Review: Seduction of a Highland Warrior

Reviewed by Jen
 

I'll give Sue-Ellen Welfonder this: she is consistent.  I had the very same problems with this book as I did with Temptation of a Highland Scoundrel.  The main romance in this story was fairly good. But there is so much other junk going on that bogs it down, it practically ruins the book.

Marjory is on a mission to capture Alasdair, the leader of the MacDonald clan. She has wanted him for years and she is fairly certain that the feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, he and her brother hate each other's guts, so it's not an easy match. Her brother tries to keep her away from Alasdair. And Alasdair, himself, tries to fight the attraction between them.  Of course, he can't fight it for long.  Sure, he almost manages to screw it up once or twice, but there was a great sexual tension and affection between these two that couldn't be denied.  Simply put, I liked watching their road to happiness.

Unfortunately, that relationship only made up about half of the book. The rest was tied up with ghosts, Vikings, and Highland legend.  All of which were side-plots I most decidedly did not like.  The Highland legends --like magical dogs and night-walking-- are thrown in there like we should know what they are. There's no set-up or explanation... as if they were as commonplace as lighting a candle or taking a nap.

The ghosts had their own sorry tale about one of Alasdair's ancestors who cheated on his wife with a selkie and went on to be lauded as this super-great guy.  His wife wasn't so high on him, especially in her afterlife. He thought she killed himself over his indiscretion, then actually complained that she didn't love him enough to forbear through her heartbreak.  A real winner, that Drangar. Then, after centuries of blaming him, she forgives him out of nowhere.

Then there's the Viking subplot. Marjory's brother was going to marry her off to a Viking. Later, she had a portentous dream that she was going to be burned on a Viking pyre.  The foreshadowing was thick throughout the book.  But after a quick battle toward the end of the story, the whole thing was just dropped.  Very, very anticlimactic.

Even though I liked the main romance fairly well, it couldn't save this book for me.

Rating: D+

*ARC Provided by Forever

Click to purchase: Amazon

Seduction of a Highland Warrior

by Sue-Ellen Welfonder

Release Date: January 29, 2013

Publisher: Forever