Highland Rogue (Historical)

Rating:
Summary: fine Victorian romance
Review: In 1875, Lady Lydiard Talbot visits her stepdaughter Claire, who partially owns Brancasters Marine Works. The weeping lady tells Claire that her daughter Tessa is thinking of breaking off her engagement with Spencer Stanton, whose family owns a large shipping company that happens to be a good customer of Brancasters. Apparently fortune hunter Ewan Geddes has gotten Tessa to reconsider her upcoming nuptials. Claire promises to talk with Tessa.

Claire meets Ewan at a reception and recognizes him as the servant who stole her heart ten years ago before vanishing. Seeing him reminds her of her father's admonition that no man would desire a plain girl like her; they would only want her wealth. Ewan realizes that he pursues the wrong Talbot as he never got over Claire. However, she would never believe that he loved her as a lad and loves her even more as an adult, as everyone knows he is just what her father described, a handsome HIGHLAND ROGUE after her fortune not her.

Victorian romance fans will value this fine tale starring two protagonists who have no reasons to trust the other. The story line is often humorous especially when Claire and Ewan battle, which is much of the novel. Ewan and Claire make a fine couple though at times the heroine seems spineless with handling family members in spite of her work as owner manager of a major firm and her firmness with Ewan. Still this is a fine late eighteenth century tale that uses the industrial revolution as a backdrop to the era.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: enjoyable
Review: Let me say up front, I dislike books where the heroine and hero spend the whole bloody time arguing, just to irritate each other, and so at cross-purposes, when two simple sentences - one minute - would settle the whole thing. So please keep that in mind. If you do enjoy this "ranking", then you should enjoy this book. Considering I find this premise irritating, and will usually give up on the book, that I stayed with Highland Rogue, says something about the writing.

The cover is all wrong - it leads one to think of Medieval era Highlands. This book is Victorian era, and the hero has little to do with being a rogue, just dumb enough to not know which sister he kissed ten years ago, so the front and back cover is designed to mislead you. Once you get past that, you find a very interesting character in Claire Talbot. She is a woman in the tough position of running a shipping business in a time when women in England had little respect. Claire strikes a very sympathetic cord with readers; you will feel for her. A strong-willed woman fighting to keep her family's business going, getting little help or respect from men in doing it. Her stepmother and beautiful younger stepsister are stereotypical women for the period, and are millstones around Claire's neck. The hero, is handsome, bold - and totally confused most of the time, which really stopped this reader for truly liking him. You can excuse his constant fighting with Claire, but his determination to marry the beautiful sister because he kissed her ten years ago, when he really kissed Claire and was just too blockheaded to see past the younger sisters beauty, really made me want to kick him in the sporran!

Claire is a strong, very sympathetic character that longed for her father's love, but settled for his respect. We are told he grilled Claire that no man would love her, they'd want her only for her fortune. Why he did this in such a heartless fashion is not fully explained, nor why Claire would want the love of someone who continually demeaned her as homely, and stressed only her money could buy a husband, just is not made clear. Claire and her sister Tessa used to leave London and sail up the coast to summer in Scotland. A young servant on the estate, Ewan Geddes captures the young Claire's heart, but like her father, he only has eyes for the beautiful, but selfish Tessa. Ewan is caught kissing Claire one night, ten years ago, and her father sent him away from the estate. Ewan, being a dolt, is so thrilled he was kissing his dream the beautiful Tessa that he never understood he'd actually been kissing Claire.

Now Ewan is back, a self made man, and determined to marry Tessa. She is already engaged to marry a nice young man of the ton, but he sees no reason not to cause a scandal and marry Tessa. Claire's stepmother begs for her help in stopping this. Immediately, being dear departed daddy's puppet, she assumes Ewan is only after Tessa for her money. So she sets out to offer herself as a lure. If he wants an heiress, she will dangle her very rich self in front of him, and presumes he will jump at the chance to court her, opening Tessa's eyes to what cads men are. Frankly, if I was Claire, I might have figured the selfish Tessa and the blind Ewan deserved each other!

Claire gets Ewan aboard the ship, on the premise they will permit Ewan to court Tessa in Scotland away from the prying eyes of the ton. Only they sail without Tessa and her stepmother. For days, they snipe and bicker, with Claire flaunting her wealth, enough to send Ewan to jump over the ship. Claire jumps into a rowboat and rows to save him - while the crew watches and takes bets. Sorry, I have been in a rowboat and rowed - that scene just did not hold true with reality. What the reader knows, Ewan has begun to see Claire for the gems she is and he was half jumping to get away from her, because he was starting to care for her.

Seriously, the whole loggerhead these two are at - while sprightly written, could have been solved in less than five minutes if Claire and Ewan, at any point, sat down and dealt honestly with each other. Hale is a strong writer, that kept me reading and enjoying the book in spite that I don't care for this type of premise. If you enjoying sniping heroes and heroines, Hale has the knack, and this will be your cup of tea. She is a talent. If she ever gets a seriously strong plot in her sites, look out.