Branded a deserter, Rhys Macleod has been stripped of his command, his title, and has been dishonorably discharged from the army. He has retreated to the quiet solitude of Blackstone Abbey in hopes of forgetting the country and family that has abandoned him. But his peace is shattered when his best friend’s sister shows up to avenge her brother’s death and Rhys comes face to face with his broken … broken promise to care for his friends beautiful sister.
Emma Bamfield refuses to let her brother’s death go unpunished. The deserter who got him and the rest of his unit slaughtered on the battlefield must die. When Emma discovers Captain Rhys Macleod is but an hour’s ride from Inverness, she sets out to shoot him. But shooting a man in the back turns out to be more difficult than Emma expected.
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Captain Rhys Macleod has been wrongly accused of being a deserter during a time of war and was stripped of his title and dishonorable discharged. Emma Bamfield is determined to kill the man responsible for the death of her twin brother so she tracks Rhys down but she can’t bring herself to kill the man she has met and come to know. Unknown to Emma Rhys promised her brother Tory that he would take care of her if anything happened to him. The deserter was actually the commanding officer but will anyone come forward to tell the truth. Will anything come of the attraction between Rhys and Emma?
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
After a traumatic experience at war, earl’s heir and army captain Rhys MacLeod has had his name slandered. He’s been branded a deserter and a coward, responsible for abandoning the battle and causing the deaths of the men serving under him. He knows the true deserter was his own commanding officer but has no way of proving it and no desire to either. He’s content to hide out with his friends at Blackstone Abbey for now and try to move past his nightmares and the hurt of his family’s disowning him. But any semblance of peace he’d found is ruined when his friend and fellow soldier’s sister arrives to avenge his death by killing Rhys. He realizes this is the sister he vowed to care for and glues himself to her side. Emma Bamfield can’t let her brother’s death go unpunished so when she finds out that the deserter who caused it lives near her home, she knows she must confront him. But when she comes face to face with Rhys, Emma finds she can’t kill him. In fact, she learns he is not who she thought he was and their attraction for one another may be too much for either of them to fight.
This was an enjoyable and surprisingly emotional read for such a short novella. Rhys has appeared in several other books in the series and it was great to see him get such a great happy ending.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Avenging Angel
Regency Era Romance
The Aftereffects of War.
Miss Emma Bamfield attempts to avenge the wrongful death of her twin brother, Tory, in the battle of Almeida, during the Napoleonic War.
She begins by finding Captain Rhys Macleod, her brother’s captain and decides to kill him. Rhys was wrongly discharged as a coward and deserter. The charges were untrue. How could Major General Lennox, who was like a father to him, throw him to the wolves? Surely there are other witnesses who saw Viscount Munro run from the battlefield! Rhys’ father even tries to disown him.
Rhys’ commanding officer, William Ross, Viscount Munro, abandoned his men in the heat of battle and blamed the massacre on Rhys.
Crazily, Emma visits Viscount Munro, totally unaware he is the real criminal in the whole sordid and awful affair. It’s from Munro she finds out about her brother’s death and about Rhys’ supposed cowardly actions that caused it.
Unknown to Emma, her brother Tory made Rhys promise to look after her if something happened to him. After recovering from his physical wounds, and giving restitution to the families of his other men who were killed, Rhys is ready to seek out Emma to keep his promise.
The anger and guilt that Rhys carries with him has given him PTSD and he relives the horror of The battle every night in his tortured nightmares.
ARC Received from Booksprout
I also got This book with KU.
This is an extremely well written ADULT fictional account of a Captain wrongly accused by his superior officers in order to cover up the cowardly actions of another nobleman during the Napoleonic War.
It’s very different from the typical Regency Romance, and is well worth reading.
So much love in this heart-wrenching story!
Rhys is devastated by the loss of his men, and while he bears guilt for not doing more to save them, he’s not guilty of the crimes laid at his feet. Emma is quick to accept his guilt, however, but when her attempted revenge falls flat she has to take a hard look at the facts and come to her own conclusion.
The emotions run very deep in this romance, and the writing is so good that you can almost feel Emma’s desperation and determination. Rhys is such a stalwart, honorable man – he’s everything Emma needs to rely on, and these two are so much stronger together than apart.
I couldn’t put this book down until I finished it, and I loved the satisfying and triumphant HEA. It’s a beautiful, heartwarming, intelligent look at life in the early 1800s in Scotland, and I couldn’t love it more. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.