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A
Highlander Never Surrenders
by Paula Quinn
Royalists and Roundheads - Loyalties and Betrayal!
Publisher:
Forever (August 2008)
Paula Quinn’s Scottish romance A
Highlander Never Surrenders takes all the passions and intensity
of romance Laird of the Mist
and adds even more precise attention to detail. She adds complementary
secondary characters that give her new romance a richness and depth.
Placing her characters in chaotic yet intriguing time periods, Paula
Quinn makes history and romance come alive as passions, both personal
and political collide, setting hearts ablaze.
Paula Quinn sets her romance during a tumultuous period of Scottish
history when factions of Scotland’s Third Civil War re-emerged. Oliver
Cromwell has died and General Monck, a man who had served Cromwell and
Parliament throughout the civil wars, now aligns himself with forces
seeking the restoration of Charles II. A Highlander Never Surrenders
opens with a vignette into this fascinating explosive time with a
vision that focuses on two men and a woman caught up in the political
drama of the period. Graham Grant, the first in command of the
MacGregor clan, sits in a pub with an unlikely friend, Robert Campbell,
the Earl of Argyll discussing their order from Monck to find the
Royalist rebel Connor Stuart. Two unlikely friends, Royalist and
Highlander Graham and Presbyterian, or Roundhead, Robert Campbell join
forces seeking to save Scotland from anarchy. Captured by Graham and
his forces, Claire Stuart knows she must hide her identity and link to
the royal family from the Roundhead men she sees before her. With her
brother Connor dead, Claire has one goal and one goal alone --- to save
her sister Anne from the treacherous Monck. Graham knows he must stop
Claire from her plot against Monck so he proposes a compromise, getting
Claire to agree to join forces with him in exchange for his assistance
rescuing her sister. Political intrigue infuses this romance as
alliances are not so easily discerned and Claire's brother and sister
have become pawns in a political clash between Roundheads and Royalists.
The heroine Claire is one feisty woman! Taught by her brother to fight,
Claire is a woman who carries a sword not a broom. She would rather
fight than sew and when it comes to love, Claire is just as tempestuous
and passionate. Commander Grant, the hero, is just as full of fire,
tempered with just enough insight and patience to get what he wants.
Thoughtful and knowing in battle, women are mere diversions, to be
enjoyed and left for more important political aims. Grant certainly
meets his match in Claire, a woman as single-minded and devoted to
politics and her family. When these two come together, love is
combustible! A secondary pair complements these two perfectly -- Robert
a man as chivalrous and honorable as Galahad and a man who respects the
law and Claire's sister Anne, a true lady in heart as well as lineage.
A Highlander Never
Surrenders strikes the reader with its beautiful use of
language, dynamic dialogue and amazing detail. In one scene where Paula
Quinn describes the eyes of a potential enemy, readers feel the danger
in an almost tactile way as if looking into his eyes. Paula Quinn
carefully orchestrates intrigue as one small detail, talk of a letter
or a certain phrase, emerges later in a more ominous circumstance whose
framework has been carefully planned earlier. A Highlander Never Surrenders is a
sexy romance, as much for the subtle facial expressions and dialogue
between the hero and heroine as the kisses and beyond. Passionate
emotions abound as historical politics, honor, betrayals and
irresistible love draw unlikely forces together in a dangerous mission.
Paula Quinn brings A Highlander
Never Surrenders to a conclusion with a beautiful, beautiful
ending with a love just as fiery as the first sparks.
Paula Quinn’s A Highlander Never
Surrenders is so full of emotion and intrigue that it makes this
reader want to read about Scottish history in much more detail. Paula
Quinn’s historical romance makes a reader feel history, not just think
it. Readers feel the political and personal stakes at risk when love
and politics mix during this uncertain interregnum period of Scottish
history. A Highlander Never
Surrenders inspires late night reading!
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In a scene or two, Paula Quinn mentions or has her characters
reading/listening to Sir Thomas Malory's Arthurian tales in a context
that really moved my heart as well as my intellect. I have worn out my
3 copies of the Middle English version of this book! I had even planned
to write my dissertation on this book before I decided academia itself
was not for me. It was just one of the small details "oh my!" delight
moments in this book. Malory took the Old French tales of Arthur and
other English versions, rewrote them while making significant changes,
changes that affected the meaning. It is through Malory's tales that
most English speakers, even today, know the Arthurian stories. It's a
small detail. This is a 17th century romance, not a medieval romance
like her first three books, but it made my heart flutter a bit seeing
this author's understanding of what is technically called reception
studies in literary jargon --- how a book is received (through time
periods, different language cultures, etc.) I use this as one example
to illustrate just how fine this romance is in details.
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