Customer Reviews

Highlander In Disguise

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I hadn't read the previous Highlander book (don't like heroines who have kids, shame on me) so when I picked Highlander in Disguise, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a very fast read. I couldn't put it down. Grif, the hero, is yummy. I loved him. He was the prototypical hero--manly, but not overly so. Anna, the heroine, was good too. I have found that in my favorite romances, the hero is usually the one that makes it a keeper for me. The girl has to be good, too, but it's the guy who decides it. Grif did--big time. He was great. Anna was okay. I liked her, and when she did start to veer off into "I don't think I'm going to like her" territory, London would have her do something that got her back on track for me. I ended up liking her. And the verbal exchanges between Anna and Grif were hilarious. I laughed out loud more than once. The interplay between Grif and his "valet" were enjoyable also. In short, I really liked this book. I know I will be reading it again, especially before the next book in the series comes out. It features Grif's sister and it looks like a good one, too.

After Liam Lockhart failed to regain the beastie, he married the woman who stole the valuable artifact back from him (see HIGHLANDER UNBOUND). The quest falls to his younger brother, Griffin. However, Griff lacks funding to spend any time in London even with his using the home of his best friend's grandmother while she vacations in France. He borrows heavily from his neighbor whose usury interest will cripple the lad if he fails to remit within a year to fund his search for an unknown Amelia, who allegedly bought the beastie from Lady Battenkirk who had purchased it from Liam's wife.

Anna Whittington hopes that Drake Lockhart will ask for her hand in marriage, but he seems more interested in her beautiful younger sister. Meanwhile she wonders about this so-called wealthy Scot who asks questions about her cousin, Lady Battenkirk and anyone named Amelia especially since he looks so much like last year's wealthy Scot Laird. Anna investigates and learns that Griff is an impoverished fake. She blackmails him into teaching her how to seduce Drake, but soon desires her mentor instead; he finds the beastie means little now that he is deeply in love with his troublesome student.

This entertaining Regency romance uses a theme that has been employed in many historical romances, yet the talented Julia London makes it feel as if this is the first time that an innocent asks to be trained in seduction graces a tale. The story line is fun as Griff knows from the first moment he meets Anna that her name spells trouble. This charming couple provides a solid gender war tale that readers will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

I must admit that I really enjoyed this book, primarily because of the Grif character and his interplay with Anna.

My favorite part of the book was where Grif warns Anna about wearing low cut gowns and says it will prompt a gentleman to have his way with her. He's too clever. When she dismisses that idea, he tells her that some men are very good at giving a woman pleasure without ruining her good name. He also tells her that she will beg him for more. Under the guise of giving her a "lesson" he then proceeds to have his way with her and pleasures her (keeping his trousers buttoned up of course).

There are true fireworks between these two from the start. The relationship grows from intense dislike and irritation, to grudging acceptance to love during Anna's pygmalion-like transformation under Grif's tutelage. Having obtained the beastie she knows Grif seeks, Anna blackmails Grif into tutoring her how to seduce another man whom she wants to marry. Grif finds he has done his job too well, however, as Drake, who had previously ignored Anna, now declares his love. Anna is disappointed in Drake's kiss, which leaves her cold in contrast to Grif's buring hot kisses which melt her.

Anna does eventually beg Grif for "more" all while telling him that she intends to marry Drake if he asks her. Although he hasn't declared his feelings for her, Grif is hurt and incensed, accuses her of using him, and tells her he will not pleasure her like a whore while she marries another man.

This was my first London book and it was a good read. I thought the H/H worked fairly well together. I liked the seduction part - her coming to him for lessons in exchange for the beastie to save his family. But overall there chemistry was lacking. This could have been much better than it was. I felt like I never really got to know the characters. I never felt draw into the story. The whole book felt like it was leading up to something and then there was nothing. This book was not a page turner or a keeper for me but overall it was ok.

I found Griff's and Anna's characters to be a little on the bland side. There seemed to be no spark to either one. And the longing for each other 3/4 of the way through the book I felt was not expressed enough for me to care. I wished London would have delved deeper into her characters to make them more interesting. But overall it was decent.

Julia London's "Highland in Disguise" was a sweet read but it got off to a rather slow start. The premise for the story had a lot of potential but in the end it was rather predictable in it's outcome.

Grif Lockhart is off to London to retrieve the family beastie from the English Lockhart's. His brother Liam had tried but failed with this quest...well, not failed entirely he did find a loving woman and wee daughter to love. So armed with borrowed funds and a tale to rival that of any storyteller, Grif sets out to find the family heirloom. But, he ends up getting much more then he bargained for. He is about to make a deal with one Anna Addison. His job has just gotten a lot more interesting.

Anna is the middle child and although she finds the Ton boring at times and she does have a tendency to not watch what she says...still, she would like to find a man who she could love. So when handsome Grif Lockhart arrives in London it is not long before she realizes he's keeping a secret. She will keep his secret and help him find his beastie but he has to teach her how to seduce a man to care for her. It's not long before Grif is seduced and wants Anna for his own. Will he take a chance or will the real treasure slip away from him?

This was a sweet read. Grif and his family are a perfect dash of color and entertainment to an otherwise standard historical. Grif was a fun protagonist and truly one of the saving graces of this story. Ms. London has created a fun series with the Lockhart Family and I look forward to reading the next installment.

The Scottish Lockhart's desperately need the money they will get from the sale of their families solid gold beastie. The only problem is, Liam didn't manage to get the beastie home when he went to London to steal it back from their English cousins. So now Griffin will head to London to find the woman who they think has the beastie, and bring it home.

The catch: He can't go as a Lockhart because the English cousins would probably throw him into Newgate for having stolen it in the first place. The plan: Assume a title that is no longer in use, infiltrate the English society and get the beastie back. The problem: One English wallflower who fancy's herself in love with an English Lockhart figures out the truth and finds the beastie first!

Julia London has written a fun Regency romance. Anna has had several seasons and is on the verge of getting put "on the shelf" which she belatedly decides she doesn't want. She has always admired Drake Lockhart (the English cousin of Griff) and thought he admired her as well, until her younger sister Lucy becomes the bell of the season, and Anna hears that Drake will offer for Lucy.

While I enjoyed the story, it seemed a little long. Julia London strikes me as wordy in her writing, and therefore I wasn't sucked into the story as much as I thought I should. Up until Anna blackmails Griffin things seemed to drag for me. Anna was almost annoying - she kind of struck me as a busy body. Grif was doing the best he could to find the beastie, but he was going about it all wrong. So there is humor.

For me the story really picked up after Anna blackmails Grif and tells him that she wants to learn how to seduce a man. Here, I also I found myself starting to like Anna as a heroine. I think it's mostly because the two were starting to care for each other, but Grif ironed out the side that didn't accentuate her femininity. Which was pretty funny actually!

This was a fun read, and I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens to Mared (Griffen and Liams sister) who was used as collateral for the beastie and is evidentially cursed!

At first this book really grabbed my attention. I was looking forward to reading it and Grif was, and is still, a great character.

Sadly, this book dragged on far too long for me. Highlander in Disguise is 374 pages. I gave up reading around page 300 when Grif and Anna were still NOT together. Over 300 pages of nothing isn't worth another 74. I can take a guess at what happens anyway. They finally get together. Finally. It is not even worth finishing if it is only 74 pages after a 300 page wait. Even if it's page 301 where they finally get together- too late. Don't care. They get together, kiss, blah blah blah. Not worth it anymore. I don't even care if they got the 'bloody beastie' or not.

I also felt as if Grif deserved a heroine more mature and less shelfish than Anna. She got on my nerves quite a bit.

If you like a book to ruin your expectations and make you go from wonderment to disappointment, then be my guest and read this one.

I liked this story verra verra much! I tried to read the previous book, Highlander Unbound, but i couldn't get into it atall. Read the back cover of this book and it sounded intriguing. I liked both of the main characters, Griff & Anna, very much. He, a yummy hero and she, no simpering miss. They rubbed each other the wrong way at first & it made for some wonderful tension within the story. This story was no way predictible & I liked it very much for that reason.The sparring and the wit between them was great too,and the wit with his "valet" was hilarious too! lots of good humor which made me laugh out loud quite a few times! (Not an easy thing for me to do). Very well thought out plot. Can't wait for the next installment.Take a chance and read it. You will enjoy!

23yo heroine wants to seduce the man who may very possibly propose marriage to her younger & more beautiful sister so that his affections will turn to her instead. She blackmails Scottish Hero, who's pretending to be a wealthy Scottish Lord while looking for their lost family heirloom, to teach her how to seduce a man. Although he was irritated about their arrangement, Hero's teachings result in heroine's new popularity with gentlemen at balls including the man she desired to attract as well as inflaming his attraction to heroine. Ae appears gets closer to her goingls of seduction, she realizhas a change of heart about the man she wants.

I didn't like this book as much as London's Highlander Unbound. It's romance, pacing, sexual chemistry, sex scenes, & characters were average. Nothing too thrilling...and that's the problem. Hero & heroine were more emotionally involved with each other when they were arguing or irritated with each other. When they finally focused on each other, they didn't seem that intensely in love with each other. They put more energy & effort on pursuing other people they were attracted to than they did in pursuing each other. They only pursued each other after their other love-interests appeared to be interested in each other. I didn't like that Hero & heroine's attraction & love for each other was more of an afterthought. They were each other's 2nd choice. And I have a problem with that.

Marginally recommended.

A continuation of the Lockhart trilogy, this book continues with the quest of the beastie which they need in order to save their estate. In this book, Griff goes in search of the beastie in London with not much more to go on other than the name of the friend the beastie was purchased for. Once in London Griff establish himself (mind you its a false identity) as a Lord and begins his search by going to all the balls looking for an Amelia. At one of the balls Griff bumps into Anna Addison, the daughter of a rich Lord and who's sister is one of the favorites of the season, their first encounter did not go so well and had Griff suspecting that Miss Addison knew about his false identity. Anna, although the older sister of Lucy (the favorite of the season) she had yet to marry due to her lack of charm and knowing the needs of a man, due to desperation not to be left behind, she makes a deal (or more like she blackmails Griff once she figured out who he was and what he was after) with Griff to give her lessons to win the hand of one of the reputable Lords (coincidentally one of Griff's cousins) in turn she would keep his secret and turn the beastie over to him. Although unable to stand each other at first, their love-hate relationship eventually turns into solid love and passion for each other as her lessons progressed until Griff could no longer bare to her to be with anyone but himself.

The story in this (having read the first book) picks right up from where the last one left off, so you aren't left confused as to what went on in the meantime. Julia London does a good job of setting her characters up as well as putting obstacles in their way. Although this is a romance novel, I would not recommend it for those who like their sex scenes frequent as well as early on in the story, for it's not until the near the end of the book that things happen between Griff and Anna. It is a good light romance novel and sets up for the third in this series very well.