Narrated by Angela Dawe
Coming off a listen of Jennifer Ashley’s wonderful Highland Pleasures series, also narrated by Angela Dawe, I was prepared to enjoy another Highland historical. This one is medieval, not Victorian, and Howell writes in thick dialect, which Dawe uses in her narration (how could she not?). Another Highland brother series, this starts with the new young Laird of Doncoill, Balfour Murray. The Murrays have a 13-year feud going with the Beatons of Dubhlinn over a male child that might have been sired by Balfour’s father or Beaton himself. The child was born of Beaton’s wife but he was cuckolded by Murray, so Beaton put the child Eric out to die and the Murrays raised him as their own.
This sets the scene for the wild and wooly medieval Scottish plot – Maldie Kirkaldy (the heroine) enters Murray lands after a rout in which Beaton has stolen Eric back and imprisoned him. We, the listeners, are told Maldie has many vile secrets she is withholding from Balfour, who takes her in because of her gift of healing. It seems sweet, handsome brother Nigel is in need of such a gift. (Another storyline – the women all love Nigel more than poor Balfour.)
I’ll resist revealing the way-too-soon revealed secrets and just say Maldie is keen to get over to the Beaton lands and take care of some business (that she didn’t tell Balfour about while they were rolling in the sack). When he finally decides maybe she is a risk to the clan and locks her up, she uses her feminine wiles to escape to take care of her own business (and a little of his while she’s in the neighborhood). Yes, Maldie as Joan of Arc to the rescue – Eric’s rescue that is. [rolls eyes]
The story had a few pretty major WTH moments for me, but all in all was a fairly entertaining book. All the “didna”s and “canna”s and “nae”s and “ye”s made for a taxing listen, and Dawe’s tendency to develop a vocal pattern seemed magnified in this book, maybe because of the dialect. Towards the end, when all the conflicts started piling up, I found myself wanting to skim and fast-forward – get on with the story!
I can only recommend this as an average listen, assuming you’re a big Highland historical fan with a yearning for thickly accented dialogue. Dawe wasn’t able to improve the story with her narration.
Melinda
Narration: C
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Highland Destiny was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.
