REVIEW: The Highlander’s Bride Trouble by Mary Wine

If you’re looking for a novel set in Medieval Scotland, The Highlander’s Bride Trouble by Mary Wine is the book for you. The heroine is Nareen Grant, the daughter of a prominent laird who is now working as a lady’s maid for Abigail Ross, the very spoiled and badly behaved daughter of the Earl of Ross. Nareen had a bad experience living with her exploitive aunt, and working for Abigail gives her a chance to be her own person, and beholden to no man. One evening Saer, laird of the MacLeod clan and friend of her brother, meets her outside the gates to try to persuade her to come away and marry him. While Nareen doesn’t want to marry, and has serious trust issues, she does find Saer attractive.

Another emotion teased her, warm as a flash of temper, but it wasn’t anger. She frowned as she failed to understand it. Even if she detested the man and everything about him, the memory of his lips against her wrist filled her thoughts, leaving behind a slight sting on her cheeks.

Saer is a large man, a strapping highlander, who helped rescue her from her aunt, and has obtained her brother’s permission to court her. Saer vigorously romances Nareen. He is attracted to her strength, intelligence, and boldness, and wants to marry her because he believes that a strong wife will make strong children. He also doesn’t want to marry a woman who is afraid of him, weak, or uninterested in him physically.

Savage. Aye, he was that. But Nareen Grant was wild, which made her his match. He was looking forward to running her to ground, and the lass was going to enjoy it. That was his solemn vow.

I largely enjoyed this book, with a few reservations. At its heart, it’s a very simple novel: guy wants girl, guy goes after girl, girl rebuffs him. If you noticed from that quick summary, Saer is the one doing nearly all of the action in this book. He admires Nareen for her many excellent if non-traditionally characteristics (strength, confidence, stubbornness, determination) but he is doing the pursuing. Through most of the book all Nareen wants to do is run away from him, initially because she doesn’t want to belong to any man, and as she grows to like Saer, more because she doesn’t think that she will be a good wife for him. While I don’t find this necessarily a negative, the whole story line did seem a little old-fashioned to me.

Another item, which notched down my satisfaction, and which is purely of my opinion and may not be anyone else’s, is that the dialogue is in what I politely call “old Scottish.” There are a lot of “ye,” “nae,” “aye,” and more. However, this dialect doesn’t extend to the character’s interior monologue. Why would they say “nae” but think “no?” Although it may be very authentic, I found it distracting.

Other than not grooving on the dialect, I found it a pleasant read. The characters have good chemistry and are continuously interesting, the setting is intriguing, and the details of the buildings, clothing and landscape are well done and bring the book to life. Right now, Scottish romance is very popular, and “The Highlander’s Bride Trouble” will not disappoint.

Book Info:

Published August 5th 2014 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Has this savage Highlander finally found a woman to tame him?

Nareen Grant is confident, well-educated, and quick with a dagger. So when her brother, Kael, unknowingly sends her to live at a cousin’s secret brothel, she escapes to court where she meets the arrogant Highlander, Saer MacLeod…

Saer is considered savage even by most Highlanders. It will take an extraordinary woman to handle him, and Nareen enchants him like no one he’s met before. When a furious Kael threatens revenge against the cousin who wronged his sister, Saer knows its his one chance to win over Nareen and reclaim the respect his family deserves…and he’s going to take it.