Highland Obsession

Highland Obsession by Dawn Halliday 422

The Earl of Camdonn, Cam, had engaged in a brief but very torrid affair with the daughter of his castle's steward before she was moved away. Although he never planned to marry her and regarded her purely as a dalliance, his feelings change considerably when Sorcha marries another man. Suddenly he knows that he needs her in his life and is determined to get her back. Sorcha is worried that her new husband will spurn her if he discovers her past, so she decides to cover it up in the hope that she can make a nice life with her new husband, Laird Alan MacDonalds. Alan and Cam have been best friends ever since their days at Oxford, but when Cam steals Sorcha away on his wedding night he feels horribly betrayed by both of the people he thought he could trust. He does not know if he can ever forgive Cam or his wife for not being pure and innocent on their wedding night. Sorcha knows she should have been honest with Alan from the beginning but she desperately wants to make it up to him and prove she can be the wife he needs.

Even when Alan has made his peace with Sorcha, it is not enough to assuage the betrayal of his honor and he is forced to duel with Cam. When something goes wrong on the field Cam is left with a deep gash on his side and both Alan and Sorcha are able to put away their recent problems with this man and remember the times when they cared for him. Seeing Alan and Sorcha together brings back all of the jealous feelings Alan had wanted to put behind him. One night when the three of them are a little bit tipsy he decides to live out a dark fantasy he can't seem to get out of his mind and he, Sorcha, and Alan engage in a very scorching, and very emotional, threesome. Afterwards Alan is convinced that Sorcha is in love with Cam so he decides to join his men as they go to join the Earl of Mar in the fight to bring the exiled James onto the thrown of Scotland. When she awakes Sorcha is heartbroken, and Cam makes the unselfish decision to help her find Alan and help them work out their differences. But will she be able to find Alan in the heat of battle and will she be able to convince him that it is only him that she wants?

Obviously this novel is not at all for the fainthearted or the easily offended as this is definitely an erotica romance novel that features a threesome and it is quite graphic. The book also features a VERY brief interaction between Alan and another woman, but even I was not disgusted by it (and normally cheating spouses do) so it was not that bad and made sense in the context of what was going on. But this book was far from being just about sex as their was a very intriguing plot going on that involved all three characters and their relationships to each other. Cam, Alan, and Sorcha all had a very personal, very involved relationship with the other characters (although I should say Cam and Alan are not bisexual...) and Halliday does a tremendous job of thoroughly immersing her readers in these relationships. And the very fact that Alan and Cam are such close friends really strengthens the books overall as so few romance novels feature such close male friends and the intricacies of their relationship were very well told here.

The book really is told equally from all three perspectives and I completely felt like I was in their heads and could understand their motives, even if I did not always agree with them. I absolutely loved how my allegiances changed throughout the course of the book- it really shows how great a character writer Halliday is. Sorcha and Alan are great together and the trials and tribulations they go through to finally get their happily ever after are quite heartbreakingly portrayed in this story. Sorcha is eager to please her new husband, and they emotions she and Alan are feeling for each other are so amazingly written. The sex in the novel is an extension and manifestation of their feelings for each other, even the menage, and were beautifully added in to the story. I also found myself liking the brief bits of history we got as we read about the uprising in Scotland to throw the Hanoverian off the thrown and reinstall the Stewarts.

Rating: Do not blow this book off for being an erotica because it is a very well written, character driven book about relationships, romances, and people who care for each other