A Highland Knight's Desire by Amy Jarecki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**This review contains spoilers!**

I'll be clear and say from the start that I very much enjoyed this novel. It kept me engrossed and eager for more. That being said, I do have some criticisms.

A Highland Knight's Desire is a page-turner throughout the first 1/3, but I found it dragging around the middle when Duncan leaves on his next mission for the king. Duncan spends far too much time either injured or recovering from injuries, and while I mostly enjoyed it, I found that plot point became overdone pretty quickly.

I’m glad that I started the series with the second book, because I would have absolutely been heartbroken otherwise. This author broke the unspoken cardinal rule of not killing off their previous novels’ hero/heroine. In this novel, the hero of the series’ first book is killed, which I’m sure would break the hearts of many readers. Usually, when I’m reading a series and this happens, I stop reading immediately, but as I’d begun the series with this book, I didn’t. Killing off previous heroes/heroines is a cruel way for authors to pull emotions from readers, especially when there are plenty of other ways to elicit those feelings.

I also had an issue with Duncan and Meg's first intimate experience, where Meg kissed Duncan when he’s unconscious, and they had sex while he was delirious with a fever. It wasn’t just that the act seemed implausible (because he was both injured and weak), but that a woman would try to seduce a man that was out of his wits. He clearly wanted it throughout the beginning of the novel, and he was pleased with the fact afterward, but it still seemed a bit sketchy to me.

Despite my reservations, I really enjoyed A Highland Knight's Desire. I'm definitely going to read the other two books in the series.

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