A Highlander for Christmas by Paula Quinn

If any reader doesn’t like her because she resisted the MacGregors so vehemently-to the point of being a bitch-then that reader isn’t making an effort to relate to her situation, to her helplessness. Sina was a good heroine, strong and independent. I would have appreciated it more if Abby had become laird and if Adam had finally been allowed the freedom to live his life the way he wanted. But no, Adam’s arc was realizing that it was useless to run from fate and that being laird wouldn’t be so bad. I thought his book would be a struggle against convention and expectation until he found a way to be free to do whatever it was he was longing to do. Maybe I just got the wrong impression, but from the other MacGregor books I thought Adam didn’t want to be laird because he wanted to be/do something else, not just that he didn’t want to be laird on principle. He just actively refused because he wanted to feel as if he had a choice in the matter.Īnd I was kind of disappointed, to be honest. Apparently, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be laird-though being responsible for so many people did intimidate him. I related to Adam because he resented the expectations, pressure, and responsibilities that were laid over his shoulders the day he was born. We explored their motivations to some degree, but I was left with questions, especially in regard to Sina. I found Adam and Sina as endearing as Quinn’s other characters, though I don’t think we dug as deep into them as we could have. It wasn’t necessarily that the story lacked enthusiasm or energy, it just felt as if it hit its highest point immediately and the rest of the book meandered through minor conflicts.

Save for when Sina was summoned back to London, the tension gradually relaxed until I knew how it was going to end, and it was just a matter of reaching that end.

The problem is, the tension from that predicament spiked in the first couple of chapters, then the rest of book coasted on its momentum. They were caught between a rock and a hard place for the entire book, which created excellent tension, intrigue, and stakes and made me sympathize with them and their impossible situation. The central conflict was great-Adam and Sina being forced to marry for political reasons. This was a nice story, but I don’t think it lived up to its full potential. I would like to thank Paula Quinn, Forever/Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Highlander for Christmas by Paula Quinn