El secreto de Highlander (Highlander Unmasked) Book

From the cover:

Alex MacLeod's virile physique, fearsome reputation, and renowned fighting skills have helped him master to perfection the role of a hardened mercenary. On a secret mission to protect his clan, he must keep his true purpose well hidden. But his dangerous endeavor is threatened by a beautiful woman he saves from outlaws, never dreaming she will appear at court and put his plans in jeopardy.

Meg Mackinnon needs a strong husband by her side to defend her clan's holdings, but her search has been hampered by burning fantasies of the midnight rescuer whose smoldering blue eyes and raw sensuality left her breathless. Alex pretends to be a mercenary with no loyalties, yet he is clearly much more. As Meg challenges Alex to reveal all his secrets, the stakes grow perilously high, especially for the bold woman who dares to unmask a highlander.

My Review:

Boy, I have such mixed feelings about how to review this book. I'll try to explain why I feel the way I do.

First, I adored Alex in Highlander Untamed. He was funny, irreverent, boyish in charming ways, but wow, is he a different man now. I know that's to be expected because he's older, has more responsibilities, he's much angrier, and even though he won't admit it, lonelier. I don't think I've ever encountered a character who changed so dramatically in such a short period of time. Don't get me wrong, I still love Alex but it was rather a shock. I would have never recognized him had I not gone into this book knowing who he was.

As far as characters go, Meg was a great one. Because her older brother, Ian, who was born "simple" wouldn't be able to follow in his laird father's footsteps without help, she devoted her life and time to learning everything there was to know about how to successfully lead a clan and intended to "rule" by her brother's side and help him when it came to decision making. It wasn't an easy task because in addition to having to learn everything, she also had to protect her brother from the painful words that were always being thrown at him by people who got their thrills by making fun of a mentally handicapped man.

The thing that made this so horribly sad was that Ian was handicapped enough to not be able to lead the clan alone, but not so handicapped that he didn't know what everyone was saying about him. He knew, he understood and he was hurt by it. Now, you might wonder why this part of the story has left such a lasting impression on me, and it's because this is not something we often read about in historical romance novels. Almost as if mentally handicapped people didn't exist. So yeah, this really did stand out in my mind and was one of the main reasons that adore Meg as much as I do. I'll also add that I hope there's a special place in hell reserved for people who get their kicks from tormenting those who are less fortunate or "different."

There were so many things that I loved about this book and it should have been a solid 5 star read, but… yep, there's the "but"… there was sooooo much back-story that it began to feel monotonous - tedious. Maybe had I not read this right after Highlander Untamed it wouldn't have stood out so much, but wow… I ended up skipping through entire pages of back-story just to be able to finish the book.

So, even though I have Highlander Unchained sitting right here next to me, I'm going to wait a couple of months before I read it because I want to be able to enjoy it on its own merits and not find myself constantly comparing it to Highlander Untamed and this book, Highlander Unmasked.