the best of them. Lovers of historical fiction owe it to themselves to experience and enjoy this book.
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