The Taming of Malcolm Grant by Paula Quinn

The Taming of Malcolm GrantNarrated by Carrington MacDuffie

Highlander romances are one of my favorite romance tropes. There’s something about a rugged, untamable man in a kilt that makes a man so…manly. Someday I have hopes of finding a Highlander on my doorstep.

The Taming of Malcolm Grant is the fourth book in her Highland Heirs series; the children of those characters in her Highland Mist series. Emmaline Grey, blind since an illness in childhood, has come to England from France to live with the brother she recently rediscovered. Living upstairs in an inn that doubles as a brothel is not the most ideal situation but she’s content. She’s rediscovering the country of her birth and the brother who left her when she was little. She wants to find a place where she can be at peace, perhaps even loved.

Malcolm Grant is journeying to Emmaline’s brother’s establishment to help his brother find a woman for the first time. He has fond memories of the place and knows it is just the thing to help his brother get over his brooding. He sees Emmaline and is immediately smitten. Her brother tells him she’s not for sale. Before Malcolm can respond, his brother is drawn into a fight with another patron. The whole inn explodes into a battle; shots are fired, knives and swords are drawn. By the time the smoke clears, a few are dead and Malcolm and his brother are shot.

Emmaline’s brother asks her to take care of them both so as not to draw the ire of their MacGregor relatives. She does, knowing that she needs to help them and get them gone as soon as possible. Although she can’t see Malcolm, she knows he’s too good looking, and too much trouble, for someone like her to handle. But taking care of him, Emmaline begins to see another side of Malcolm Grant. One that gives her hope for a future outside the walls her brother’s trapped her in.

After thoroughly enjoying the previous two books, I’d expected to enjoy The Taming of Malcolm Grant as much. In previous novels, Malcolm had been the rogue brother/cousin, chasing women and generally having a good time. He was the brother you called for a good time. Then to find out in this book it was all an act and he was so very unhappy, yet couldn’t tell his family? It saddened me. One of themes of the entire series is family. Hearing that Malcolm didn’t trust his family with his problems made me examine my feelings about previous books. And not in a good way. I questioned if I had missed something. The author could have intended this element to highlight the level of Malcolm’s despair but that wasn’t my first thought.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a character-driven reader. I want characters that are interesting and engaging – struggling to make their personalities work alongside someone else’s in the game known as life. There were some moments where the characters surprised me but these were overshadowed by too many unanswered questions I was left with. Malcolm was struggling to reconcile his past with his future but I couldn’t understand why he’d want to change. He wanted love but didn’t believe in it. Emmaline was willing to overlook all her brother’s flaw, including the biggest one where he left her for dead, to keep him in her life. Why, I have no idea.  As I said, there were many questions I had that remained unanswered or were answered insufficiently.

The bright spot in this book was Carrington MacDuffie. Her performance was as pleasant as always. She nails the British and Scottish accents. The men have masculine registers; they genuinely sound like men speaking. The women, British and French, upper class and peasant—they all have individual personalities. Even better, their tones match the character descriptions the author gave them, something that can be taken for granted but shouldn’t.

With MacDuffie, I have the utmost confidence that the performance will be as true to the story as possible and be a performance instead of a narration. This book may not have been a credit to her capabilities but it was because of her that I finished it.  She was in fact the reason I decided to listen to this book instead of reading it in the first place. And despite my disappointment in this book, I have every intention of listening to her narrate the next one, God willing she narrates it. I can’t recommend her enough for those looking for consistent quality performances and a fantastic Scottish brogue.

Diana


Narration: A

Book Content: C+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Blackstone Audio [jwl-utmce-widget id=32435]

Historical Romance Audiobook Review