Captured by the Highlander (Highlander #1)

During the period of time in which this story takes place my great, great, great great grandfather was living in Moy, Inverness, Scotland. He was Dougal MacQueen. He was married to Laird McDonald’s daughter. Subsequently he fought in the 1715 Uprising and was captured and sentenced to death. However he was transported to Baltimore and sold as an indentured servant. At the end of his servitude he bought a farm called Cranberry Fields. He and his second wife had five or six children. He lived a long and fruitful life. His decendants fought in the French & Indian War, the Revolutionary War, The Texas Revolution, The Civil War, and both World Wars. My grandmother grew up on land in Orange, Texas that was gifted to her grandfather for fighting for Texas Independence. In less than a generation Scotland would fight their last war for Independence at Culoden. It would end the way of life for Scottish Clans.

The Highlander Trilogy perfectly represents the ideals of the time. I love how the characters all offer different view points and perspectives to not only round out the plot, but to provide depth and dynamic to all of the relationships in the novel– friendships and romance alike. This is one of my favorite trilogies!

MacLean leaves you breathless with “Captured by the Highlander.” Duncan MacLean has a ruthless reputation as the “Butcher of the Highlands,” but when he kidnaps Lady Amelia Templeton, she tests him on so many levels and dares to ruin the Butcher’s reputation.

Set in Scotland in 1716, the story opens with Duncan’s suspenseful kidnap of Amelia. He’s looking for her betrothed, Colonial Richard Bennett, who is known for his brutality towards the Scots. Initially, Duncan, as the Butcher, just wants revenge, but he can’t deny he’s attracted to Amelia. She’s headstrong, believes in her convictions, and dares to defy him.

Amelia breaks away from Duncan and seeks refuge from a squad of English soldiers. Unfortunately, they’re drunk and act poorly. Duncan saves Amelia, and the incident challenges her to understand his motivations.

Duncan takes Amelia to Montcriffe where she discovers his true identity. Dare she give in to the passion Duncan evokes knowing the danger he faces if his secret is revealed?

MacLean’s writing is easy to read and plunges the reader in a suspense filled opening. The action is perfectly paced, allowing the reader to catch their breath before racing forward again.

MacLean paints wonderful pictures with words allowing the reader to vividly see Duncan and Amelia’s word in their mind.

The most rewarding part is the characterization. Despite Duncan’s ruthless reputation, his motivations are clear to the reader. As a reader, I easily lost my heart to him. Amelia is feisty, challenging, and when evidence presents itself, willing to give Duncan a chance.

The story is sophisticated for romance readers with love scenes that capture the passion and sensually of the couple. MacLean will leave you breathless, wanting more tales of the Scottish highlands. “Captured by the Highlander” is a wonderful romantic escape on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this because its was highly rated,and 99% of the time I can trust my romance loving, Amazon.com reviewing girls. I LOVE you guys ! But I literally was 60% through this story and loving it ! Duncan is super funny,sexy,rugged and I loved how suggestive he was(The kind of things he would say,I wanted to rip him right out of the page !! and dangerous too !!). Amelia is a high born delicate lady with a spitfire attitude! It all fits provocatively perfect,then it gets screwed up by rushing their feelings and emotions Then even I started to wonder ” Does she have Stockholm Syndrome” it was too rushed and too forced!! What is sexy about making a principled and honorable man like Duncan cow at the misguided judgement of a doe eyed little girl ???!! WTF I was so turned off by ONE WEEK going by and Duncan was ready to give all he HAS and everything he IS for a chance in the sack with Little Miss Prude! She knows nothing of who he is or what he has been through in his life, he is a freakin rebel fighting to preserve his and his ancestors way of life against the English! If those aren’t principles to live by then I don’t know what is! I really lost interest in reading any more of this book,Even though the characters had yet to “seal the deal”, but I hung in a few more pages hoping maybe I would change how I felt about them, and sadly even their “love scene” left much to be desire in my eyes. After the build up of Duncan’s character I just expected more passion these two people would share. I gave it a 3 star rating for the 2/3 of the book that I really liked, but since the latter part left me irritated and ready to go to sleep I couldn’t rate any higher. I might read more of Julianne’s books but I will be hesitant and read ALL the reviews before purchasing.

I loved this book. The main reason why is that it was straight forward emotionally. One thing that never sets right with me in this genre is the propensity for the hero and the heroine to jump to conclusions about how the other feels…constantly. The conclusion is always the worst possible scenario, and then one or the other reacts with some harebrained scheme that just makes everything worse. In this story the lovers were refreshingly honest and straightforward. He didn’t spend half of the book ravishing her and denouncing love; she didn’t read into his every action and over-react. He treated her well and was honest about what he felt and she in turn wasn’t a complete pain in the arse. I also noticed that the characters actually explained their motivations for things and they were believable. In many romance novels we the reader completely understand why certain things are done but the players never seem to just come out with it. There always has to be some colossal misunderstanding. This story relied on none of that to create tension. This is a story that felt realistic to me, the characters felt like people I could have known. I look forward to reading the rest of the series! I just hope the author stays to form.

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