Highland Storms by Christina Courtenay

I was approached by Choc Lit to read and review Christina Courtenay’s Highland Storms. I have been a little bit hesitant in reading this book as it is a sequel to her previous novel Trade Winds, which I am yet to read, with this in mind I was unsure if I would be able to fall in to the storyline with out reading the first book.


Plot
Who can you trust? Betrayed by his brother and his childhood love, Brice Kinross needs a fresh start. So he welcomes the opportunity to leave Sweden for the Scottish Highlands to take over the family estate. But there's trouble afoot at Rosyth in 1754 and Brice finds himself unwelcome. The estate's in ruin and money is disappearing. He discovers an ally in Marsaili Buchanan, the beautiful redheaded housekeeper, but can he trust her? Marsaili is determined to build a good life. She works hard at being a housekeeper and harder still at avoiding men who want to take advantage of her. But she's irresistibly drawn to the new clan chief, even though he's made it plain he doesn't want to be shackled to anyone. And the young laird has more than romance on his mind. His investigations are stirring up an enemy. Someone who will stop at nothing to get what he wants including Marsaili even if that means destroying Brice's life forever ... Sequel to Trade Winds. Trade Winds was short listed for the Romantic Novelists' Association's Pure Passion Award for Best Historical Fiction 2011.


My Opinion
The first thing I will say about this book is you do not need to read the first book to understand the storyline in Highland Storms although having said that after reading this book I now would like to go back and read Trade Winds.

We have a beautiful mix of characters in this book from the typical beautiful, feisty, redhead who turns all the men’s heads to the villain of the story, Seton who plays the perfect bad man and my favourite of all Brice who is our heroic figure, a charming, gentleman with a cheeky streak! I loved reading about the chemistry between Brice and Marsaili gently growing throughout the book, I found myself wondering right up to the end of this book if they would finally get together or if the villain Seton would get his slimy way that he was used to.

The book held my interest from the first page right to the very last page and I think that was because of the amount of content in this book it seemed like there was always something going on from discovering hidden tunnels, false arrests and abductions, also at one point Liath the hound a rescuer!

If you like Historical Romances then this book is defiantly the one for you. Thank you to Choc-Lit for sending me a review copy.