The Highlander’s Bride by Amanda Forester

The Highlanders BrideNarrated by Mary Jane Wells

I don’t have a very good track-record with Highlander Romances. I haven’t read or listened to a great many, it’s true, but those I have read have tended to have identical plotlines (boy-meets-girl-from-opposing-clan, boy-and-girl-hate-each-other, boy-and-girl-fall-in-luurve – that sort of thing), so I’ve been wary about choosing review titles with the word “Highlander” in the title. In fact, I’d seen The Highlander’s Bride on our regular list of new releases and ruled it out – until I saw Mary Jane Wells listed as the narrator. She hasn’t let me down yet, so I waded in, thinking that even if the story was disappointing, I’d at least be able to enjoy her performance.

The story turned out to be a predictable one, but was enjoyable nonetheless. The romance simmers with sexual attraction and longing, although the obstacles that are necessary to every romance are somewhat flimsy here and I could have wished the two protagonists had been little less blandly “nice”.

Sir Gavin Patrick, a Scottish mercenary fighting in France saves the life of another man on the battlefield, not realising at the time that the man is the wealthy Duc de Bergerac. Wishing to thank and honour his saviour, the duke invites Gavin to attend him at his castle. Although he is a knight, Gavin isn’t rich – his family are crofters who work the land in the Highlands – so he hopes for some sort of financial remuneration and is not a little surprised when the duke introduces him to his daughter, the beautiful Lady Marie Colette. Colette and Gavin instantly jump to the conclusion that the duke intends for them to wed, and while there is no denying the instant attraction they feel, Colette has no wish to leave her homeland for the wilds of Scotland, a country whose people – she has heard –are little more than barbarians.

In spite of this, however, she is just the tiniest bit disappointed when her father announces that the honour he intends to bestow upon Sir Gavin is that of escorting her and her humungously large and cumbersome dowry safely to Scotland and into the arms of her betrothed, Laird MacKenzie, who has already dispatched a large number of troops to France to swell Bergerac’s forces.

Lady Marie Collette has lived a sheltered, prescribed life. Her exalted position means that her whole life has been geared towards her doing her duty as laid out by her father and doing the best for the people of Bergerac, so she submits to the duke’s decree and prepares to set out for Scotland with Sir Gavin as her escort and guide.

The story is essentially a road-trip romance, in which Gavin and Colette gradually lose their entire retinue of guards and ladies and end up having to travel alone together but for an abandoned baby they find among the ruins of a burned-out village and a sharp-tongued young woman who acts as Colette’s maid when her ladies-in-waiting decide not to make the channel crossing. To allay suspicion, the pair has to travel as a newly-wed couple, throwing them into unexpectedly intimate situations which, given their growing feelings for each other and the fact that Colette is destined for another – they want desperately to avoid.

My biggest problem with the story is that it’s one of those where there is no real conflict keeping the couple apart other than Colette’s insistence on doing her duty. Of course, duty and honour were exactly the things a young woman of her standing was bred for and are things she holds very dear, so her determination to do the right thing is understandable; but it still creates rather a weak obstacle in a romance novel. There are places I wish the pacing had been a little swifter, and the introduction and conclusion of a secondary romance in injury time (i.e, just before the end) almost gave me whiplash! It was sweet, but ultimately irrelevant and seemed tacked on solely in order to tie up a couple of loose ends.

Gavin and Colette are attractive, decent characters, but don’t have much substance to them. Colette initially comes across as rather cold and condescending, but is quickly revealed to be much kinder and more compassionate than Gavin has assumed; and her goodness and pluck when faced with the problems they encounter on their journey only serve to intensify his attraction to her. Gavin is your bog-standard big, braw, brawny Highlander with a streak of honour a mile wide and a determination to protect his lady at all costs. On paper, I suspect they’d both have been rather bland, but are saved from being so in audio by virtue of a strongly characterised performance by Ms Wells, who has quickly become one of my “go-to” narrators.

Her naturalistic style of delivery is very much to my taste, and I like the way she picks out the humour in the dialogue and narrative. Her pacing is excellent, and she hits all the right emotional notes, especially in the more poignant moments and intimate scenes. The Scottish accent she employs for Gavin is accurate and consistent throughout, bereft of mispronunciations and was a joy to listen to. Colette’s French-accented English is equally good; Ms Wells gives her a slight accent which is convincing but not so thick as to be difficult to understand. All the secondary characters are suitably voiced and differentiated, and she does a good job distinguishing between Colette’s four ladies-in-waiting by varying pitch and timbre so that there is no confusion as to who is speaking in the scenes in which they all appear. The one thing that puzzled me was her interpretation of Pippa, the young maid who joins them en route. Unless I missed something, Pippa is French, but for some reason, Ms Wells doesn’t give her an accent which I found a little odd. That said, it didn’t matter in the end, as it adds variety to the overall performance.

In spite of the reservations I’ve expressed, The Highlander’s Bride is an enjoyable listen. It’s undemanding and well-written, and there is a nice undercurrent of sexual tension between the couple, although the actual sex scenes are pretty tame. Ultimately, however, I’d say this is a story best experienced in audio because Mary Jane Wells’ thoroughly engaging performance lifts it firmly into the “better than average” category.

Caz


Narration: A-

Book Content: C+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in, but at the tame end

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Dreamscape Audio

The Highlander's Bride was provided to AudioGals by Dreamscape Audio for a review.

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