The Highland Lords
One Man's Love - Book 1
One Man's Love is the story of Alec Landers, a colonel serving under the Duke of Cumberland and Leitis (Lee-tis) MacRae, the girl he once loved.
The time period - a few months after the Battle of Culloden - is a difficult one. The MacRaes of Gilmuir have lost most of their clan to the Jacobite cause and have spent months trying to come to terms with the fact that the English have invaded their home. To add to their hardships, a new commander is arriving at the newly constructed Fort William.
Alec is a man in torment, and worthy of the name he'd earned in Inverness - Butcher. Leitis is one of the last of the MacRaes and has her own grief to bear.
One Man's Love is the beginning of a series, but each book stands alone.
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ExcerptWhen the Laird Returns - Book 2
The second book of The Highland Lords series takes place thirty years after One Man's Love. I couldn't wait, frankly, to find out what happens to the MacRaes.
Alisdair MacRae has heard about Gilmuir Castle all his life, from tales his parents, and the other members of the clan have told him. He's grown up with feeling a tie to the land, and to the fortress, but he never thought that he would have to nearly beggar himself in order to buy back land that was rightfully his.
All his plans are destroyed the minute he steps onto MacRae land. First, he thinks he hears ghosts, but discovers that the voice is only too corporeal. The woman he sees turns out to be the same woman he finds himself married to less than a day later. So, a man who was on his way to decline an earldom finds his life suddenly altered in ways he couldn't have envisioned.
Iseabal Drummond, on the other hand, is thrilled to be married. Of all the suitors her father has considered for her, none was young and healthy. Also, it appears that this new husband has a kind nature and gentle temperament. There's only one thing wrong. He doesn't want her.
How they learn that Fate might well have had a hand in their meeting and their marriage is the story of When the Laird Returns. I like to think that Gilmuir had a part in it, too.
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The Irresistible MacRae - Book 3
Now, I will be the first to admit that this book has a different flavor. It's about Riona McKinsey and James MacRae and there isn't a whole lot of angst in it, which is just fine (look for To Love a Scottish Lord - dark enough, believe me).
James is tormented by the deed he committed, and everyone thinks it's a good thing if he gets away and performs an errand for his uncle. Unfortunately, this leads to meeting Riona McKinsey, who's engaged to be married.
It's a love story, pure and simple, with an underlying theme of honor.
To Love a Scottish Lord - Book 4
Hamish MacRae is one of those characters who grab on and don't let go. He's tortured (literally) and brooding, and ashamed of his actions. He can't quite forget what he did in India, and the price of freedom that he'll always pay.
Mary isn't that enamored of the world, either, but she tries to make it a better place. She's a healer, who has studied the works of Mathew Marshall, and knows that she can heal Hamish.
Take a deserted castle in the Highlands, a solitary man and a woman determined to assist him, and you have the core of To Love a Scottish Lord. Throw in a mystery, a murder trial, and a desperate flight to freedom, and you have the tale of Hamish and Mary, two desperate lonely people who deserve to find love. No matter what they've done.
I happened to come across some fascinating medical experiments one day and Mary immediately popped into mind. I wondered if a woman of her time would have the courage to use some of those rather bizarre treatments. I knew what happened to Hamish at the end of The Irresistible MacRae, when I accidentally clicked on a site for chess, of all things. My imagination just went off on a tangent, leading to India.
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So in Love - Book 5
When I first thought of writing The Highland Lords series, I knew that each book would be about a brother in the MacRae family. But I didn't know that Book 5 would be such an intense and bittersweet adventure. I confess that I really don't want to see the end of the MacRaes. Okay, maybe Douglas. No, upon reflection, it's the whole family I'll miss.
So in Love is Douglas's story. And Jeanne's. She's the daughter of a French count, and of course he's the last of the MacRaes to be featured in his own book.
When we last left Douglas, he was 17 and devastated by the rejection and betrayal of Jeanne du Marchand. All he knew was that she didn't want to see him again. Worse, she was pregnant with his child.
Little did he know that Jeanne was undergoing her own torture, one more physical and longer lasting.
What happens in the ten years that separates them alters each of their characters and changes them as people. When they meet again, Douglas is no longer young and naive, and Jeanne is no longer privileged and innocent.
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Excerpt
