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Healing The Highlander (2011)

by Melissa Mayhue(Favorite Author)

4.2 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1439190208 (ISBN13: 9781439190203)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Pocket Star

series

Daughters of the Glen

review 1: Leah MacQuarrie is part Fae and has traveled back in time to avoid Faeries who want to capture her. After years in the 1200's, her world is turned upside down when a bad uncle returns to claim the Lordship for his own. She escapes in an attempt to save her adoptive Grandparents. While fleeing, she nearly drowns and is saved by Andrew MacAlister, who is also part Fae and has been scouring the countryside for years in an attempt to find a way to heal debilitating physical wounds. He learns that Leah has that ability, through her Fae blood. They fall in love, but both doubt it because of the ulterior motives in their relationship.
review 2: ***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***Leah Noble McQuarrie has spent the last decade living a time that’s not he... morer own. She’s rebuilt the life destroyed by the Nuadian fae in the past and was quite content to have done so if it meant she was safe from those who sought to harm her. She was content within the McQuarrie keep with her adoptive grandparents until their eldest son showed up taking over the keep and trying to force her into marriage with a mean-spirited, high ranking old man. She’s been held against her will once and Fairies attempt to use her body as a brood mare, she’ll not do it again. Though she’s turned her back on her heritage she has no choice but to escape the keep she calls home and seek the MacKiernans who Mairi said would help her if she should ever need them. When Andrew MacAllister comes across a drowning lass while on one of his trips to find a cure for his injured leg he doesn’t think twice about saving her and though it goes against his better judgment he can’t resist coming to her aide and bringing her to DunArd even though if he were the laird he wouldn’t endanger his people to save hers. There’s something about her that he can’t walk away from. When he discovers she’s fae with the ability to heal, he thinks he’s found his dream come true. After all they put him through the Fairies owe him this. Except for all that Leah asks of him, she denies her heritage and the existence of her gift, absolutely refusing the one thing he wants from her. When circumstances find him married to her he believes that she’ll have no choice but to help him regain his life. But with Leah’s only goal to save the McQuarrie and his desire to protect his own people it seems they’ll never see eye to eye. Will he be able to convince Leah to help him even though he can’t give her the one thing she wants? Will Leah be able to save her new family without him? Now this is what I’m talking about, the series picks up with the same flair it had in its beginning with this latest installment of the Daughters of the Glenn Series. I mentioned in my last review I’ve been waiting to hear Leah’s story. While I did get the love story I was looking for, the reason I didn’t give this a five star review is because the back story I’d been curious about wasn’t there. The story was great don’t get me wrong, but the only reason I really understood anything at all during this story was that I’d read all the previous titles before this one. If a person hadn’t already read the previous series titles and started with this one they’d have no idea what made Leah so reluctant to claim her heritage. The details of her captivity with the Nuadian fae are like one or two sentences out of the whole book. On top of we also get next to nothing of her adjustments to the new time period and the new life. While I think the story was a wonderful read it was also a bit of a letdown. She’s created this haunted female lead, a woman even more haunted than her crippled hero, but doesn’t let us inside that past that makes her who she’s become. I’ve been looking forward to this book since I met Leah two books ago, to not get the story I wanted was disappointing and I have to think I’m not alone in having wanted more of Leah’s past brought into this story, even if it were in a conversation where she told Drew about what happened, the complete truth. As it stands upon finishing this book it seems that Drew has no real idea of Leah’s past or why she’s in his time and she has no intention of telling him. To neglect spilling the story of such a vital part of this character I think diminishes the potential she’s set up in this book. However don’t get me wrong despite my complaints I really did enjoy the book. While I didn’t get as many secondary characters scenes as I usually enjoy in Mayhue’s other titles, the focus she gives to her main characters and their plights is worth reading. As all of the other titles it’s a fast paced, well written, third person novel. While the fae magic is discussed and the reason behind both leading characters’ hatred of the fae is glossed over a bit there aren’t actually any fae making an appearance in the novel which is a bit different from many of the other titles in the series. Other than Leah’s own powers most of the major magic is references to things that have occurred in past novels. However she brings the characters nicely into their time period by firmly bring the dissension between Scotland and England into the story. The story holds the constant threat of real danger and adventure, but doesn’t go as much into the life threatening scenes of previous novels, probably because the character are both against violence for the most part. I’m writing this and thing boy this isn’t coming out like what I have in my head but I hope you can understand that while the primary plot is the romance the secondary plot is equally interesting. It’s the type of page turner you can’t put down or walk away from especially if you’re a fan of Mayhue’s work. While the novel that introduce Leah was a bit of a letdown as you saw in my review of that book, the set up it provided for the last two titles was well worth the weak link in the series. Characters are in my opinion Mayhue’s greatest strength and though she relied on previous titles to give readers most of the background on the leading characters in this story she did bring us firmly into their worlds, their hearts and their mind. She’s again created two well developed characters with believable strength and weakness that are easy to relate to. Leah and Drew are probably the most haunted of any character Mayhue has introduced to us yet. I’ll admit I think having more of the back story included in the book could have strengthened these characters considerably but they are nonetheless two of the most memorable characters I’ve seen in her works so far. Mayhue doesn’t spend as much time on secondary character development as she did in her other works, but since many of the characters are recognizable to series regulars I guess she’s able to get away with it. I’ll admit to wanting to know more about some of the secondary characters within this novel and where their paths eventually lead but overall I was happy with the characterization presented in this novel. In conclusion now that you’ve suffered through probably one of my more poorly written review yet, the book is highly recommended to reader of historical and fantasy romance, though more the first than the second as the magic doesn’t have as much of a play in this novel as it has in other titles. However I do recommend reading the other Daughters of the Glenn Series titles before reading this one since as I mentioned above Mayhue relies a lot on the content of those novels to fill in the blanks in this one rather than recounting the back story that series regulars would already know. less

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