Customer Reviews

Highland Angel (Zebra Historical Romance)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book impressed me from the very first pages, as a very charming and spunky, Kirstie MacIye, bargains with Sir Payton Murray for his assistance. Kirstie needed a champion in bringing to justice the husband who tried to drown her, and was abusing small children to satisfy his sick obsessions. Sir Payton was renowned for his prowess with a sword both on the battlefield and in the boudoirs of the numerous woman who sought out the very handsome knight, but Kirstie needed him to accept the bigger challenge of bringing her husband to justice. Risking an all out feud between clans, Payton takes on the challenge of both toppling a powerful and evil laird and bedding the very captivating and beautiful Kirstie.

I don't know when I've enjoyed a heroine as much as the very spunky Kirstie. Her droll sense of humor and cutting edge tongue gives you terrific dialogs with bantering back and forth as Payton does his best to seduce her while the dangerous game of cat and mouse intensified in trying to take down her husband. The romantic aspect and the sensualness of the chase was exquisitely done as Kirstie and Payton fell in love, not so much with the attractiveness of each others physical being but more with the essence they discovered of each others heart and soul. The secondary characterizations of the children were also deftly handled from the anguish and shame felt by the abuse of their innocence, to the healing and renewal of trust Kirstie and Payton were able instill. The author seemed to open up many avenues for sequels with some of the children - especially Callum and Simon which I would certainly welcome.

All in all, I found this to be an extremely enjoyable, funny, and sensual novel in spite of the serious plot. This was for me a total read and one I can highly recommend.

Sir Payton Murray is known as much for his trysts as for his sword prowess in defense of the helpless. A desperate Lady Kirstie MacIye interrupts Payton's rendezvous with a married woman when she begs him to help her. She accuses her husband Sir Roderick of trying to kill her and abusing the children. Unable to resist the plea of beautiful lass, Payton agrees to rescue the lads though her clan and his clan might not appreciate his interference.

Payton abducts the children from under Roderick's literally iron fist and brings them to his home to be with Kirstie. As Payton and Kirstie begin to fall in love, the shadow of an irate vengeful Roderick crosses over their relationship for he is coming with treachery and deceit as his prime weapons.

HIGHLAND ANGEL is an intense historical romance starring two courageous heroes and a vile villain, who is so malevolent he seems more devil than human. This leads to readers wondering why anyone in his clan leadership tolerated his behavior. Payton is kind of like an Errol Flynn character, swashbuckling whether he "battles" the ladies (married of course) or evil knaves. Kirstie is his perfect mate as she brings out the best in him. The abuse subplot is interwoven into a fine historical romantic suspense that will bring elation to sub-genre readers.

Harriet Klausner

I am sad to see reviews on this book that are less than complimentary. Howell created a unique storyline in Highland Angel. It contains depth and realistic emotion. Having been a police officer for more than 20 years, I found the story to be genuine and compelling. People like the villian (Roderick) really exist, both past and present; and, there are heros in our world just like Payton and his love Kirstie. I've read all of Ms. Howell's books. It was nice to read something that wasn't based on the story of a man and women journeying and lusting while sitting on a horse. This was an excellent love story!

Sir Payton Murray is known as much for his trysts as for his sword prowess in defense of the helpless. A desperate Lady Kirstie MacIye interrupts Payton's rendezvous with a married woman when she begs him to help her. She accuses her husband Sir Roderick of trying to kill her and abusing the children. Unable to resist the plea of beautiful lass, Payton agrees to rescue the lads though her clan and his clan might not appreciate his interference.

Payton abducts the children from under Roderick's literally iron fist and brings them to his home to be with Kirstie. As Payton and Kirstie begin to fall in love, the shadow of an irate vengeful Roderick crosses over their relationship for he is coming with treachery and deceit as his prime weapons.

HIGHLAND ANGEL is an intense historical romance starring two courageous heroes and a vile villain, who is so malevolent he seems more devil than human. This leads to readers wondering why anyone in his clan leadership tolerated his behavior. Payton is kind of like an Errol Flynn character, swashbuckling whether he "battles" the ladies (married of course) or evil knaves. Kirstie is his perfect mate as she brings out the best in him. The abuse subplot is interwoven into a fine historical romantic suspense that will bring elation to sub-genre readers.

Harriet Klausner

If you have read the other Highland Series featuring the Murray daughters, you would already be familiar with Sir Payton Murray, supposedly the bonniest lad in the whole of Scotland. In Highland Angel, we finally get to see this revered knight meet his downfall in the form of a damsel in distress.

On his way to a rendezvous, Kirstie MacIye, who claims her husband just tried to murder her, approaches Payton. He listens to her story and was aghast to find out her husband's evil doings especially of finding out the abominable things he does to children. As a man of honor, Payton cannot help but offer himself as Kirstie and the abused children's champion. So he takes her and the children home and offers them his protection.

As to be expected, both feel a strong attraction for each other. For Payton, it is the first time in his life that he had to work hard in seducing a woman. For Kirstie, she is frightened of her strong feelings for Payton partly due to her marriage vows and Payton's longstanding reputation for having bedded half the women in Scotland. She worries that he sees her as nothing but just another addition to his ever-growing collection of women.

HIGHLAND ANGEL, while brimming with sensuous love scenes, lacks the excitement that I enjoyed from other Highland books by Hannah Howell particularly the stories of Payton's kinswomen - Elspeth (HIGHLAND VOW), Avery (HIGHLAND KNIGHT) and Gillyanne (HIGHLAND BRIDE). Since reading Highland Vow, I've wanted to read Payton's story but this book unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations. Payton seemed rather jaded in this story compared to how he's been portrayed in the previous books. And Kirstie, although likable enough, just didn't endear herself to me. I was expecting some really funny verbal spats between them but they were sadly lacking. I found the children funnier than the main characters.

It's quite disappointing because the first few pages seemed promising only to go downhill and then kind of pick up on the last third. I'm giving this 2.5 stars (extra half star for Gilly and Connor's appearance).

Payton Murray appears in many of the earlier Murray books. He's the good looking cousin that pops in and out. I was looking forward to his story and here it is.

Definitely a realistically tough topic covered but it was a book worth reading. Once again Hannah Howell delivers a really great read.

Oh I love when the leads of a story work together. The push pull/forced marriage bla bla bla gets boring sometimes. This is the COMPLETE opposite of that. Peyton is the dream hero who stops at nothing to protect his lady Kirsten. She is a strong female who fights for her wards she's taken upon herself to protect. They were together from the first page to accomplish their goals. Their are no games played between the two of them and you feel the caring they both have for each other from the very beginning.

The plot of the story was a shocker for me. Without a lot of actual details given (thank god) it was an eye opener that even way back when true evil walked this earth. Save to say the ending of the villian was not painful enough for me but just.

As much as I loved the leads and they have to be up there as one of my favs of all the books I've read I must see if Hannah has written a book that follows Callum finding adult hood. He truely stole the story.

There just isn't enough good things to say about this book. One of my favs!!

(my only nitpick and it's on the book is the typos. They weren't horrible and didn't take away from the story at all but there were a lot of them!)

I love all books by Hannah Howell. Her characters and stories are strong with you looking forward to the next book. She writes with a time line connecting all main characters in her series of books.

I love Hannah Howell's books! She really knows how to bring passion and romance to the pages!

Good story with the potential to be involving, but random punctuation and spelling errors distracted constantly from the story - very irritating.