Title: Highlander Ever After
Author: Paula Quinn
Series: Highland Heirs #8
Endearing characters but lackluster plot
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.
This was a nice story, but I don’t think it lived up to its full potential.
The central conflict was great—Adam and Sina being forced to marry for political reasons. 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 problem is, the tension from that predicament spiked in the first couple of chapters, then the rest of book coasted on its momentum. 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. 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.
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. We explored their motivations to some degree, but I was left with questions, especially in regard to Sina.
I related to Adam because he resented the expectations, pressure, and responsibilities that were laid over his shoulders the day he was born. Apparently, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to be laird—though being responsible for so many people did intimidate him. He just actively refused because he wanted to feel as if he had a choice in the matter.
And I was kind of disappointed, to be honest. 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. 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. 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 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.
Sina was a good heroine, strong and independent. 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. I don’t think I’d have acted any differently if I were her. I’d have grieved the loss of the life I’d dreamed of, and I’d have resented the MacGregors for being complicit in the marriage. Who cares if they didn’t like it any more than she did—they still did nothing to stop it. She tried to run, tried to stall, tried to refuse to say her vows, but she was outnumbered.
It occurred to me that forcing Adam to marry against his will was rather out of character for the MacGregors. Rob himself said he’d never not let his children marry for love, yet there they were… They seemed to live well enough as outlaws for the last several decades, would they really be so afraid of continuing to do so? Camlochlin was supposed to be hidden and hard to get to, though I don’t think that was mentioned in this particular installment.
Speaking of Camlochlin’s isolation—just how big is Camlochlin? I guess I always imagined it as a keep and a small village all comprised of MacGregors and their near relatives, perhaps a few dear friends. An intimate and exclusive population of about a hundred or so. And I thought that the young adults traveled a fair bit, visiting other relatives, and that’s when the young men had the opportunity to lose their virginities and bed women.
But this book inadvertently highlighted how many women were interested in either bedding or marrying Adam. At his wedding to Sina there was a group of several young women who were blatantly grieving the loss of his eligibility; one of them propositioned Adam and he vowed he would not commit adultery. It’s implied that Adam’s already lain with a number of women, as have his brothers. So Camlochlin has to be sizable with a large portion of non-relatives, right?
But then there’s this passage from the book (Sina’s POV): “…[Adam] was the most strikingly beautiful man she’d ever seen. She wasn’t the only one who thought so, but the majority of the women in Camlochlin were his relatives. It was nothing like this, with every available lady in the palace vying for his attention.”
So yeah, I’m confused. Either Quinn hasn’t explained Camlochlin well enough, or the inhabitants are inbreeding. Or maybe—hopefully—there’s something about Scottish culture at that time that I’m not understanding.
Anyway, back to Sina as a character. She was likable and sympathetic, but her background and motivations weren’t fleshed out well. We knew enough to understand that she struggled with self-worth due to her illegitimacy, but that was about it. I don’t recall getting an explanation for why she repressed her spitfire personality and covered with a cool, polite veneer. Maybe it was to earn her father’s favor, to show him that she could conduct herself with propriety, and thus wouldn’t embarrass him if he declared her his daughter. But at what point did she decide to repress part of herself? What happened to make her think she needed to?
Also, I needed a much deeper delve into her relationship with William. It was pretty much described as an unhealthy codependent thing—but how did it come to be? She fought his bullies with him as children, but how did they go from childhood friends to adults who thought they needed each other to be emotionally stable, to survive? And how did a relationship like that survive a three-year separation? Three years is a long time, but they acted like only a few weeks had passed, like they couldn’t have changed at all. The dynamics of their relationship had the potential to be deep and complicated, but Quinn barely scratched the surface.
William ended up being the villain—surprise, surprise—and it’s such a shame he was a superficial character. There was so much to unpack there. I wanted to know what had happened to him in life to make him feel as if he had no control over his own decisions, as if he was always under someone’s thumb and suffocating. Due to that helplessness, he sought power—and found it by raping and abusing women. I assume, anyway; regarding William’s villainy, Quinn wanted to have her cake and eat it, too—she wanted him to be this depraved madman but didn’t want to own that darkness, depicting it as rumor, euphemism, and ambiguous actions. Not that I wanted a graphic rape scene—god, no—but I would have appreciated it if she committed to the choice. And why was Sina different? Why did he seem to respect her, love her, and not want to exert his power over her, too?
If he had been more developed as a character, as an antagonist, if his relationship with Sina had been more developed, it would have made him a stronger and more compelling villain. But he was hard to take seriously. Therefore, his actions in the end were non-threatening. The end in general was rushed and predictable and meh.
Overall, the characters were a little disappointing, the plot a little bemusing, the characters endearing but not given their dues. I wish the MacGregor series had concluded on a better note, but one thing I am satisfied about is revisiting so many characters in this book, seeing them all happy and thriving.
I’m sad to say goodbye to the wonderful MacGregors, but I’m looking forward to Quinn’s new trilogy, Hearts of the Highlands, which is set further back in time. They aren’t listed on Amazon or Goodreads as of writing this, but her website gives brief descriptions of each and says the first one, Heart of Ashes, is due out already in January 2019! Provided they stick with that date, I imagine the second and third will quickly follow, either one in the summer and the last in the fall, or one next fall and the last saved for Spring 2020. I love medieval-era Scottish romances more than I love regency-era Scottish romances, so I’m pretty excited!
P. S. – For anyone who’s confused as to the order of Quinn’s various MacGregor books:
MacGregor Series – aka the grandparents
Laird of the Mist (2007)
A Highlander Never Surrenders (2008)
Children of the Mist Series – aka the children
Ravished by a Highlander (2011)
Seduced by a Highlander (2011)
Tamed by a Highlander (2012)
Conquered by a Highlander (2012)
A Highlander for Christmas (2012)
Highland Heirs Series – aka the grandchildren
The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell (2014)
The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd (2014)
The Sweet Surrender of Janet Buchanan (2014) (novella)
The Scandalous Secret of Abigail MacGregor (2015)
The Taming of Malcolm Grant (2015)
(some divide the Heirs series into part 1 (↑) and part 2 (↓), but I think that just makes it more confusing, and Laird of the Black Isle is still considered Highland Heirs #7, so I just count them as all one series, myself)
A Highlander’s Christmas Kiss (2016)
The Scot’s Bride (2017)
Laird of the Black Isle (2018)
Highlander Ever After (2018)
