He's a Scottish knight in the Bruce's army and takes her as plunder when he finds her in a convent. He sets out to seduce the lass, while they plunder the Scottish and English countryside. She's suffered a lot of losses due to wars and hates that he's a knight but he wins her over, even as he has to fight not only English enemies but some backstabbing Scottish one's too.
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[b:Conqueror's Kiss|226076|Conqueror's Kiss|Hannah Howell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389885569s/226076.jpg|1814688] is set in early 14th Century Scotland among the pillage and plunder happening on the border of England and Scotland between Edward and Robert the Bruce's armies. This was a tumultuous time in history for the two countries, and it seems that the people who suffered most were the innocent townfolk who took know part in the warring between the kings. This book contains a lot of rape, murder, slaughter and fighting - which was on par for the time. These atrocities committed on behalf of kings are another reason for me to be grateful to have been born in the 20th Century!

Our hero is Sir Hacon Gillard. Let me first start by saying that I hated his name. I don't know how to pronounce it - like bacon, Hasson, Hack-on, Hac-one??? I ended up scouring the internet trying to find a pronunciation guide, but I was not able to find a Scottish pronunciation. I was able to find Italian and English pronunciations that sounded similar, so I just went with it (sounds like Hack-on). I really wish authors would give us a phonetic spelling in parentheses the first time they use one of these types of names. Anyway, other than his name, I liked Hacon, the big braw blonde knight. While he followed commands of his king and liege lord to fight along the borders and pillage and plunder towns, he did not engage in the killing of defenseless women and children. He was an honorable and loyal man, with a good sense of humor.

Our heroine, Jennet Graeme has been hit particularly hard by these wars. She witnesses the rape and murder of her mother, then it seems that every town she moves to after that is caught up in the fighting. Finally, at Berwick, she is taken as plunder by Hacon. Jennet got lucky in her captor for all the qualities discussed above about Hacon. Rather than rape her as spoils of war, he sets out to seduce Jennet and keep her. Jennet was a great heroine - she was feisty, steadfast in her beliefs, and not afraid to voice her opinion. The banter between her and Hacon was fairly good and I enjoyed seeing them grow to care for one another in the midst of war.

Usually I gobble up these older historical romances because I love when a book has numerous plot conflicts and resolutions within one story. However this one seemed to drag on and on and I found myself skimming it toward the end. This could also be because I have been sick and reading was a little bit of a chore this week due to the brain fog that comes with a really bad cold.

I received an advanced copy of the reprinted book from Zebra/Kensington in exchange for an honest review. 3 stars / 3 flames. ( )

...delightful plunder!

Jennet Graeme is a delightful character, spunky and abrasive, not at all subdued by her violent history. When Sir Hacon Gillard drags her from a convent and claims her as plunder during the sack of Berwick she rises to the challenge and Havon finds himself with a delightful armful of spitting kitten that continues to give him more grief than he had even conceived.
Trapped in the Scottish wars, Jennet is just one more causality in the battle of kings and conquests in the Scotland of1318.
This re-release of Howell's novel is a treat for those of us who never met her early novels.
I enjoyed Jennet's feistiness, Hacon's inherent understanding and goodness, the battles between the two of them, and the loyalty of the various secondary characters, including Jennet's father.
Of course there's a decided dastardly foe. One whom Jennet has good cause to remember, and one who Hacon knows is a treacherous enemy.
A story told through Jennet's eyes and from the woman's perspective, this is a very human telling of the Scottish wars and it's effect not so much on the higher nobility but on the lesser clans and the ordinary people, with a glimpse into the internal politics of the Scottish court.

A NetGalley ARC ( )

Enjoyable historical romance set in 1318 Scotland and the action packed plot centered around battles yet kept my interest but the bad guys constantly got away with too much evil and heroines grand stand near the end stretched belief. Sir Hacon and his warriors invade a convent and claims Jennet as his prize. ( )

In this Scottish medieval romance, Hannah Howell takes her readers on a journey of one woman's battle to survive during the border wars between Scotland and England in the early 1300s. Jennet Grame witnessed her mother's brutal rape and murder as a small child, endured years of abusive servitude, believed her father dead, and finally took refuge in a nunnery as war and famine raged around her. She soon learns that not even convents are immune to blood lust and plundering during these harsh times.

Sir Hacon Gillard is a knight in service to Robert the Bruce who has claimed the throne of Scotland. Against Hacon's will, he and his loyal men take part in ransacking the convent held by the English, and thus he discovers Jennet in her small cell mending clothes. He is taken with her green eyes and her spirit as she tries to use her small knife to defend herself. Hacon claims her as "his plunder" and takes her with him as the army moves forward into England.

The story of the relationship between this fearsome knight and the young woman he has claimed as his own is artfully crafted to be at once tense and tender. The reader follows them from battle to battle and always the romance is first and foremost in the story while the background action keeps you in suspense to find out what will happen next.

Beware you might find yourself trying to ignore your need for food or sleep in order to keep reading. I liked everything about this book: the plot, the characters (of which there are many) and the almost nonstop action. I closed the book after the last page with a heartfelt sigh of pleasure while wishing it had not ended so soon. ( )