Tristan MacPherson is an assassin. With a dark reputation to uphold, he makes sure every man he's paid to kill dies. You would think he has no respect for life, yet as he walks through a plague ridden town, he is pulled to a stop next to Rose.

Rose cannot believe how her bid at freedom is going. Treated like a fragile princess, protected by all around her, she has not left her home in many years. Someone in her past had tried to kill her, so her father and the 14 guards surrounding her have always allowed her the barest amount of life to keep her safe. Somehow though, finally, she is allowed to spend the winter with her cousin. The first town they come to, Rose is infected with the plague and left to die. Placed in a pile of bodies to burn, still clinging to life, is where Tristan finds her.

This book has a lot to love about it
-a book taking place in the 1300s
-a dark, assassin hero that cares only for his heroine
-the black death (plague) being a plot device
-highlanders
-murder/mystery plot
-slow burn, a few kisses, then a full scene after 80%

I feel rather awful about not liking this book. I am in the minority. Don't listen to what I say ahead. Seriously. I have a problem. My heart is dead and I dislike everything I read now. :( I haven't had a 5 stars in forever. I try not to get into specifics but I'm hiding my own opinions under a spoiler heading. Also safety warnings attached at end.

Spoiler

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. It has a hero type that I adore. I love the dark heroes. I love assassins. I love heartless men that are cold to everyone but fall hard for their heroines. Tristan is like that. And I didn't dislike him, but he didn't give me quite the depth of feeling I wanted.

Rose was okay. I didn't dislike her, but she did annoy me. I could have liked her, but I felt like her opinions changed way too fast. I felt like she fell in love with Tristan too fast. I felt like when she found things out about him, her opinion went from head over heels love to distrust in about 1 second. Did you love him? But now he's all “bad” and you can't even talk to him about it? Come on...

But what got me the most about this book was something about the writing. It was not what I remember from the last Paula Quinn I read. This book did not pull me in. The beginning I felt like was a lot better than the second half. I did enjoy them traveling together and getting to know each other. Then they are separated and it's all murder mystery nonsense. If I had been really invested in the characters I might not have minded, but I wasn't yet. I needed more of them together. I also waited and waited and waited for sex. At 80% there is a scene THAT IS FADE TO BLACK!!! I was SO disappointed. There is another scene right after but I was so over everything by that point. So sad.

Anyway, I know plenty of people will love this book. I hope you do. I'm not sure if I am always comparing others to my favorite authors and they just don't meet the bar or what.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC. All these opinions are my own.

Safety warnings

Spoiler

plague, body burning (off page), murder and death (on page)