A Novel with Thoughts and Ponderings

NEVER LOVE A HIGHLANDER

Author: Maya Banks ISBN: 9780345519511 11/2011 HISTORICAL Publisher: BALLANTINE
Time Period: Medieval

Never Love a Highlander by Maya Banks
Caelen McCabe’s young, reckless heart nearly destroyed his clan. Now, putting family loyalty above all else, he steps up to marry his older brother’s jilted bride and salvage the uneasy alliance between two clans. While beautiful Rionna McDonald is a fit wife for any man, Caelen trusts no woman, especially not this sweet temptress who torments him with white-hot longing.

As the sacrificial lamb in her father’s power game, Rionna will do her duty but vows to protect her heart and her pride from humiliation. Despite everything, though, the heat in Caelen’s touch melts her defenses, and she craves the sensual delights of a husband who guards his emotions as fiercely as his clan. But when the ultimate battle for the McCabe legacy is upon them, Rionna’s true warrior spirit emerges. She will risk the wrath of her father, the fury of her enemies, and her life to prove to Caelen that his wife’s love is too precious to lose.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:4 Rose Read

The last of Maya Banks’ Highland trilogy finds Caelen McCabe and Rionna McDonald joined together, following Alaric McCabe’s marriage to another.  From the first two books, readers have grown familiar with Caelen’s perceived coldness and Rionna’s penchant for dressing and behaving like a man.  Now the two are paired together in an effort to save their clans and their king.

As expected, each novel in Banks’ Highland trilogy is an improvement on the one before it.  With this final story of the McCabe men, the author manages to craft a full romance novel that touches the heart.  Character consistency is important in a series, and Banks pulls that off easily here.  There is never a moment when the characters behave in a manner that seems unnatural.  Readers learn that Caelen has been attracted to Rionna all along, and despite the harsh person he presents, he is gentle and protective of her from the beginning.  Their story is balanced between the characters falling in love with each other while making compromises for their marriage to work, and the threat of Duncan Cameron. 

NEVER LOVE A HIGHLANDER was my favorite of the trilogy.  With this novel, Banks ends the series on a high note.

Christina Baker

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