A BLOOD FEUD HAD RULED HER LANDS FOR MORE YEARS THAN ANYONE COULD REMEMBER
And Allisun Murry, chieftain of her clan, would not rest until her murdered kin were avenged. Yet the sight of Hunter Carmichael as he rode from the midst of her enemies gave her pause. For the King's man had proven his bravery in the face of certain death, and captured her unsuspecting heart.
Allisun Murry stirred Hunter's blood in a way no woman had before. For the magnificent beauty was living proof that ancient warrior queens had once roamed the Scottish hills. Yet would a woman so hell-bent on vengeance ever willingly lay down her sword and give in to the passions that now raged between them?
As a boy, Hunter Carmichael saw his Aunt Brenna run away with Alex Murray, but misunderstood the situation, believing she was kidnapped. Since then, Brenna's husband and Hunter's uncle, Jock McKie has waged war against the Murrays and destroyed their numbers. Allisun Murray, her father Alex's heir, is leading the clan against the McKies and gets trapped with Hunter during a raid. He's injured and she's a fugitive, so they hide together in plain sight. Hunter is intrigued by Allisun and wants more from Allisun than the one night she gives him. But Allisun knows they have no future together because of their feuding families. When Allisun is hurt and loses her memory, Hunter sees his opportunity to make himself indispensable to Allisun and to bring her happiness that she hasn't known since before the feud began. But can she forgive his deception?
This starts out as a pretty standard feud romance. There are irreconcilable differences here. Allisun is the reiver who has been making Hunter's uncle's life difficult (and he's getting a very skewed version of events anyway) and the daughter of the man who "kidnapped" his aunt. Hunter is the nephew of her hated enemy and the man who blew the whistle that started all this fighting and destruction. It's a lot to get over. They team up and their truce allows them to build something of a relationship, but it all morphed into love kinda suddenly...especially given how Allisun is still pretty angry. Then there's the whole amnesia thing and Hunter's bit of deception which justifiably pisses off Allisun even more. Now this could have been a much better story if we'd seen Allisun work through her feelings and Hunter grovel and them have a nice reunion. Unfortunately, Allisun runs away from her lying husband and ends up in trouble. She finds out she's pregnant and struggles being away from Hunter, but immediately realizes she'll have to go back to him because of the baby. Then Hunter rescues her and we skip to the epilogue where Hunter is holding his son. We never get to see him grovel or her forgive him. I feel like that was a pretty damn important thing to be skipping over. Instead, we go right past that to see their HEA. I don't know if the author got tired of writing or what, but I really needed to see her forgive him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Allisun Murray, head of her clan, seeks vengeance against the McKies, who have killed her family. Hunter Carmichael, nephew by marriage to the chief of the McKies wants to put a stop to the feud. During a confrontation between the clans the 2 get separated from the main activity when a band of thieves attacks both clans. As they are struggling to stay alive they also try to sort out the source of the feud. Another good volume in this medieval series.
I don't know if it's because I haven't read the other books in this series or what but I thought the story was a little bland and tired. Typical Romeo and Juliet family blood feud. The characters were so so and of course there was a happy ending. Which is what I was expecting out of this book. I normally don't give romance novels a chance but I have been looking for lighter reads to help me relax.