Highland Lover

Murray Family #12

by Hannah Howell

New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell continues the spellbinding saga of the powerful Murray clan in this sensual tale of lovers both tempted and tormented by their own passion. . . A reckless need to break free of his family led Gregor MacFingal Cameron on a quest for a rich bride, only to fall prey to kidnappers and be tossed into a cold cell. He is soon joined by a frightened young woman who makes him regret his mercenary search for a wife. After a daring escape, he gladly joins Alana Murray's quest to rescue her sister, and soon temptation leads to seduction, with unspoken promises easily made, but harder to keep. Alana knows the bond forged by danger and desperation has earned her an ally willing to fight for her sister's cause. But Gregor's tantalizing seduction leaves her breathless, and she seizes her one chance to experience true passion before an arranged marriage seals her fate--never anticipating the inescapable intensity of a man and a love that will change everything. . .

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Scotland, Adult, Fiction

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Hannah Dustin Howell is a best-selling American author of over 40 historical romance novels. Many of her novels are set in medieval Scotland. She also writes under the names Sarah Dustin, Sandra Dustin, and Anna Jennet (see below).

She has also used the following pseudonyms:
Anna Jennet, Sarah Dustin and Sandra Dustin

Reviews

[Megan (BookWifeReviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good but I am kind of starting to see a pattern in this series... I am still enjoying them though but if that's something that bothers you then be forewarned. But I honestly felt like the last 3 books were the same-ish.

[Bumble · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of this book mainly because Gregor is useless and is forgiven even though he doesn't really apologise. Also I would suggest not reading these books all together as they are almost identical.

[Севдалина · Rating 5 out of 5]

Алана Мъри и Грегор Макфингал Камерън

С всяка следваща книга от поредицата се убеждавам, че новите книги, тези от 6та книга насам са все по-хубави и по-хубави от първите. Първите бяха тегави, пълни с безкрайни обяснения и връзка тип иде ми дойде ми. И макар в новите книги също да има куп недоразумения, все пак са много по-интересни.

Алана Мъри тръгва след братята си Артан и Лукас (които чак сега разбрах, че са близнаци), за да търси своята близначка Кийра (от ), за която е научила, че е изчезнала след като съпругът й е бил убит и дома й завзет от узурпатор. Тъй като братята й отказват да я вземат със себе си, на своя глава тя потегля след тях, възнамерявайки да ги следва по петите. До деня в който не се губи в гората и е отвлечена от група мъже, които смятат да искат откуп за нея... при положение, че им каже името си.

Алана отказва да позволи на тези мъже да ограбят семейството й, и е хвърлена в черна яма, подобна на затвор, където няма светлина и топлина, и единственият изход е няколко метра над главата й. За нейно щастие, когато е пусната в дупката, тя се приземява върху тялото на друг пленник, който отказва да признае от кой клан е.

Грегор Макфингал Камерън, брат на леърда на клана Макфингал (Юън от ) се прибира от дома, когато е заловен от шайка престъпници решени да спечелят лесни пари. Като един от многото синове на бившия леърд на клана Макфингал, Грегор знае, че единственият шанс да стане господар на собствено владение, е като се омъжи за богата наследница. Примирен с факта, че едва ли ще намери любовта, подобно на братята и братовчедите си, Грегор обмисля сериозно да се омъжи за една богата наследница, и макар да не е взел твърдо решение, той е показал пред бащата и момичето факта, че се интересува от брак. Сега обаче, след като е прекарал три дни в потъналата в мрак тъмница, оставен сам с мислите си, Грегор вече не е убеден, че може да се обрече на брак без любов. А в мига в който хвърлят Алана при него, той започва да се разколебава все повече и повече.

Скоро двамата успяват да избягат и Грегор се съгласява да помогне на Алана да открие какво се е случило със сестра й, като има пълното намерение по пътят да съблазни, дребната девойка, която кара кръвта му да кипи като никоя друга.

Алана никога не е била ухажвана, и никога не е изпитвала влечение към някой мъж, затова е развълнувана, когато открива, че Грегор не само ще й помогне да открие близначката си, но и че е толкова привлечен от нея, колкото и тя от него. Сега единствения въпрос е, ще намери ли смелостта нужна да сграбчи този шанс и докато пътуват през Шотландия да накара Грегор да се влюби в нея?

Алана ми хареса страшно много като героиня. Беше силна, забавна, остроумна и интересна. Тук обаче имах проблем с Грегор и макар книгата да ми хареса, няма да я добавя в папка любими, защото много ме нервеше. През цялата книга беше един такъв... подмолен. Друга дума не ми идва. Първо, не знаеше дали между него и Алана може да има нещо повече от страст и все пак правеше всичко по силите си да я съблазни, като напълно съзнаваше, едно, че е недокосната и две, че е част от клан, който им е много близък, и че ще му потрошат кокалите ако я обезчести и зареже. След това, започна да приема, че може би, видите ли, ще я задържи. Ама нали намекнал на друга жена, че може да й предложи, реши да скрие този факт от Алана, и през цялото време си повтаряше как няма да е честно спрямо другата, да си изясни нещата с Алана, преди да й е казал, че няма да се ожени за нея. Нито за миг не се замисли как се чувства Алана, докато той само взима и взима от нея, без да предложи нищо в замяна. Абе пълен дебил. И все пак, книгата беше интересна. Малко ми е странно защо в миналата книга, не бе споменато, че Кийра има близначка. Или че братята им Артан и Лукас също са близнаци... явно на авторката й е хрумнало по-късно. Но нищо, преживява се. Хубава книга и 5 звезди.

[Paraphrodite · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars.

This time the hero is one of the MacFingal brothers and the heroine is a Murray. And everyone is related to everyone else!

At least the first half had some action. The second half was draggy for me. One of the recurring themes of these books is that the H/h seem to accept their feelings to the other quite early on and then spend the rest of the book trying to get the other to vocalise out loud first and feeling insecure in the meantime. In the end, it's invariably the heroine who capitulates before the hero reciprocates. After 12 books, it's all getting a bit old.

I'm not even sure if the guys who captured them for random at the start were even taken to task and frankly I lost interest.

[Kathrynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregor Cameron is a brother to Sigimor (Highland Conqueror), but he's hardly mentioned in it and this is a stand-alone.

Gregor meets Alana Murray (yes, another Murray) in a cell, actually they are thrown into a well of sorts and they end up escaping together. Gregor, bless his heart, is already betrothed to a horrible lady who is immoral, but his pride and honor won't allow him to see her for what she really is.

I enjoyed this tale and Payton Murray (Highland Angel) has a small role in this one.

[Tina "IRead2Escape" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hotness Rating 3 out of 5

Review to come...

[Cait B · Rating 3 out of 5]

So so

Not one of my favorites books in the series. It was an quick and easy read. A so-so on plot.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent flow. Nice story.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK. I'm going to admit that I skim a lot when I read romance. If I sense that a passage is going to involve a lot of naval-gazing, I skip. I skip a lot of the sex scenes, too. After the first time, they tend to be repetitive, so once the clothes start falling off, I move on until I see something that promises to move the actual plot along again.

So I confess I might have missed this in the last book. But the heroine here is the twin of Kiera, the heroine of the previous book in the series, and I never realized Kiera had a twin. Again, I admit I could've missed it.

Anyway, in this book, Alana, having one of those odd twin-connections with Keira, senses that her sister is in danger. She sneaks out to help, and ends up captured by a clan of thugs seeking ransom. Mistaken for a child, she's tossed in the donjon with Gregor MacFingal (yup, those MacFingals). He, too, has been captured for ransom, after he went off on a solitary ride to seek a bride. The two of them end up on an adventure, running away from their abductors, seeking Alana's sister.

As often happens in this series, there are misunderstandings. The hero, too stupid, too unfeeling, or too gobsmacked to actually lay out the facts to the heroine before he beds her, manages to make her feel used and unloved. The heroine, as often happens with Howell books, decides to hang in there "because he's worth it," even though he is an insensitive jackass who has hurt her badly. The hero, as also often happens with Howell books, realizes how badly he's hurt her, but is too proud to apologize or reassure her that he loves her. He waits for her to lay it on the line before he can find the words. I find it unsatisfactory here. I need him to grovel before she opens up to him again, and I'm frustrated with the heroine because she doesn't hold out for it. Seriously, in this case, the guy took her innocence, and now she believes that all the while he was actually betrothed to someone else. Friends say no, it wasn't so, but HE has opportunities to explain and he chooses to protect the other woman. WHY should the heroine stay and hope it will work out between them? Why shouldn't she move on with her own plans, escape to her sister or go home to her parents, where she knows someone loves her? Even if she cherishes some hope that the hero actually cares, why doesn't she remove herself from a painful situation and assume that, if he actually gives a damn, he will come for her? I give this four stars, but only because I cared enough to BE unhappy with the resolution. I still wanted to strangle both of them.

IMO, Howell's heroes value their pride far too much and their love far too little, and her heroines value the guy far more than he is worth. Even so, the story is emotionally riveting.

[Meg Kinch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't rate this Howell book as high as I have rated the others because I found myself getting irritated at not only the hero, but the insistent interference of Fiona (Ewan's wife) in a goodly part of the last of the book. And I saw another review which mentioned about honor and all that, while this hero (Gregor) actually did NOT act honorably. He couldn't keep it in his pants, even though he had JUST courted and almost betrothed another. To me, I thought he had used her for his own selfish reasons while holding everything of himself back from her, he lied to her consistently and just didn't provide her any hope. Then when his supposed betrothed was at his home, he doesn't deny the betrothal and actually caters to the supposed betrothed why shunning the heroine (Alana), but yet she is supposed to accept his explanations almost immediately upon a very cowardly retreat for six days. Perhaps I am just a wee bit of a meanie, but she forgave him after three weeks and even though he did explain, he still held something back from her. I was very disappointed in this book, but still liked it well enough to read its entirety to see what all did happen. *sigh* I will read another of hers, definitely, but this one didn't give me very warm fuzzies for the next books.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this continuation of the Highland clans saga, Alana Murray is wandering around trying to find her twin, Keira. They share some emotional connection that only allows them to sense each other's state of mind but not much else. Their brothers Artan and Luca are heading for Keira and Alana thinks she is just fine trailing them. Extremely improbable situations in 15th century Scotland. Oh well. Alana is captured by an impoverished family, the Gowans, who wish to ransom her, as well as another captive, one of the Cameron's. Crazy but both chose to be imprisoned in a damp dark dungeon rather than give their names to their captors, and let their family's deal with it. Eventually they escape and fall in love, blah blah blah. Having been in a dungeon in an old spanish fortress built around that time, I can tell you, there isn't much I would not have done to get out. Giving my name would have been the easiest.

[Blackkitty12 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to keep this short and straight to the point. I was only able to read about 5 chapters of the book before it started to annoy me.
First of all, our supposed hero is honestly, just a cowardly, selfish SOB. Who entirely does not deserve any kind of recognition. He was just a total coward, and a big liar to boot.
Our heroine is honestly much more heroic than the hero. But she adores him too much for absolutely nothing. I mean the entire story he was either sitting uselessly or running away from his problems.
All in all the idea of the story was not bad, but the characters were absolutely horrible. They seemed to be not very well thought out, and both their personalities were very weak, and didnt match each other.
So yeah. One star

[Laurla2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

-3 stars. started out good, then fell into the annoying tropes of he didn't tell her an important thing and OF COURSE she found out and was extremely hurt and felt used. and trope where he won't tell her he loves her so she doesn't think he does.

"they are the kind of brothers that make ye always find yourself looking for something to hit them o'er the head with, arenae they."
"most certainly. something verra heavy, but nay so heavy that ye cannot hit them o'er the head again and again without getting tired." {i have a brother like that!}

"although the world might be the better for it, ye cannae kill a mon just because he is an idiot."

[TJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just can't find any redeeming quality in a story set in a time where honor is everything yet the hero(?) who claims to hold honor above all, acts so honor-less by knowingly seducing a virtuous woman while almost betrothed to another. Instead of being truthful he chooses to lie, then mislead the woman and never expresses any feeling whatsoever for her until he is required to - at the very end of the book. Ugh!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself skimming over much of the beginning because aside from the kidnapping plot it was basically Alana trailing after her sister's actions in the last book. That and there is way too much navel-gazing. The characters aren't particularly likeable nor unlikeable. It seemed routine, like it was merely phoned in. I skimmed over a lot of the rest as well.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has an obliette!

[Mona · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was repetitive,tedious and I just didn’t feel the love between the mcs.

[Trudy Miner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alana Murray tries trailing her two brothers in search for her twin sister whom she suspects is in trouble. Unfortunately, she's captured by the Gowans who want to use her for ransom and then tossed into a dungeon with Gregor MacFingal who's also being held for ransom. Since neither will give them their names, they may be there a long time. However, Alana and Gregor find a way to escape and soon are in search of her sister. As they walk or run through the woods and streams in the countryside, the two become close, really close, only Gregor neglects to tell her that he's practically betrothed to another woman! When they finally reach her sister's keep and Gregor's supposed betrothed is waiting for him, fireworks ensue. What choices will Alana and Gregor make for true love?

I have read many books by this author but this is not her best one. Neither main character has much depth and the plot is seems contrived. It won't stop me from reading more books by the author because most of the books are excellent.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highland Lover has to be the worst book I have read by this author. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t as good as Hannah Howell’s other books.
While the first half had action, it was unoriginal. Once they arrived at the monastery, there were all these references to Keira’s story that made no sense and kind of overshadowed Alana and Gregor for a bit.
It seemed a bit strange that the cabin Gregor found to hide in immediately after the escape was so safe for so long. Surely the Gowans would have known such a nice cottage was there and checked it for their runaways.
I loved the way Artan and Lucas were so protective over Alana, and how Gregor responded to their behaviour. It was so entertaining but realistic.
By the end of the book, I found myself with quite a disliking for Gregor. I can understand why he didn’t tell Alana about Mavis, but then it turns out that he has two illegitimate sons that he never so much as thought about while he was with Alana.

Check out the full review at www.travellingbooknerd.com/highland-l...

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Murray family book Gregor is bound and determined to find a well dowered woman and marry her. Though now on his way back to his family hold he is having second thoughts about the asking of her hand. He is captured and thrown into a hole where a few days later another person is thrown in also. Finding out that it was a young woman makes his wanting an escape. When Alana left her home to find her twin the last thing she thought about was being captured for ransom and thrown into a hole. They escape after a while. But when he finds out that she is more than a young woman he starts to woo her. There are many pit falls on their way to his family hold. Pun intended. And once there more surprises are instore. Another book I read years ago and enjoyed again now.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good god, Gregor is such a spineless dick. And Alana is a fool. So I guess they do belong together. By the end, I was hoping the Gowans would kidnap them again, as the first half of the novel was pretty good.
I read a few Hannah Howell books years ago, but found other authors I much preferred. After reading the 3 in her Cameron series, I now remember why I disliked her books. The stories are all the same. Read the first in the Cameron series "Highland Conqueror" with Sigimor, and you've read the best. No need to continue as it's all downhill from there.

[Meranda Semeniuk-Wappel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am absolutely loving this series! Hannah Howell has put many twists and turns into her books and this one is by far, awesome! I realize that you have to do your own detective work to realize which Murray belongs to who and everything since everytime you read one of her books, she mentions one of the original Murray's but we get to figure out which Murray's the kids are. Loved this book!

[Gemma G. Gegargas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estuvo entretenido, ni más ni menos. De los tres libros que llevo leído de esta serie quizás este haya sido el que menos me ha gustado. La historia es entretenida y muchas veces divertida, pero le faltó algo antes de llegar al final.
Me encantó Alana, por su forma de pensar para estar en el siglo XVIII, no es la típica damisela en apuros.

[Paperback Prinsass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gregar is really kinda dumb. I usually really enjoy these books, and I did enjoy this one, but Gregar keeps secrets...BIG ONES that I'd find incredibly hard to overlook. Surprise - there's a secret fiance (kinda). Surprise - two bastard sons. And he tries to get the marriage annulled when he realizes her dowry is TOO big. Oh no....too much money. Oh shut up. Gregar, you're a total dummy.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun times reading

I love her style of writing. She has wonderful characters that have to go through interesting situation. You will want to read this and have a hard time putting it down!

[Diane Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way it unfolds. I am a big fan of Hannah Howard.

I have been hooked on the Murray series since I read the first book. You can imagine the scenes, and how everyone is dressed.

[Oana · Rating 2 out of 5]

1,5 stele - pentru câteva personaje secundare spumoase, frații ei și Fiona.
Din păcate, protagoniștii sunt absolut enervanți, iar acțiunea este teribil de plictisitoare și plină de detalii repetitive inutile.

[Anne Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hannah never fails to entertain!

[Brenda Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. Hannah Howell writes so well that I laughed and cried through this book. Can't wait to read more.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same as the others. Author heavily leaned on the “one conversation would’ve cleared this up” troupe.