Highland Fire

by Elizabeth Thornton

Determined to attack Lord Iain Randal, the English laird who dares call himself chief of her beloved clan, Caitlin, a bold Highland beauty, rides out with the rebels and encounters the man of her dreams. Original.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Enemies To Lovers, Regency, Marriage Of Convenience, Historical Fiction

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Mary Forrest George, née Baxter was born and educated in Aberdeen, Scotland, where she taught school for a number of years before establishing her own nursery school, St. Swithin Street Nursery School, an institution that is still going strong today.

She and her husband then emigrated to Canada with their three young sons. She taught kindergarten and Grade One for a number of years in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before becoming lay minister at a Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg.

As part of her continuing education, she enrolled in evening classes at the University of Winnipeg to study Classical Greek. Five years later, having completed an Honor's thesis on Women in Euripides, she received her B.A. (Classics Gold Medalist).

After reading her first romance, a Regency by Georgette Heyer, she was captivated by the genre. Hereafter, writing became her hobby. In 1987, her first book, a small Regency entitled, Bluestocking Bride, was published by Zebra books.

She is the author of twenty-four historical romances, and two novellas. She has been nominated for and received many awards including the Romantic Times Trophy Award for the best New Historical Regency Author and Best Historical Regency. Seven of her novels have been finalists in the Romance Writers of America Rita awards, Scarlet Angel, Strangers at Dawn, Princess Charming and The Perfect Princess, Shady Lady, The Marriage Trap, and The Bachelor Trap. Her books appear regularly on national best-selling lists and have been translated into many languages.

Elizabeth's hobbies include reading (particularly mystery and suspense novels, biography, and history), and traveling to do research for her novels. She is also an avid Harry Potter enthusiast.

Reviews

[Jena · Rating 2 out of 5]

- H is a”strikingly” handsome manwhore, and he thinks the h plain. “this girl was not beautiful.”

He thinks if she wore some makeup she might be passable..😂
“his eyes made an unhurried assessment of each unremarkable feature. A dab of rouge to bring a little color to those high cheekbones, a little shaping to thin those straight black brows and the girl would be quite passable.”



- Half the time, she dressed like a boy, but no one knows it’s her because she darkens her skin with oil. and puts her hair under a hat..🙄🙄 yea, because getting a dark tan makes you look totally different.

- He calls her “mouse.” Hes seen her around over the years, and thought she was just a bland servant and invisible.
- H thinks her beautiful cousin “sublime” and stunning, and he thinks she’s the girl he kissed in the dark and was obsessing over. (Read safety)

-H is suppose to be obsessed with the h, and he does act jealous and obsessed (because this is a romance novel), but he doesn’t even find her pretty, so the attraction felt phony.


Safety
H not celibate after kissing the h, he kissed her without seeing her face or knowing who she was. He actually French kissed a whore not 5 minutes after kissing the h, and the h watched him kiss. After whores kiss he tells her to leave so he can fuck the whores, and she does.

Then next chapter is months later, and there’s been many more ows, even a mistress or two.

- a year later, h sees him giving a whore oral sex at a whore house. ( this is before MCs had sex)
“A score of confusing impressions flashed through her brain. She wasn’t thinking of her peril. In that awful moment of electrified silence, she experienced a betrayal so profound that she might have been the personification of every wife who had ever caught her husband out in his infidelities.”
Next day, MCs make out because she can’t control her body.🙄

All of the above happened while he was supposedly obsessed with the h, he’s been trying to find out her name. Yup, obsessed when he hasn’t even seen her and he kissed her with only lips lol.😂😂
Also she’s tiny with a boys body.

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Thornton's books where I just totally love the heroine, the hero, and the way he loves her. Yes, there is a slight OW scene which fills me with distaste, but the hero's total obsession is wonderful.

[Blog] - [Bookstagram]

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read: 12/19/22
Not my favorite in the series but still a good read!

[Lissy LeBlanc · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to quote one comment i agreed with at the Amazon section

” Unlikeable hero...

This book only served to remind me why I'd put this author on my "do not buy" list. Her heros are all the same--arrogant jerks that you want to slap some sense into. The hero in this story is no different. He takes the alpha hero thing way too far, and acts like a domineering jerk towards the heroine. (I'd use a stronger word to describe him, but Amazon doesn't allow profanity).... "

God... He thought he was all that good.. Maybe it was just me but the story at some part kind of escalated too fast... And i feel like i am missing something from it.


Hmm did he ever apologize for his attitudes and mean words to the H? Ugh

[Rinji · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not want it to end.

[Nabilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one! One of ET's best.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this storyline but really didn't warm up to the Iain Randal.
He just didn't seem like a nice guy and how he treated Caitlin drove me nuts.

You didn't know if he was being nasty, funny or what his motive was.
The story moves along at a great pace and the other characters are well tuned and fun to read about.

Has a few twists and turns that you don't see coming. A good read overall.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rand is cocky A-hole. I don't like him.
He chased after her and made it as if it was her fault. She wasn't encouraging him and tried to ditch him. He kept calling her not beautiful yet kept pursuing her.

No mean no. When Cait said, "no" once, he ignored her and try to feeble her mind with kissing her senseless, then on 2nd attempt she was trying to throw him off but it was feeble attempt. I just wish she had the gull to scream! And on last 3rd attempt she had to create a lie to throw him off and at last, he did.
She asked him if she said, no, will he force himself on her? He said he wouldn't. Omg liar! He would. She just said No! He only stopped because of the doubt that seed him into thinking if he proceeded to have sex with her. There would be incext hanging over his head. Even though he said he knew it wasn't true. They both knew it. Doesn't it scream "I don't want you!"???

He didn't listen to her, he talked over her and tell her he knows things and to obey him. TF.

When they were married. She said she wanted an annulment. She didn't even fight for it or let him know. He basically r@ped her. She was trying to evade him at weak attempts. It's like eye said yes voice said no. She's an idiot. She made my head spin. I swore she want him to do naughty things to her and secretly liked it. Then after they "made love" she just gave in and accept her lot because she has nothing to keep him off her. Ridiculous!

What happened to the fighter that helped keep Scottish together? I'm disappointed in her.

Between him and Margaret aka "Meggie" . When his wife asked him that she needs to leave and he said no? what a douchebag! 🤬😤

“You are not the injured party here. My relationship with Lady Margaret hurt no one. Neither of us was married at the time.”

You just hurt Caitlin! U let the whore kissed you in front of everyone. I would never invited my son' whore to a party! Gross. What's wrong with Rand's mother's head? She want to exposed her children around this mistress?

I was surprised and joy to read of Bocain's pov. It's refreshing and I think my first time reading from a pet thoughts. 🐕 5 stars for Bocain.

There were few chuckles here and there. Which I enjoyed.

I'm glad things were changing and better toward the ends but way too late. U painted him a careless, a cocky manwhore to me. I don't feel more of love in it between Rand and Caitlin. Can't quite explain...

It finally ends but he never told her "I love you". Even though he did say it but not in a word! "I love you"

Thank the fok it ends. Too many eye rollings and I want to reach in this book to slap the pig in Rand's head and to shake Cait's shoulder and yell at her, Wake up! Where the Dirk were you!?

I don't want to be mean but Ow! My head hurts.

Rip to all who died by someone's evil hand.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean...

The writing's nice. There's sophistication to it that the bulk of popular modern novels can't match. When I first started reading, I was so pleased with it that I immediately looked at what else Thornton had published. I thought I'd stumbled across a goldmine.

The relationship, though, left me irked. I loved the complexity of Rand--a British-born nobleman who became a Scottish chief, excessive and easy-going but brave and demanding. He was interesting left to his own devices. Pair him with Caitlin, the passionate Scotswoman, and I wanted to smash his face into the nearest hard surface. Internally, he was a fair man. He'd end up doing the right thing 80% of the time, even if it cost him his pride. But outwardly? It was a challenge to see him drag Caitlin along by his concerns and his passions regardless of her desires.

I think I would have minded Rand's behavior less if the time period felt more authentic. In some senses, it totally did: the farming practices, the bootlegging, the lingering clan feuds, the attention paid to dress, the historical references...all of that felt old-school. Real. But the characters swip-swapped between old and new mindsets, which meant there was this weird dynamic where Rand demanded his husbandly privileges (you'll go where I want; you'll do what I want; when I tell you to let something go, you will do it without question), internally liked Caitlin's not-like-other-girls vibe and passionate nature, but consistently felt emasculated because he didn't think she loved him.

Caitlin, too, was exacerbating. She enjoyed relative freedom before Rand, but eventually (once their relationship became public) took the bit and followed his rule. She'd beat at the bars of her cage ("Hey! Scotland matters to me! I don't want to abandon my people and land!" or "Hey! I want to make a good impression on your family, so respect my stress and don't touch me in the carriage!") only to give in every. single. time. And Rand loved it. He was smug about it. Yeah, yeah, you hate this now, but I'm right and you'll soon grow into the life I provide. Argh! I just wanted her win once. Learning that she can't live her former life is 100% grand, but I wanted to see Rand experience some growing pains, too. I wanted him to lose something, too.

As it was, the pacing was unfulfilling past the first third. We're in this country BAM now we're in this one BAM now the POV is a dog BAM now this new person is deeply important. On and on.

I think it's a worthwhile historical romance of the 90s, all said and done. If I set aside the relationship, the mystery/subplot and world was enjoyable enough to pass muster.

[barelyliterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful. What an awful, claustrophobic experience. It felt too much like a horror story.

A stern, authoritarian man marries a wild, independent woman. And then they fall in love and learn to adjust to each other? Absolutely not. The woman had her wings clipped repeatedly, her boundaries were ignored and she was disrespected just for the sake of it.

I could not enjoy the romance at all. I felt like crying every time Caitlin was impotent and swallowed her rage silently while her man made clear he was her owner, just because that's the way things were supposed to be, and everyone agreed. "She needs to be tamed." is a phrase repeated by several well-meaning characters. Maddening.

The hardest part were the sex scenes. Rand repeatedly ignores her will just to shock and push her into submission, causing humiliating situations at times. To be clear, I'm not a prude. I've enjoyed several stories with blurred lines and difficult protagonist. People are complicated, relationships are complex and so and so. But this seemed awfully too much like marital rape, and outright disregard for her as a person. The author implies that's what the protagonist wants and needs, but from her pov it didn't feel so.

Meanwhile, Rand, with the emotional range of a emo teenager, feels like a martir because he loves his wife and she doesn't seems to love him back after all the did for her (lusting after and suffocating protection). Rand also treats her poorly because he wants her to be obsessed with him only, and the ideia of her having interests other than him, his family and his homestate is outrageous. What a crybaby.

This is the background story of a woman who goes mad and goes on a killing spree, not a cute little romance of a guy who, against his fears and prejudice, learns to love his sweet little wife as the tone of the work implies.

Anyway. I liked the writing and the building of each character, and the plot was truly interesting. I feel sorry this was written was a romantic novel, not some other genre. What a waste of good work.

[Nancy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read one of these romances for a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course the modern-day me wanted to slap some of the characters upside the head here and there for being so blind, but that is just my feminist side coming out - lol. I do think this book is well-written and a very good story.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

So boring.

[Mihika in lovezone]

Avoid.
The h disguised as boy.
H thinks h is no beauty.
Mistakens his kiss with her with her stunning sister.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad. The "hero" was a womanizer and a prat. I can never enjoy books whose main protagonists encompass those awful traits.

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable reading, with a strong feeling of authenticity in the Scottish highland setting. The Scottish highlands were almost a character in themselves in the story, and came alive (for me anyway) even more than many of the human characters in the story. The heroine Caitlin is a delight.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good read

[Macaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read it twice with the same eagerness. An excellent story.