First I’d like to say there was a lot I really loved about this book. The first half of the book I was sure it was going to be 5 stars. So I do highly suggest you give it a try if you haven’t yet, because you might love it.

Caledonia, or Callie, is captured by the English and presented in marriage to Sin, who is almost like a right hand man to King Henry II. First thing I liked about this book was this time frame, as I don’t find as many books taking place during this reign.

Callie is a Scot and she loves her clan and homeland. I really enjoyed the spunkiness of her character in the beginning and her good heart. She tries to understand the hero and break through with him and keeps trying to make her marriage what she dreams it can be. She doesn’t allow her new husbands standoffish attitude and cold shoulder get to her. I did feel her character rather plateaued though and became redundant.

Sin. Ahhh. I read in another review he was a 5 star hero in a 2 star book and I can totally see why that person would think this. I just loved him. Those black eyes, that tortured past, his connection to the heroine who is his only bright spot in the world...yet I believe the author just took it a bit too far in trying to established how crappy his life was. I usually love drama and angst but this was just getting repetitive with the non stop stories of all the horrible things he went through.
It was ever so dramatic.

If you haven’t read the book yet and plan to, I recommend you stop reading my review now. Spoilers ahead with specifics I didn’t like.



Ok?



Ok.




The hero has never been loved. And it was beyond overdone. The author was so repetitive just over and over how horrible his life has been. He’s a bastard child. His mother hated him. His stepmother hated him. His father hated him. The English hated him. The scots hated him. His dog hated him. His great great great grandfather hated him from the grave. He was a slave. He was sold by his father. He was an assassin forced to slit people’s throats for food. Everyone got presents on Christmas except him. Everyone got presents on birthdays except him. He didn’t have a birthday. He didn’t have a name. He was named Sin when he was 6 because everyone hated him. Someone throws a cabbage at his head. Someone shoots him with an arrow. Someone tries to poison him. Someone tries to stab him in the back...my GOSH. I got it about 1/3 of the way through (if not the first chapter, because it was pretty well established) and I wish she would have then focused on Sin and Callie growing together instead of finding out more horrible things every chapter and Callie trying to soothe him and Sin pushing her back. She definitely established his pain but then didn’t really move on from that.

Also this author loved the word moan. I overall enjoyed her kisses and scenes but the fact that everyone moaned so much the first few times it dimmed my enjoyment for future scenes. She moaned, he moaned, they moaned.

I really struggled with what to rate this. I loved it, yet it annoyed me. I give 3 stars I guess. I think if I read this 5 years or so ago I would have loved it. I’m just so extra picky now