Review - - The Highlander Burns for Vengeance

The Highlander Burns for Vengeance

by Julie Johnstone

Return of the Highlanders - Book 3

Publisher: Darbyshire Publishing, LLC

Release Date: December 30, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

  

Divided by treachery, bound by an edict, they must decide their fate: to love or to hate.

After years of captivity, Graeme Stewart has returned home with a burning desire for vengeance, and it’s all directed at the Campbell clan. They attacked his home, killed his parents, and imprisoned him for eighteen long years. So when the king demands Graeme handfast with his enemy’s sister to end the warring of their clans, he intends to use her to get the revenge he yearns for. But Maisie’s courage and character surprise him at every turn, conjuring admiration and stirring desire. Now, with revenge within his grasp, he must make a choice before it’s too late: either cling to the malice that kept him alive or release it for the chance at love.

The vengeful and unreasonable Highlander intends to destroy her family, and Maisie Campbell is bound to him for a year and a day. She hates everything about Graeme, except the way he kisses, which is a force that nearly brings her to her knees. But lust does not a marriage make, and the man is hell-bent on proving her brother a traitor and herself treacherous, so she sets out to prove otherwise. Yet, as questions of her brother’s character arise in her own mind and Graeme displays an honorable, fiercely protective nature, Maisie faces a decision: seek a truth that will doom the brother she adores or remain blindly loyal to those she’s always held dear and lose the man she has come to love with all her heart.

PJ's Thoughts:

This book exemplifies all the reasons that when I want a fast-paced, emotional, Medieval romance that I can't put down, the author I first turn to is Julie Johnstone. Her characters are complex and fully developed. Her grasp of time and place is vividly and authentically depicted. Her books never leave me feeling as though I've read a modern book set hundreds of years ago. From the first page to the last, I was fully immersed in 15th Century Scotland, these characters, their triumphs, travails, passion, and the danger that stalks them.

While this is book three in Johnstone's Return of the Highlanders trilogy and the couples from books one and two are featured, The Highlander Burns for Vengeance stands well on its own. You can easily jump in with any book. I recommend all three. 

Review & Giveaway - - Tangled Up With The Highlander

Tangled Up With The Highlander

by Julie Johnstone

Return of the Highlanders - Book 2

Publisher: Darbyshire Publishing

Release Date: August 30, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

 

He thought he would never love again… Then he fell for the lass he must give up to save his clan.

Desperate to keep his children and clan from starving, Laird Alasdair MacLachlan joins the ranks of mercenaries searching for the missing lass of a powerful clan. The mission seems simple—find the lass, return her to her family, and claim the hefty reward. But when fate throws bow and arrow wielding Sorcha MacGregor in his path, he’s about to discover how complicated one mule-headed, beguiling beauty can make things. For a man who has lost and loved and has no interest in doing either ever again, he’s confounded by the desire the opinionated woman awakens in him, and he’s shocked to discover his heart might not be permanently frozen after all. But his duty to his family and clan must come before all else, and that means sticking to the plan. Or is that just an excuse to avoid burying his painful past and taking a risk on a new future? One thing is certain—if he doesn’t figure it out soon, Sorcha will be lost to him forever.


Life has taught Sorcha MacGregor that only a harebrained fool would wish to wed and become a man’s chattel to control. So when she’s kidnapped by a Highlander who intends to deliver her like a trussed pig to a family she’s never known, she instantly decides he’s a selfish barbarian like all other men. Her opinion becomes harder to maintain, though, when the devilishly handsome warrior risks his life for hers. Still, she has no intention of lowering her well-placed guard and making herself vulnerable. But with each act of kindness Alasdair shows her, every moving interaction between him and his children, and the simmering way he looks at her, not to mention the toe-curling kisses, she comes to see the gentle, brokenhearted man behind the hardened exterior, and she does the one thing she swore she’d never do: falls in love. When the time comes for Alasdair to make the ultimate sacrifice for her, for love, will he prove he’s really the man of her dreams or just a fantasy that is too good to be true?

PJ's Thoughts:

Julie Johnstone is my favorite author writing Medieval romance today. Her stories are exciting, adventurous, heart-tugging, and immersive. It's always a bit of a jolt when I look up from my Kindle while reading one of her books and realize that I'm in present time and not the Medieval Scottish Highlands. The web she weaves is that realistic.

Alasdair and Sorcha both claimed my affection in this book while Alasdair's young children outright captured my heart. As they did Sorcha's. It was so endearing to watch their relationship grow but, mostly, I enjoyed watching Sorcha help Alasdair bridge the emotional gap between him and his children that had been erected since the death of his beloved wife as well as find new, unexpected love with Sorcha. But not without some monumental challenges to overcome along the way. I love strong warriors, hardened by loss, who gradually rediscover the joy of both familial and romantic love.

Tangled Up With The Highlander is book two of Johnstone's Return of the Highlanders trilogy but can be read as a standalone, however if you're like me you'll want to read all three. Book one, Secrets of a Highlander's Heart, was released earlier this year. I haven't read it yet though I plan to rectify that soon. Both books are available to purchase in print, digital, or audiobook as well as through Kindle Unlimited. 

Readers, do you enjoy Medieval romance?

Have you read Julie Johnstone yet?

What's your favorite romance time period? Do you read books set in multiple periods? 

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, September 1 will receive an e-book copy of Tangled Up With The Highlander.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18