Title: Highland Heart
Author: Heather McCollum
In: The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Historical romance, Romance,
Scottish romance
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: Prisoners doona fair well in the dungeons.

Rachel is a young Engliswoman travelling with her father through the Highlands of Scotland. What starts out as a typical journey for the secret-wielding young woman quickly turns into a fast paced tale of romance, passion and subterfuge.

This is the very first book in a new collection of stories that I’ve found on my shelf – The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance. And it is a fantastic way to start it off. I haven’t read much Scottish-themed anything, but this straight away threw me into the subgenre and made me hungry for more. Between the roughness of the highlanders, the cultural and social aspects entrenched in the story, and the glorious setting, Highland Heart is a great way to start and pull you straight into the novel.

Rachel is a great lead character – she rescues herself, bitches at the man she’s obviously attracted to for not really helping her and constantly shows her own strong backbone. I don’t really enjoy any tales that have wilting females as the leads – I just can’t relate, so even though the love story is very quick in this (what do you expect, it’s a short story), Rachel doesn’t wilt. She even manages to save herself in the end when she’s at risk of being killed. Really, her male counterpart is just there to give her a happily ever after and a love that she hasn’t experienced before…

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Image source: Hachette Australia