Anice Lindsay is a novice at Jardine abbey, whose true calling seems to be getting into trouble. Gregor Kincaid, known as The Fist of Scotland, is a fierce warrior and noble companion to William Wallace.
Gravely wounded and separated from his army, Gregor stumbles upon the exquisite Anice, locked outside of the nunnery in the midst of one of her regular punishments. His decision to save her has … decision to save her has more to do with her beguiling blue eyes than his need of assistance.
Anice is only too happy to escape the discontent of Jardine. When the braw chief of the Kincaid’s rescues her and then promptly collapses from his wounds, she doesn’t think twice about secreting and nursing him until his army comes to collect him.
En route to Stonehaven, the Kincaid fortress by the sea, Gregor struggles mightily against his growing desire for Anice while she innocently and happily surrenders to his kisses. Once safely arrived at Stonehaven, Anice learns the reason behind his resistance: he is betrothed to a woman of an enemy highland family, and the wedding must take place to put an end to years of violence.
Highland intrigue blooms in the background of the great war for Scottish freedom. Setting aside his feelings for Anice in favor of peace in the Highlands, can Gregor live with his choice to put Anice out of his reach, out of his arms, and out of his heart?
As with all the Highlander Heroes Series, The Memory of Her Kiss is a stand-alone novel. The characters from different books do sometimes interact, but these can be read in any order.
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I felt the emotions in the characters. Especially Lachlan PTSD of course in his time it was not known by that name. How he overcame his past and embraced a future was wonderful. I can’t wait till the next book to come out.
STRONG HEROINE STILL LOOKING FOR HER CALLING
This is the fourth book I’ve read in this series (books 4, 5, 1 and now 2) and they all share Ms. Ruger’s fabulous writing style, great world building, and wonderful characters. Sometimes though it was hard for me to tell where she was going with this one.
Aside from what I mentioned above, there’s another excellent feature to these stories—the strong heroines. Not one of them wants to be a damsel in distress. This heroine Anice is something special. Others have been trying to hold her down for most of her life by telling her that she’s ugly and incorrigible. But she can’t be held down, she has too much spirit. Unfortunately she lives in the medieval period when women weren’t permitted much independence. Finding her purpose at Stonehaven was a continuing theme in the story, and I really felt bad for her. She’s unconventionally talented and I imagined so many wonderful non-traditional ways for her to evolve. I hope I get to see where Anice goes from here in book 3.
Our hero Gregor can be exasperating. He’s a brave and well-intentioned man, if not a bit clueless about how to handle Anice. In his defense Gregor had his hands full trying to protect his clan and fight along side William Wallace for Scotland’s freedom. But he keeps Anice dangling from a string for practically the entire book while there’s another man at Stonehaven who treats her like gold and would love to have her for his own. It’s quite frustrating.
The first 30% of this book, as they make their way back to Stonehaven, sets the tone for Gregor and Anice’s relationship, and this foundation is truly delightful. Another of my favorite parts of the story is when Anice is at Inesfree. All of the characters from book 1 are featured generously and move the story forward, in addition to bringing out the best in Anice. There are other significant scenes as well, but what is missing is a retribution scene between the antagonist and Gregor. That was unfortunate.
Ultimately there is an HEA of course. While there were a few things in this story that were a bit unsatisfying to me, I suspect and hope that we will hear more from these characters in upcoming books. This story is full of wit, a wide range of emotions, and a large cast of lovable characters, but not so large that you’ll get mixed up about who is who. These books can be read as standalones, but with this particular book I think you’d enjoy it more after having read book 1. This is exactly the time when I needed to find a new author and a new series that I can get lost in, so I look forward to moving on to Book 3.
Better than I expected
For a Scottish highlander hero and a wonderful female in need of rescuing and doing some rescuing of her own, this is one of my favorites!
I loved this book! Couldn’t put it down.
This was a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending was a bit abrupt, and it needs a bit of editing switching from past to present tense. Still, the story line was fun and different.
Rushed ending but well written with appealing characters.
All of it! A good read.
Such a great book!
Loved this book and the previous ones in this series. Loved the characters and that it featured some very real historical people and events.