Tracy’s review of Taming a Wild Scot by Rowan Keats
Wrongfully accused of murder and left to die in a hellish Highland dungeon, Ana Bisset has lost all hope of freedom. But the beautiful healer’s luck takes an unexpected turn when a hooded stranger appears as her rescuer. After a harrowing escape, Ana settles alone in a quiet village where no one knows her past or her reputation. The last thing she ever expects is to meet her mysterious savior again…
Niall MacCurran is no hero, but a warrior on a dangerous mission to expose a threat to the realm. After his decision to free Ana, he now realizes that it is he who needs her help—willing or no—to advance his quest. But his growing feelings for the delicate yet resilient beauty soon jeopardize their safety—and not even Ana’s healing gifts may be enough to protect their love, or their lives.
Ana Bisset is accused of murder. She didn’t kill anyone but that doesn’t stop her from being thrown into a dungeon and starved. Luck is with her though when someone comes to free the person in the next cell. That rescuer, Niall, makes a quick decision and frees Ana as well. He leaves her in the forest so that he can escape and Ana barely gets away from her accusers.
The story picks up 3 months later when Niall and his clan mates are in a village to try and retrieve a necklace that was stolen from them that will clear their family name and return their lands to them. Niall sees Ana and decides that she will be helping him in his mission. He acts like her long lost husband and this gains him entrance to the Baron’s manor house as he thought it would.
Ana is a healer but not just a normal one. She has special healing powers that she tries to hide from people. She knows that her time is short in the village she lives in but she must stay until the baron’s wife has given birth.
With Niall constantly on her heals, the local priest determined to make her see that she’s a sinner and the constant surveillance she and Niall are under, Ana’s about at her wits end. Niall makes things better with his body but even though they both believe it’s just sex the pair get closer and closer and Ana is soon falling in love. Niall tries to fight it until Ana is accused due to her magic and he has to make a decision between saving his family name or saving Ana’s life.
A great first novel by Rowan Keats, I must say. I found the beginning to be exciting and couldn’t put the book down. Ana made a great damsel in distress even though in truth she was a very strong female. She had been on her own for years and planned on staying that way. She really just wanted a place to call her own so that she could live her life and plant her garden. Unfortunately her healing powers made this a bit of an impossibility and tended to get her in trouble.
Niall’s story was a bit more complicated. I found the explanation of who had died in his family, and why to not be stated plainly and I had to go back a time or two to get it all down. Despite that the remainder of the story was quite clear even though we didn’t get a solid conclusion for either Niall’s or Ana’s stories. Niall was a bit of a bastard to Ana at first but I viewed him as a typical untrusting highlander. I really liked him despite his gruff exterior and loved seeing him giving in to Ana’s charms (even though she didn’t know she was putting them out there).
I thought the book on the whole had a good plot that seemed to merge both Ana’s and Niall’s stories. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series to see what happens next.
Rating: 4 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This title is available from Signet. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Leave a Reply