Reviewer: Tracy
Highland Deception by Lori Ann Bailey
Series: Highland Pride #1
Publisher: Entangled
Publication Date: August 22nd 2016
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Series Rating:

Scotland, August 1642

Maggie and Lachlan must fight their growing attraction, battling suspicion and intrigue as religious and political turmoil threaten to tear their clans apart.

He has sworn he will never marry.

Lachlan Cameron is honor bound to see a wounded lass to safety, although he has well learned women are deceivers, and this lovely maid harbors a wealth of secrets. But Maggie's free spirit and charms enthrall him while he works to discover if she is innocent…or a spy scheming with his enemies to destroy his clan.

She has sworn she will never fall in love.

Maggie Murray fled her home to avoid a political marriage to an abusive man. Salvation comes when the Cameron laird, unaware of her identity, protects her as she escapes. His kindness slowly warms her, and she’s tempted to confess her real name. But his strong sense of honor would force him to return her to her father…and torment at the hands of her scorned betrothed.

Maggie is terrified of marrying Conall Erskine, the monster that her father has betrothed her to. She’s been able to put off the wedding until her 21st birthday but the wedding is upon her now and she’s not about to go through with it. She dresses as a boy and leaves her father’s keep, luckily finding a horse not too far away, and taking it to get away. She plans to head for northern Scotland to join a convent. In a roundabout way she ends up with a party from the Cameron Clan and ends up falling for their Laird, Lachlan Cameron. She doesn’t want to because she had seen her mother constantly giving her love to her father with no reciprocation and she never wanted to be like her.

Lachlan Cameron was on his way to Edinburgh to deliver his cousin when he came across Robbie who had been living with a priest. That priest had been killed and the church burned. Robbie heads off with the Cameron’s to Edinburgh but when he sees Conall Erskine he points his finger at him as the murderer of the priest. After that, one of the Cameron men intercept a letter Conall has written stating his intentions of killing his own father for political gain.

Lachlan needs to get back to his land in order to notify the other Laird’s of the letter, and to keep Robbie safe from Conall. He has no idea who Maggie is as she won’t tell him but he also has no idea that she even knows Conall. Lachlan had been betrayed in the past by a woman and swore he would never marry and certainly never give his heart to a woman ever again. When he meets Maggie, however, he starts to change his mind. The problem is that he has no clue of her identity and doesn’t trust her. He might let his past guide his future and it may be the worst thing he’d ever done.

This was a good story of love, trust, betrayal and faith. I really enjoyed seeing Lachlan and Maggie come together and work out their differences. Yes, it took a while and yes, Lachlan had major trust issues (which were frustrating, I must admit) but it all worked out in the end. It finally came down to trusting each other and having faith that the one they loved would never turn on them. I really liked that part of it all.

Maggie was a really strong heroine. She had put up with a lot during her short lifetime and while it could have broken her in so many ways it actually ended up making her a much stronger person. She knew what she wanted, and what she didn’t want, and didn’t let anyone stand in her way. Her mother had done a number on her before she had killed herself. Constantly telling Maggie how much she loved and hated her father as he cheated on her all the time. It truly had given Maggie a extremely skewed view of men overall so yeah, Maggie certainly had her own trust issues when it came to Lachlan.

Lachlan was a great guy. You could really tell what kind of man he was by the love and loyalty he was shown by his clan. Except for one person, he was admired and respected. That told me a lot about him. The fact that he was trying to do the right thing with the information he had about Conall showed that he did things the right way rather than to take matters into his own hands. Yes, as I said, he had some major trust issues that got a bit old by the end but as he loved Maggie so much he was easily swayed back towards her in the end.

Overall a good highlander love story that was definitely worth reading.

Rating: 4 out of 5