This is the third in Caine’s Scottish
medieval series. Set in 1482, three years after The Bedeviled Heart, the story begins in Sarlat, France where Lord Julian
Gray is awakened from sleep by a knife pressed against his ribs. The young
woman wielding the stiletto is Liselle, sister to Orazio di Franco and a part
of the Vindictam, the renowned Venetian family of assassins. Julian, who
pretends to be a profligate spending his time drinking, gambling and wenching,
is really the spy Le Marin who is keeping an eye on Alexander Stewart, the Duke
of Albany, who wants to take the throne from his brother James III of Scotland.
Liselle, who looks forward to the day she will be given her first assassin
assignment is thrilled when she is sent to the Scottish court.
The first half of the story does not
take place in Scotland and so there is a different feel to this one. Half the
characters are Venetian assassins and there are many Italian words interwoven
into the text. At times it felt more Italian than Scottish. It is a clever tale
and well written and yes, there is Scottish history woven in, too. Cameron (from
The Bedeviled Heart) is very much
involved in trying to hold the clans together to fight the English as Julian flits
around Europe, England and finally Scotland in his attempts to thwart Albany’s
plans and deal with all the Italians.
This is a good story though I did not
like it as well as The Bedeviled Heart
and that may be due to the heroine’s being a Venetian, and Julian’s inability
to deal with her at times, and the more Italian historical feel. As with her
other novels, there are no love scenes in this one but some good chemistry.
The Highland
Heather and Hearts series (I recommend
reading them in order as the characters pop up in each other’s stories):
The Kindling Heart
(Bree & Ruan)
The Bedeviled Heart
(Cameron & Kate)
The Daring Heart
(Julian & Liselle)
The Bold Heart
(Merry & Ewan—coming in 2014)
I have read all of Carmen's books! ;o) Out of all of them, The Bedeviled Heart is my favorite. ;o) Carmen is one of the main reasons that I write in this genre too! ;o)
ReplyDeleteSuzan