Reviewer: Tracy
Highland Valentine (Highland Secrets #4) by C.A. Szarek
Series: Highland Secrets #4
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 31, 2017
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 105
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Series Rating:

A Highland Secrets Story!

Jules MacDonald thought her happily-ever-after was secure with her barbarian laird. She journeyed through time, to seventeenth century Scotland in search of her sister, and fell in love with Hugh MacDonald.

Her forever started over a year ago when she decided to stay. Now she’s expecting her first child, and can’t be happier. The problem is her husband doesn’t share her joy.

After losing his first wife and wee son in childbirth, every day his sweet Juliette’s stomach grows is proof of her probable demise. Memories haunt Hugh and he closes himself off from her, rather than deal with the pain.

Jules is devastated by losing the man she loves, when he’s right beside her. She seeks refuge with her sister’s clan, the MacLeods, in an effort to bear her child where they’ll both be loved and wanted.

Hugh must face his worst fears to win back his wife and child before she flees to the future. Or will he be too late?

Jules is heartbroken.  She loves her husband dearly, but he has been cold and distant since she told him she was pregnant – in fact he hasn’t touched her at all since then.  She’s tried to talk to him, but he won’t talk to her about what’s bothering him.  Jules knows that she can’t live like this any longer so she makes arrangements to head to her sister’s home.  She hopes that Hugh will stop her when she tells him she’s leaving, but he just lets her go.

I saw this novella on NetGalley and it sounded cute.  No, I hadn’t read any of the books in the Highland Secrets series so I hadn’t met Hugh and Jules before.  I might have had different feelings about the book had I done so.  To a point I understood what Jules was feeling.  I got the impression that she’d tried to talk to Hugh about his attitude but had she sat him down and said, “Hey buddy, I’m outta here if you don’t shape up!” would things have been different?  Would he have broken out of his fear of losing her in childbirth like he did his first wife and child? IDK.  I didn’t really care for Hugh in this story – maybe because I’d never seen the wonderful, loving side of him that I’m sure was shown to readers in the couple’s full-length love story.

Despite not really knowing the characters it was a sweet story that I enjoyed reading.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Highland Secrets