Series: Brotherhood of the Sword/MacAllister, #2
Traits & Tropes: reformed rake; childhood crush; unlikable hero
Publication Date: 03.05.02
Genre/Setting: Historical; Medieval; Scottish Highlands
Heat Level: 3
Rating: 2/5
Narration Rating: 3/5
Braden MacAllister, Highland warrior and holder of English lands, is known as a womanizer and a force to be reckoned with in battle. He’s used to turning female heads so he’s a bit surprised when his childhood friend Maggie seems immune to his charming attempts to stop her misguided efforts to end the feud between their clan and their neighbors. But she’s removed all the women in the clan from their homes and it can’t go on, so Braden is determined to make her see sense, especially if it means deploying his seductive skills.
Maggie has loved Braden since they were children and cannot help her inevitable response to him, though she knows nothing will come of it. He keeps his heart well-guarded and her efforts at gaining peace for the clan will be just as difficult as those at claiming Braden for her own.
Phew. Talk about a letdown. This book was not for me, and things may turn spoilery as I go on a mini rant about why, so consider yourself warned. Yes, I’m reading out of order, but I read the book that comes after this one in the series, Born in Sin, and loved it, so I had high hopes for this one. I knew in the first few chapters that it wouldn’t but as good, but I persevered with the audiobook hoping for improvement that never really came. I love Highlander books and I love the premise of all these brothers and their interconnected stories. Unfortunately, Braden was not my favorite brother, to put it mildly, and I didn’t like the heroine, Maggie, at all either. First off, though she did have a valid goal of ending a bloody feud between her clan and their neighbors, but was incredibly dumb and naïve, and her methods were woefully misguided. I also found it incredibly annoying how often she referred to various men, and especially to the hero, as spawns of Satan. Braden was just as bad in this respect with his views on women. It also didn’t help anything that this plot was rather slow, Lachlan was undermined as laird, and several aspects seemed to have been left unaddressed (such as Lachlan’s situation and his punishment of his men).
They’d both seen the sanctity of marriage violated by their parents, so their views did make a warped sort of sense, but it would’ve been much more compelling if they were determined to do better rather than just avoid entanglements. The predatory way women were portrayed here was also just cringeworthy and it was so weird to me that sometimes Braden was described as this manic seducer who will sleep with anything in a dress and other times, he’s the victim of randy women who won’t take no for an answer. This is illustrated firsthand for Maggie and almost seems like the beginnings of some sort of redemption arc for Braden, but it wasn’t nearly enough given the fact that he was at the very least willing to try to sleep with another woman even after exploring his feelings for Maggie. He only realized he didn’t want this other woman after his body was unresponsive to her (though they did kiss) and he realized Maggie was the one he truly wanted. This was so gross to me and definitely meant Braden didn’t qualify for hero status in my book.
To be completely fair, I also didn’t care for Maggie as a heroine. She continually believed the absolute worst of Braden, even on the rare occasions when he was giving her reason not to, and she consistently made assumptions, even when his brother warned her repeatedly that she didn’t truly know him. Of course, there are plenty of people just like this in real life and this sort of dysfunction happens all the time, but that doesn’t mean I want to read it in my romance books. That is, of course, just me. I didn’t like either of these two and I really wasn’t buying it that somehow the clan no longer hated her when they got together. With all these predatory women and unfaithful men, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to believe anyone’s love story and it certainly doesn’t feel romantic. Given how much I loved Sin’s book, I just wanted more from this one and I’m hoping it was an anomaly.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4110723842
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2748133092
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