Series: Shaws and MacRobs, #3
Traits & Tropes: second chance; lovers to enemies to lovers; highlanders
Publication Date: 05.04.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Medieval; Scottish Highlands, 1245
Heat Level: 1.5
Rating: 4/5
The bitter feud between the Shaw and MacRob clans began twelve years ago when Rhona Shaw was forced into marriage with Duncan MacAdder, throwing over her love, Royce MacRob. Now widowed, Rhona realizes the only way to satisfy the king and end the feud for good is for her to marry Royce as she’d intended originally. Their old passion is very much intact, but so is their mutual animosity.
Royce has nursed his hatred and bitterness towards Rhona all this time, but he also hasn’t brought himself to consider marrying anyone else. Rhona’s proposal shocks him but he eventually sees the rightness of her thinking as the only way to stop King Alexander’s overhanded meddling in their clans’ affairs. But their agreement is just the beginning with unlikely villains at work threatening their happiness again.
For such a short book, this one covered quite a lot of ground. Royce and Rhona have quite a history together and we get a few flashbacks of that to set the tone, my only wish is to have had those come a bit sooner in the story. At first, I didn’t much care for either Royce or Rhona and their bitterness. In the first book it’s made clear that Rhona agreed with her brother that she must marry the man she didn’t love so she could save her younger sister, so I was a bit puzzled about her harboring such strong hatred for her brother all these years later. Yes, he made a mistake, but it somehow just didn’t jive. Royce at first was also incredibly petulant and they both came off as immature and spiteful. Thankfully, as they put aside their issues to try to help the clan as a whole, this dynamic rapidly improved. It was clear they still had the chemistry and connection between them despite the passage of time and I loved their relationship development once they both started trying to put the past behind them and move toward the future. They were both determined to choose each other and not let anything come between them this time and I really liked that. We also got answers to the overarching mystery of this series, and I really enjoyed the turns the plot took. Overall, this was a great way to wrap up a lovely trilogy.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/612081350
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4727879807
Comments
Post a Comment