Customer Reviews

Highlander Unbound

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I seem to have the minority opinion on this one, but I just loved this book. I think it is the writing style that appealed to me most. It is droll and understated. I much prefer this kind of dry humor over the overly-dramatic or cringe-worthy slapstick you find in so many romance novels. I also thought the plot was unusual and well done.

Liam is a simple man with simple needs, which are not being met. He endures uncomfortable travel, foul food, unruly children, and wacky Englishmen, all with good humor and letters home to his mom. He is on a quest to steal an item, which his family may or may not have a rightful claim of ownership to. His plan is to ingratiate himself with his English relatives, then sneak around in their house in the dead of night, and take the item away and hope they don't notice.

Ellie is isolated and unhappy. She is doing her best for her only child, and makes a few bad decisions. She is not a perfect person, but anyway the ethics are hazy... is it wrong to steal stolen property? Probably. But if you are going to do it, at least do it competently, and more than once if necessary, and get away with it cleanly. By outsmarting Liam, Ellie became his equal, which is a lot more satisfying than a simple story about a burly Scottsman rescuing a damsel in distress.

But in the end, it is the clear voice of the author that kept me reading. I have just added Julia London to my list of favorite authors. This book is just great.

I expected a lot of this book, because this author is normally very good. I was disappointed by the thin plot line, lack of depth in the characters, and the repetitive prose (if Liam referred to Ellen as an "angel" one more time, I was going to scream). Although there was adequate background on Ellen, we never really understood what made Liam tick. The author repeatedly referred to the fact that he was a soldier, as if that completely explained who he was. This is so different from this author's "Regent Street" series, where her male characters are described very thoroughly and eloquently. I hope the next books in the series will improve.

I wanted to like this book; The hero was fairly appealing - at least he wasn't "impossibly handsome" as most romance novel heroes are described. However, there were just too many things wrong with this story. First of all, does the heroine not have any idea where her child is? How does Natalie manage to spend so much time alone with Liam, a strange man? That seems odd. Second, how does Ellen just jump into bed with Liam with such abandon, becoming a major nympho after 9 years of seclusion from the world. I can see where she might want some companionship, but after all, this is SUPPOSED to be regency England. Isn't she the least bit worried about the possibility of getting pregnant? I mean, that's the reason she was in her predicament to begin with. And finally, the manner in which she leaves Liam when she leaves to steal the "beastie". Unbelievable. Don't waste your time on this one...

Having been my first London read, I'm terribly disappointed. I wanted to like Ellie and Liam, but their storyline was too tragically provincial. There was no grand action, no real struggle for the beastie, just a seemingly incongrous character shift on Ellie's part that left me confused, not intrigued.

On a high note, the "Prologue" was wonderfully descriptive and drew the reader into the sordid tale of the beastie. I wanted to hear more about the folklore.

Although I don't want to disregard London altogether, I'm hesistant pick up another, and I will most certainly disregard the second novel in the series as Grif all ready seems to be a fop destined to waste his familial money (once they find the beastie).

Tread carefully . . .

Setting - Scotland and London 1816 --- Highlander Unbound is the beginning of a new series by Julia London.... Based upon the prologue the series centers around a small artifact in the form of a `beastie' which over the centuries has passed back and forth between the English and Scottish Lockhart families. The Scottish Lockharts, never being able to hang on to it. With the beastie comes a legend that has gotten convoluted in the re-telling over the centuries. In this first book, captain Liam Lockhart travels to London to `retrieve' this valuable family heirloom. A veteran hero of the battle of Waterloo, he is the eldest of the three Lockhart siblings and rationalizes that this is not stealing, rather than reclaiming what rightly belongs to the Scottish side of the Lockhart family.

Big, burly and with a scar down his face he is used to the disdain and fear of the woman who are introduced to him. Meeting a golden angel on the windy and crowded streets of London, has caught him off guard. He later discovers that she resides in the house where he has let rooms. He has been mesmerized and is completely bewildered because he incorrectly assumes that she is married to his landlord, finding this to be incorrect he then assumes she is a widow. How the lovely Ellen Farnsworth, mother of a 10-year-old precocious daughter could remain unattached was a puzzle he needed to solve. On a mission to save his family's ancestral home, he really shouldn't allow her to become such a distraction, but never before had he been in love. Ellen, on the other hand, swore never to fall in love again and could only think of how to extract herself and her daughter from an indefensible situation. She felt hopeless in having to betray the man who had made her feel alive even though her betrayal would tear her apart.

The beginning of this novel showed great promise and though the characters were very well defined, the story seemed to slow down in the middle even with Liam displaying some very original, yet shocking ways to survive bad English dinner fare and lack of good laundry facilities. The reader will certainly enjoy Liam's matter of fact burliness amongst the dandies of the ton. Though I did have problems with Ellen and her decision of betrayal towards Liam, which certainly dampened what I thought was developing into a beautiful romance. It was a good read with some very stimulating and interesting romantic encounters. While not one of my highest rated of reads, I will be looking forward to reading more of the Lockhart families quest to solve the riddle concerning the `beastie'! *** Marilyn, Official Reviewer for www.historicalromancewriters.com

A family legend passed down through the centuries transforms a token of love into a curse. Just before her execution for infidelity, Anice of Lockhart arranged to have an emerald hid in the belly of a small, ugly carving. Now rumor holds that no Lockhart woman will find love without facing the Devil. Knowledge of the jewel died, leaving only rumor of fortune. In 1816, Navy Navy Captain Liam Lockhart sets out to recover the beastie from the English Lockharts, hoping to save his Scottish family from loosing their home and property.

Liam's careful plans eventually lead him to the English Lockharts. But while in London he rents a room where he meets nine-year-old Natalie, who expertly slips into his room for frequent visits despite his protestations. Eventually their acquaintance leads him to her mother Ellen. Liam falls in love with Ellen, but her desperation to provide a new life for her daughter leads to drastic measures when she steals the beatie herself. Liam vows to follow Ellen and to retrieve the beastie for his family as well as to avenge his honor.

Author Julia Lodon pens a riveting frolic in HIGHLANDER UNBOUND. A delightful plot will hold the reader enthralled as Liam disposes of mice and picks roses in Hyde Park. On the one hand he is incredibly charming and on the other hand his brashness provides wonderful entertainment. Ellen's desperation will strike a cord with those sympathetic to her plight. Certainly Liam and Ellen find themselves at seemingly irreconcilable crossroads, resulting in a marvelously told tale. Natalie proves a bit too precocious to be plausible at times; nonetheless, she still adds a wonderful humorous element. HIGHLANDER UNBOUND comes highly recommended.

This was just alright for me. Nothing really special. I liked the story, but I think what ruined it was that halfway through, Ellie made a really idiotic mistake (which I won't go into detail about here, so as not to ruin the book). What she did seemed like a really dumb move, but then at that point, both she and Liam were being stupid, (in neither admitting their love for one another which would have just solved all their problems) and in a book like this, they've got to be stupid to keep the book and/or series going. I mean, had they solved their problems by confessing their love for each other halfway through the book, there would really be no book, and no way to continue the series. As it was, I just came away with a vaguely irritated feeling towards Ellie and the entire storyline.

Another problem for me also was that I felt absolutely no connection to "Grif" at all and so, given my feeling for this first book, and my complete ambivalence about "Grif," I just can't bring myself to want to buy his story. I just don't care. I really wish there had been more scenes with him where I could have worked up some emotion for him so that I could care enough about him to want to read his story, thus continuing on with the series, but there was nothing to draw me to him.

I do have a bit more of a curiosity about Mared and her story. Though, again, not enough to continue on, and I really feel that if the first book were stronger, if I was able to get to know the other siblings more and get a bit more emotionally invested in them, I might have wanted to go ahead and take a chance with Mared's story. As it is, this will be the first and only book of this series that I will be reading.

I read this book after I read the sequel, Highlander in Disguise. I loved HID, so I thought I would read this one. I had put off reading it because I knew that Ellie had a child and I don't usually like heroines with kids. I was right. Liam was great. Julia London writes great male characters, but Ellie came with such baggage! In HID, Grif and Anna sparred a lot and were great to read about. In this one, I mostly pitied Liam and wished he could find someone better. I was left with the feeling that while Ellie did love him, I wasn't sure that she wouldn't put her daughter above him. Maybe it's just me, but I want the heroine to be devoted wholeheartedly to the leading man and I didn't think she was in this case.

Both the hero and the heroine were rather annoying in this one. Why did she give him such a thick Scottish accent? He sounded like a character from an Austin Powers movie.

I found the story boring and hard to finish.

Also, the Gaelic wasn't all that great. An author who uses a different language should really know it or consult with someone who knows it. You can't get a foreign language right by just using a dictionary.