Hard-Hearted Highlander

How do you get past a lost love, especially one torn from you? In Julia London's newest novel, Hard-Hearted Highlander, the third in the Highland Grooms series after Wild Wicked Scot and Sinful Scottish Laird, both the hero and heroine are faced with going on after their first loves die.

Rabbie Mackenzie is angry, remote, and verging on suicidal. As a highlander after Culloden, he harbors a lot of anger toward the English for the atrocities they perpetrated on the Scots. The worst thing they did to him personally weat Avaline Kent, his fiancee, is naive, emotional, and childish and must rely on her lady's maid in almost all decisions. But Rabbie will grudgingly marry her to save his clan and keep her father, who has bought a neighboring show more estate, from destroying the Mackenzies through trade. For her part, Avaline can't say boo to a mouse, deferring to her maid Bernadette, a woman of noble birth whose youthful elopement and forced annulment ruined her reputation and her future prospects. When Bernadette and Rabbie meet, they dislike to each other, Rabbie thinking Bernadette feels she is better than him and Bernadette thinking Rabbie is insufferably rude. They may loathe each other, but they both recognize the terrible mismatch between the hard and forbidding Rabbie and the cake headed, fearful Avaline.

As Bernadette comes to know Rabbie better, to understand that he is hardened by grief, to sympathize with his obvious pain, and to peel back these layers of him, she finds herself attracted to him just as he finds himself attracted to this cheeky, honest, and confident Sassenach. Bernadette is burdened by a terrible past loss just as Rabbie is but it changed her in very different ways. Instead of shutting herself off emotionally from everyone around her and railing against the injustice, she has picked herself up and gone on with her life, albeit a constrained life unlike one she once imagined for herself. Even though she looks to the future with a more optimistic outlook than Rabbie, she is still carrying the enormous sorrow of her past and letting it dictate her future. Both characters have to learn to temper their grief and start living again. The secondary characters here are nicely drawn. Avaline is infuriating and ridiculously dependent and then surprisingly stubborn and short-sighted, throwing up road blocks every time Bernadette thinks she has extricated the mismatched pair from the unwanted engagement. Rabbie's family is thoughtful and caring and although some of them are introduced in earlier books, a reader doesn't have to have read the prior novels to follow along and enjoy this one. Historical romance buffs, especially those with and interest in Scotland, will enjoy this glimpse into a romance set in the aftermath of Culloden and the impact it had on the Highlanders. show less

Marriage and more in the wild Highlands!

Bernadette Holly has taken up the life as a governess after her scandalous elopement became salacious gossip for polite society. Her charge is Avaline is the daughter of an English Baron, Baron Kent. Kent is determined to marry his daughter off to Rabbie Mackenzie. The Baron wants access to the sea for trading from the dispossessed lands of Killeaven he's bought from the crown that surround the Mackenzie stronghold of Belhaire. Marriage with the Mackenzie will give him that. In a world post Culloden and the Jacobite uprising, 1750 Scotland leaves little choice for anyone. 'Scotland [was] drowning under the weight of taxes and excises.' Rabbie will marry the Sassenach for his family and their show more survival.
Rabbie's heart has been broken from the day he found out his one true love Seona, was missing after the English had taken their revenge. Seona had never returned.
Avaline is a flighty, set upon young girl with a head full of dreams and an unwillingness to face reality. But given her situation why should she? She is being married off to bring about her father's plans. Perhaps her fantasy world, her drifting through things kept her sane.
You can't help but be dismayed at treatment of women as property. Both Bernadette and Avaline are badly treated by their fathers. What happened to Bernadette when she was dragged away from her husband and her marriage annulled was truly wicked.
Of course Rabbie and Bernadette rub each other up the wrong way from the very beginning. Bernadette is trying to protect Avaline, to show her she can make choices. Avaline has other ideas. Her fear of her father doesn't help.
There were real moments of tenderness in this story between Bernadette and her nemesis Rabbie Mackenzie. Indeed, I surprised myself by my near tearful response when Rabbie comes to understand Bernadette and her story.
I did enjoy this look at two haunted people who find each other.

A NetGalley ARC show less

It's easier to put my finger on things that weren't great than it is to determine what was better than average, but I suppose being entertained is reason enough. One aspect that I would have changed drastically though is the amount of time spent walking us through the hero's first relationship. I don't mind hearing some about a previous love, our pasts help make us who we are, but all the way through this book we cut to scenes of their relationship developing... It just felt like a weird choice. Even if there were some aspects the author wanted us to know, the hero could have just recalled it to mind, or mentioned it to someone or something. On the whole, this was probably more predictable than average, but the telling of it was nice.

I am really enjoying this series by Julia London. In the 3rd book Hard-Hearted Highlander we get Rabbie and Bernadette's story. Both of them have had some heart breaking things that have happened to them that being open to the possibility of love is hard won. The book contained some funny situations of misunderstandings and some hot moments of passion. I also felt such hatred for Lord Kent and I wanted him to fall off a horse over the cliffs. I enjoyed the test that Rabbie made for Bernadette at the end of the book. I think it was needed to show her that family is made up of all kinds of kinds.

The readers are also treated with appearances of the whole MacKenzie family, which was delightful. I am hoping that a certain outspoken sister show more gets her own book. show less

3.75*

I've received an eARC in exchange for an honest review

Review in Portuguese:http://pepitamagica.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/livro-hard-hearted-highlander-de-julia.html

Hard-Hearted Highlander brings us the story of another one of Arran and Margot McKenzie’s sons, Rabbie McKenzie.

To protect his family and re-gain lost lands, Rabbie agrees to marry an English girl, even though he doesn’t like English people (*cof* but loves his mother, who IS English *cof*).

Rabbie is a character that has suffered a lot. With a past filled with loss, he spends a great part of the book sad and sorrowful, something his own nephews (children) notice. Rabbie lost his bride during the war between the Scots and the English (and this could have been a more show more explored, explaining a bit more what really happened to her), and he’s been… broken, let’s say, since then. And his parents think that this marriage might be, besides economically favourable, a way to help him heal and appreciate life again.

But Rabbie doesn’t want the 17 year old English girl who is practically afraid of her own shadow. Now, Bernadette, her companion and lady’s maid, is much more interesting. Like Rabbie, Bernadette has also a painful background story that makes become afraid of what might happen when she and Rabbie start falling in love.

I liked the way Rabbie and Bernadette heel each other, creating new happy bonds. Some things could have been improved, like the orphans being practically thrown at Bernadette by Rabbie, but besides some small details, it was a pleasant book, although a bit gloomier than the previous ones, but it kept the same quality. show less

1.5 stars

This story was not for me, at all. As much as I loved the first in the series, I did not like this one.

No, men didn't intimidate her. No one intimidated her.

Our heroine is now a lady's maid after eloping with a dude below her station. Her dad wasn't having it, got the marriage annulled and sent the dude away on a ship. ship sunk, dude died. She's twenty-nine and after living through the disillusionment of happily ever after, she has a bit of a crusty outer layer. I generally liked her, but the numerous sad inner thoughts passages didn't endear her to me so much as keep any momentum between her and the hero from getting rolling.

"You are wretched, Rabbie MacKenzie."

Took the words right out of my mouth. Seriously, the hero show more goes beyond depressed, grumpy, or broody, he's a d*ck. His rudeness towards his fiancée (who heroine works for) is completely uncalled for. I get it, he doesn't want to marry her, and he’s depressed and still hurting from his first love. Oh that's right, not only is there a fiancée to compete with the heroine but also a lost first love. He comes off immature and d*ckish with his attitude towards everything. I would have accepted standoffish with the fiancée, 'cause hey, she's not the heroine, but his attitude made me severely dislike him.

Not being able to connect with the hero and heroine definitely led to me not feeling their romance. It was probably also the occasional flashbacks to the hero falling in love, with the first woman. I would unscientifically guess that 70% of this story is the hero and heroine bemoaning their losses. They both have reason to, hero missing his first love and the utter devastation the English caused in the Highlands after the failed Jacobite rebellion (no specific history mentioned, except for Culloden referenced, it felt weirdly like the author was trying to give us the emotions from this without giving a solid focus on it) and the heroine had a miscarriage (not a spoiler, told pretty soon).

I'm going to put this next part in spoiler quotes because if you know the outcome, it might ruin some reading enjoyment. There is a sort of secondary romance where the hero's fiancée starts to become attracted to his brother, because he is at least decent to her. However, after completely misleading the reader it turns out the brother does not like the fiancée, at all. I wanted to scream to the heaven's "WHAT WAS THE POINT?" The portrayal of the fiancée was so mean, lol. She's only 17 and naïve but holy guacamole is the hero mean to her, the heroine says she's a friend but bangs her fiancée and kind of talks smack about her, and then the guy who she thinks likes her, is like no way jose. So mean.

Basically, I found the hero mean, too many long hero and heroine inner sad musings, and the impediments to their relationship weren't resolved until waaaaay late in the story; I spent most the time wondering where the romance was in this romance. Also, there was a hero with his first love flashback in the EPILOGUE. Like, no. I get this was supposed to be emotional reminiscing about lost loves because of society and war but for me, it badly missed the mark. show less

An emotional-packed novel. Julia London will have you sigh with relief before you get to the "happily-ever-after." JL had me held my bated breath for Bernadette, I was tensed and fear for her safety! Gotta love Bernadette, the "Sassenach."