This is a sweeping historical
saga, and companion to UNDER THE SAME SKY,
Graham’s first novel. It covers more than
a decade, and at times seems more historical fiction than romance but it does
have a worthy love story running through it, so I consider it a crossover. It
begins in 1745 with the Battle of Culloden that cut a dark scar on the history
of Scotland as the English tried to wipe out a people whose desire for
independence they could not abide.
Most of the story is told
from the perspective of the hero, Dougal MacDonnell, whose father died in his
arms at Culloden. Dougal doesn’t know the fate of his younger brothers but
believes the youngest one may be dead. He believes his other brother, Andrew, with
whom he is telepathically connected, may be alive. (Andrew’s story is told in
book 1.)
Taken prisoner by the English
and nearly starved, Dougal escapes with a young boy, Aiden, who Dougal protects
as they travel to London and then back to Scotland where they live in a small
crofter’s cottage for years.
Deep into the novel, Dougal
discovers Glenna, a young Scots woman, and the two become lovers and live
together for years only to be separated by the English and sent to the Colonies.
Reluctantly, Dougal becomes a part of Montgomerie’s Highlanders wearing the
only plaid allowed a Scot, the English Black Watch, as he searches for Andrew
and Glenna in the Carolinas.
In her well-researched, superbly
written saga, Graham shows the gritty side of war, the ugly filth of the streets
of London, the irony of the Scots having to fight the Indians, rape of women
(the heroine is raped), and the very real starvation faced in those dark days. It
is rich in detail, superb in language depiction and the characters well
developed. This is not, however, a classic historical romance given the nature
of the events or the fact the hero and heroine are separated for long periods.
Sometimes the focus is only on the hero’s adventures or the heroine’s perils (we
don’t get the heroine’s point of view until the last third of the book).
It’s a story of great loss
and survival when one would prefer death. (“Sometimes the sensation of loss was
so intense it was as if someone had reached within her and yanked out whatever
she needed to move forward.”) In the end it’s a story of the new life that can grow
from such loss—and a new beginning, albeit with scars from the past.
It must have been like that
for the thousands of Scottish (and Irish) who were driven from their countries
by the English. It is an absorbing, worthy story that will give you a picture
of what it was like to be a Scot and shipped to the colonies as an indentured
servant for no greater crime than being a Scot. No wonder they became the
backbone of General Washington’s Continental Army fighting with all their heart
to enable America to throw off English rule.
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