Highland Angel

Highland Angel by Hannah Howell

Lady Kristie leaves her husband, Sir Roderick, to seek the help of Lord Payton Murray. She has spent five years with a brute of a man who molests young children and then disposes of them when he has tired of them. When he discovered that she knew his secrets he attempted to drown her in the river. Now Kristie turns to the man she has heard is honorable, despite his many liaisons with married women. She brings along several of the children she has rescued from Roderick's clutches, including young Callum, who had suffered immensely with Roderick and is now determined to help save his lady Kristie and other young children. Payton is initially reluctant to help Kristie, but after he hears what a monster Roderick is, he knows that something must be done to put a stop to the molestation. Their plan is for Kristie and the children to remain in hiding and for Payton to work his magic by spreading rumors throughout the court so that others begin to realize what he is up to.

Unfortunately Kristie is not so good at staying in hiding and she and Callum venture out trying to gather information about what Roderick has been up to. When Gibb and Wattie, Roderick's henchman discover that she is actually alive Roderick goes after her by setting his hounds on his trail. The rumors that have been spreading are taking their toll and he cannot find the children he is used to procuring. When the hounds lead him straight to Payton's door he realizes that his enemies are getting stronger and he must destroy Payton, the children, and Kristie. Payton grows tired of being at court and returns home because he misses Kristie and the children. She is at first reluctant to give into her attraction to him as she is a married woman, despite the marriage never being consummated, but when everyone around her encourages her to give into the love they are both feeling, she cannot hold back her long dormant passion. When Roderick finally makes his move, Kristie and Payton will need all their friends, family, and allies there to help them defeat evil and move on with their lives- with Kristie as a free woman and hopefully Payton's wife.

Kristie and Payton are certainly noble characters and they are adequately horrified over what is happening to the children in Roderick's care and they are certainly very sympathetic to the plight of the children on the street in general. Perhaps a little too noble and too caring, especially Kristie. While Payton has a past and some badass-ness in him, but Kristie is just a little too perfect and childlike in her innocence really. I was also irritated that she didn't stay inside as she had been ordered- I understand it's a romance novel staple for heroine's who are being stalked or otherwise threatened need to throw caution to the wind (so we can have a big conflict at the end) but she was dealing with one seriously crazy man! There was quite a bit of sex between the two, but it wasn't exactly very hot. It did lead to some funny moments when the children discovered them, though. Interestingly enough I found myself eager for those parts of the story that were told from the point of view as Sir Roderick- they were really well done and really showed that he was completely losing his grip on reality.

The plot involving the molestation, Sir Roderick, and saving all the children of the world really completely takes over this book. I don't want to seem as though I want romance novels that only deal with superficially happy aspects of life, but really having pedophilia and child molestation play such a strong part of this book really makes it difficult to concentrate on the romance. Perhaps that is why romantic development does not play too strong a part in the novel in the first place. Although the children do play such a huge role in the story, Howell is not exactly skilled at writing children who portray age appropriate behaviors and language. I understand that these children have been forced to mature quickly- it is just not at all realistic. Finally- the time period of this book makes no sense to me. I figured out that it takes place in the 15th century because there's a reference to the War of Roses, but there is no evidence of this throughout the book. A few clothing references, but with such a huge emphasis on "court" life and his having a home in the city really makes this time frame of doubtful realism.

Rating: In the Scottish accent that Howell sprinkles very liberally throughout the book: I donnea think I will be reading any more books by Hannah Howell.

Wild Conquest

Wild Conquest by Hannah Howell

Pleasance Dunstan has lived her life in the shadow of her very beautiful younger sister. But even Pleasance almost rebels when her family tells her that she needs to throw over Tearlach O'Duine just because her sister has suddenly decides that she wants him, conveniently after he has already shown a preference for Pleasance. But the kicker comes when her sister Leticia requests that she break into Tearlach's room at the inn to steal some love letters she wrote for him and a silver tankard she gave him as a gift. When Tearlach finds her in his room he is still upset at her for throwing him over and believes she did it because she thinks she is too good for him. So he decides to get even by pressing charges, never imaging that her family will utterly abandon her to her fate and even turn against her by painting her as a common thief and a whore at the trial. To save her from prison Tearlach decides to take her on as his indentured servant for a year. Pleasance is furious, but knows that with the whole town against her telling the truth will do nothing. So she heads off into the wilderness with Tearlach who imagines he will certainly enjoy having a woman grace his bed, do his chores, and take care of his half-Indian sister, Moira.

Pleasance knows that her reputation is lost anyway but she still does not want to immediately fall into Tearlach's bed, and he certainly tries his best to get her there. Tearlach is determined that he will not fall for Pleasance again as he has already pegged her as a spoiled, pampered, Englishwoman (although she is a colonial) and knows that she thinks she's too good for him. So he plans to keep distance from her- keep her actions in his bed at night completely seperate from her duties as his servant during the day. But this is not enough for Pleasance who falls in love with this man despite his admittedly shabby treatment of her at some instances. She knows she needs more from him than he seems willing to give, and she decides that she will try to win him over before her year with him is over. First Pleasance is forced to come face to face with Tearlach's greatest enemy, his sister Moira's father and his mother's rapist, and face him down. When her brother Nathan comes to take her away Pleasance accompanies him and it is up to Tearlach to make the grand gesture and go after her- if he can admit that he truly needs her, and not just as a servant.

I really wanted to like this book so I kept trying to overlook some of it's flaws but one thing I could not overlook was how repetitive it got and how ridiculous the characters were. Tearlach has to save Pleasance from being raped not once but twice, she and he argue about how he treats her numerous times, he goes out hunting and gets gravely injured not once but twice, and he leaves Pleasance and his sister alone at the house after he knows that some madman has been spying on them while they made love in the barn. And I can not really figure out how/ why she falls in love with him or why she continues to succumb to his advances despite his shabby treatment. He really does treat her really horribly and she talks about how it makes her feel like a whore to sleep with him and he makes no attempts to help her get through this. This book is filled with times where real, very important conversations, are cut short by lovemaking. I also could not help but want to just sock Pleasance in the face for the way she acts when it comes to her family. I was really hoping that just once in the book she could... get back at them some way for their just atrocious treatment of her.

I was glad the book did not drag on, and indeed it was very short (only 330 pages) and certainly a lot happened. There were escapes, kidnappings, a madman trying to break into a house and being shot, attempted assaults, and a daring rescue! I couldn't tell if there was too much to fit into such a small book and began to think that without all of that I would have been left with a book with far too little romantic development between the characters. It is far easier to determine why Tearlach fell in love with Pleasance than she with him. She works hard, she treats him well, she is kind to his illegitimate sister, etc... and in exchange he sleeps with her and makes it clear that she is his servant and he does not want to marry her. However it was certainly fun to read about him battling his emotions as they come through the forefront and as he tries to convince himself that he doesn't really love Pleasance. There was quite a bit of angst caused of their supposedly unrequited feelings for each other and there was an amazing amount of steam although it is not precisely what I would call hot. I really enjoyed the end and the resolution at the end was really perfect.

Rating: I really enjoyed reading something from a new author and Lord knows I REALLY wanted to really like this book and I did, but there was so much about it that frustrated me.