Did I imagine shades of Jane Eyre in this story?
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This was an interesting story, I liked parts of it, but there were some holes which needed to be filled. Let's start with some of the issues. First off, the heroine – Catriona.
I don’t remember her from the previous books, so I don’t have a memory of how she was represented in those stories. But in the opening chapters of this story, she is written as a person who has a drinking problem. Why she has a drinking issue is never fully explained. Oh sure, she’s not happy with her life. But why isn’t she? She has a cause, she’s helping downtrodden women, women who have been abandoned by men. But this cause doesn’t seem to give her any fulfillment. She’s not really represented as a 18th century woman, but she’s Scottish, maybe that’s supposed to explain the difference. While I think Scottish women were given a lot of latitude in this time period, I think her freedom in this story may be a stretch. Anyway, she has a drinking problem which alllll through the book comes and goes. It’s a plot-line that never goes anyway and doesn’t add anything to the story, so I wasn’t sure why it was in there.Then there was the brooding hero, Hamlin Graham, Duke of Montrose. The gossips say he murdered his wife. He’s never says anything about it, he never talks about what happened, he just lets the gossip continue – he broods. This is actually puzzling because he has political ambitions, so if he wants to be in politics why hasn’t he explained everything. No, he’s going to depend on other people to pull him out of the darkness he’s covered himself in. Then there’s Eula.
When Eula is introduced into the story, I started to see similarities between this book and Jane Eyre. We have a mysterious, brooding hero, a young girl who is being raised by the brooding hero, but it's never really explained as to how that came to be. There is also the case of the missing wife, and no explanations as to what happened. There is a difference between the solution to the wife problem, but still this book reminded me a lot of Jane Eyre – only this one had sex.
Back to Eula. The last few books I’ve read have had some wonderful children in them and Eula is no exception. Eula is a charmer; she knows how to get what she wants and doesn’t have any qualms about using her charms. She’s smart and cunning and she steals the show. If she is allowed to grow-up and have her own book, it should be quite fun to read. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed.
The rest of the book was jammed-packed with loads of characters, plots and distractions. There was a rush to get alllll the strings tied and in so doing the romance gets shorted. This story is also an example of the female lead coming awfully close to being not likeable. The hero, Hamlin’s dark secret doesn’t really make sense and the solution seems rushed. Also, while we are told that Hamlin is a brooding, cold man, he’s really not. He’s a Beta guy disguised as an Alpha.
I do recommend this book, sort of. I was disappointed in some of the solutions to the problems which arose. I didn’t care for the heroine’s drinking problem, which came and went. I guess the solution to drinking is to get married - and, we all know marriage solves everything. The issue of all the fallen women could have been the heart of the story, but it disappeared into the background once Catriona left to find her Uncle Knox. The solution to the fallen women problem was also rushed. For me, there seemed to be so many problems to be solved in the book, but there wasn’t enough space allotted to these problems. And, they deserved more. But if you have been reading this series, you probably need to read this book.
Time/Place: 1700s Scotland/England
Sensuality: Warm Hot
Series: Highland Grooms
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