Judith’s review of To Wed A Wicked Highlander (Bad boys of the Highlands, #3) by Victoria Roberts

Laird Alexander MacDonnell must choose between his duty or losing his heart forever to the woman who betrayed him—his own wife.

Lady Sybella MacKenzie is forced to search for her clan’s ancient seeing stone under the roof of her father’s enemy. When she finds the precious artifact, will she choose the family who raised her, or will she stand with the man who has captured her soul?

It is little wonder that we contemporary romance readers find the Scots traditions and historical context so winsome.  This book is one of those that is soaked clear through with the politics of the Clans and with the myths and beliefs that often drive people to do really hurtful things.  This is also one of those books that I think some of us would buy simply for the cover.  Boy Howdy!!  Living then certainly wasn’t easy but if the guys looked like this there had to be some joy in the living.  Anyway, this is another historical romance that is not lighthearted or easy to read in the sense that there’s lots going on.  You’ll find love and sex and passion and suspense, betrayal and disappointment, death and life all mixed in with the struggles of one woman to sort out what life really has for her and to deal with a family that is just about as dysfunctional as they come.  To be a woman in that time was to be a pawn in numerous ways, but when politics and wealth and the greed for land was all at stake, I can’t imagine any of us wanting to be her.

I am also not sure that anyone living then really trusted anyone else to any degree.  Of course, people had their bff’s even then, but when the future of a clan was at stake then the trust factors became pretty superficial.  Even those paid well could be bought for even greater amounts of money.  It is little wonder that the life expectancy of those long ago lairds and their ladies was so brief.  Add in the treachery of one family pretending to make peace through a political marriage, and you have the makings of a volatile situation as well that of a very good historical romance.

This is the third in the trilogy about “bad boy” Scotsmen, and it is a really terrific read.  It is the kind of book you can sink your teeth into and it is laced all the way through with the ups and downs of politics, the reader’s hopes that the main characters can transcend the betrayal of the moment and find genuine affection and connection, and the reality that hundreds of years of history are working against them.  This author’s sense of historical integrity is evident and this book is one of those that teaches as much about the historical realities as it manages to tell a compelling love story.  It’s the kind of book I really need to read amid the lighter fare we reviewers encounter all the time.  Don’t get me wrong:  I love the lighthearted and fluffy romances, the erotic novellas and the contemporary love stories about wounded heroes or second chance relationships.  But every now and then I really need to settle down and sink my teeth into a complicated and serious historical novel full of color and vitality and populated with characters who may or may not be what they appear to be.

This is a really good read and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.  I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

The Series:

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

This title is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.