HIGHLAND GLADIATOR by Kathryn Le Veque is the first book in the Scots and Swords historical romance series and it is the first book that I have read by this author. It is set in Scotland in the late 1400’s. Lor Careston is a blacksmith working with his grandfather in a quiet Highland village when it is attacked and burned. He wishes to seek revenge, but lacks fighting skills. Will he gain them? Will he exact retribution upon those responsible?
The book is well-written with characters that have depth and there is an exciting plot. Lor and the main secondary characters are compelling and felt three-dimensional. There was enough at stake to keep me engaged throughout the story. The world-building was fantastic and gave a clear sense of time and place including medieval conflicts, ways of life, and more. Themes include family, relationships, grief, revenge, love, lies, romance, friendship, inner conflicts, secrets, and much more.
Overall, this was an engaging and fast-paced read with a few heated scenes, action-packed fight scenes, love that endures and an unbalanced antagonist. I would recommend it to those that enjoy historical romances with action scenes and are looking for a new series to start. I look forward to reading the next book in this series as well as checking out this author’s other books.
Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca and Kathryn Le Veque for a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
Reseña en español: https://unalectorasalvaje.blogspot.com/2020/07/resena-highland-gladiator-kathryn-le.html
4/5
I love from the bottom of my heart everything related to the Scottish Highlands, especially in the time period where the clans still existed, because of the Outlander tv series and books. Recently, I have also become quite a huge fan of gladiators because I saw the Spartacus tv series that broke me into a thousand pieces. When I discovered this book, in which the title brings forward that it mixes this two themes that I adore, I knew right away that I needed to read it and that I was going to enjoy it.
Highland Gladiator is the first installment in the Scots and Swords series in which each book follows a different bunch of characters so they can be read separately. Nevertheless, I would recommend to follow the order of publication in case there are references or characters that appear in the following books of the series.
When he was a wee lass, Lor met a girl from the mountains near his home called Isabail. They took different paths but, some time later, they find each other again and start feelings things and becoming closer. Then Lor’s villa is attacked because of some conspiracy and the young man thinks that his grandfather, the one that has been taking care of him for his entire life, died in that attack. He doesn’t have anything left so he decides to look for the Ludus Caledonia, a place where man are turned into warriors because Lor wants to avenge his home and his grandfather. What he doesn’t know is that, maybe, he is planning to hurt the wrong people.
Highland Gladiator has two main characters with pretty different personalities. On one hand, Lor is a blacksmith that has to learn how to fight to become this warrior that will allow him to get his vengeance. He is a very honorable, humble man with his feet on the ground and that evolves a lot throughtout the pages. I think that he is a solid character with complexity and also connected a lot with him. He has this soft and beautiful heart that just made me fall in love with him.
On the other hand, Isabail is the daughter of the clan Keith’s chief that grew up learning strategy and warfare with her two brothers. What shoul I tell you about her? I adored her attitude and her strength to stand up whenever she feels something is not okay. It’s true that at the beginning I didn’t completely trust her but she earned my respect and my love pretty quickly. I think she is a good protagonist even though she is not as complex as Lor is.
Apart from them, there are this huge amount of side characters with different roles in the story. I particulary loved Lor’s mates in the Ludus Caledonia and I would have loved to get to know them better because they were really interesting and the author doesn’t really explore them. I also really liked Lor’s grandfather because he has a plot for himself that I didn’t expect and that I ended up enjoying a lot.
Historical fiction with some romance has become one of my favourite genres in the past few months and Highland Gladiator has earned a place in this list of incredible novels inside this genre that I love. It mixes political tensions and betrayals with the way the Ludus where gladiators train works and also with a pretty intense romance. The romance has importance within the story but these other themes also have relevance and are explored quite a lot. It’s obvious that the author did an extraordinary job at doing research about this period of time and about the culture and the costumes because the details that she brings in the book are very accurate.
This is the first book that I read of this author and I assure you that it won’t be my last. She has a pretty direct and simple writing style because, at the same time, it is elegant and with a lot of intensity that made me feel the same things as the characters. The dialogues are entertaining and I think that the action scenes are fast paced and easy to read without being confusing or something like that. I have to admit that some chapters were kind of slow but, in general, the pacing is good and I ended this book in a couple of days. It was an enjoyable reading.
As I have just mentioned, the romance is one of the foundations of this book so I wanted to talk a little bit about it. I consider that it is kind of rushed, the feelings begin to early in the story and when they don’t know each other much so it was kind of hard to believe it. I ended up liking their love story in spite of this beginning that I didn’t like as much. Lor and Isabail are so different that the interactions between them are so funny and interesting.
Highland Gladiator is the first book of the first series to be taken on by Sourcebooks Casablanca for this author. I am so impressed with this book and I am not sure why it took me so long to read this one because dang Kathryn Le Veque really took this one to the bank on this book. Now I have read previous works from her but I am so happy to see so many readers becoming introduced to her due to this series. She is one of the best talents in historical romance today and she really delves into the settings and eras most authors don't brave. And I love seeing what she did with this book and it definitely was everything that I needed in a book especially in a historical. While I have had some hit or misses with historical romance this year, this one definitely took the cake for me and I couldn't get enough of it.
Highland Gladiator is a story which features:
Lor Careston-Blacksmith, birdkeeper, honest working man that becomes a fighter and gladiator and warrior for his people
Isabail Keith-daughter of the woodland clans, sweet but a defender and fighter, and devoted to the boy and man she knows in Lor.
Highland Gladiator starts off with our two love interests meeting as children and then later meeting as adults as they are more mature but still sweet on each other. Lor is the grandson of a renowned blacksmith for his people and is maturing and ready to take over fully. And then he sees the girl he once teased and played with that fateful day in a full-grown woman and his interest is clear. Even though their families don't approve of the match, they meet in secret and form a bond with each other that is strong and fierce but sweet and loving. But they are willing to find what they are made of but neither Lor nor Isabail ever realized how their love would be tested, and tested in ways that will put their love to the test. When they are separated when Lor's village is attacked and he believes his grandfather is killed, he leaves it all and unable to find Isabail he heads up north to find Ludus Caledonia, a fighting guild that will teach him how to fight, become a warrior, and claim his revenge. But roads to revenge are never what they seem to be and he will have to make a choice, the woman he loves and claiming his sought-after revenge.
I faithfully swear to do all that is commanded of me, All that is required of me, And all that is asked of me. May I live both to fight and to protect my brethren. May God smile upon me and grant me courage So that I may not fail myself nor those around me. Thus it is spoken, thus it shall be done.
Highland Gladiator was such a fierce and passionate love tale and I just wanted more of it. Immersing myself into this book helped me realize how much I MISS reading this author and I am not even sure why I even stopped reading her. I think there are so many books that it can be easy to let some books easily slip through the cracks. And to be honest I just didn't know what this book contained, and hadn't read many reviews of this one, so wasn't sure if I would ever be in the right mood for this but let me tell you.....I should have just read it a year ago and I feel like *banging my head against a wall* in how I should have done this way sooner. I honestly couldn't get enough of this pair. Now I will say that I highly recommend listening to this one, the narration is on point. Brad Wills is one of the best talents I have ever seen in my time of audiobook listening. He just has the perfect deep tone for a medieval, and really handles the dialogue and accents of all the cast members so flawlessly, every time I listen to him, I am amazed by it.
Now Highland Gladiator is a tale of revenge and love and how these two concepts can intermingle especially when the plot builds in such a way. I was intrigued to see how this would develop here and Kathryn LeVeque didn't disappoint. I found the pairing's love story to be so captivatingly sweet yet fierce. I love what they were willing to sacrifice for each other. And your heart just aches to see what they have to face with each other, and I did like that when secrets are kept, it's not done overlong and take up so much of the story. The author really balances out these concepts just perfectly. There are such honest vibes in this relationship, I love that they can sense when something is wrong with the other and the transparency they have for each other is really beautiful. You just don't see that too often in romance. I liked to see where the focus of the conflict in the story was centered on. And then we get our introduction to the fight guild and man I was HOOKED on this fighting guild. Because highlanders plus gladiator training, tactics and fight matches---YES, please. I just wanted to cheer Lor on in his training and fighting matches. This author definitely raised the level where these are concerned. And I hope to see this publisher take on more of this author's books.
Overall I found Highland Gladiator to be a vibrant realistic view on this era, the truths behind clan wars, it contains a unique setup of intrigue, a well-developed revenge subplot, and a romance that showcases the value of fighting for your love in a time where it could come at a great cost....MAGNIFICENT
Unfortunately, the story just felt a bit superficial to me. There's instalove, so the MCs relationship is based on very little, but after only two meetings, Lor's repeating "Only ye" to Isabail constantly. Lor goes to this fight guild, agrees to a seven year "contract," but after only a few weeks of training, he's considered good enough to be hired out to train and protect another clan. After vowing and training to destroy the Keith clan that killed his grandfather, he arrives within the Keith and they tell him that his own clan is actually responsible for his grandfather's death, with hard no evidence, and he believes them. It took almost nothing for him to thrown aside his entire vendetta against the Keith and turn on his own clan. And then the entire climax of the book Spoilercomes down to a fight between Lor and someone he fought at the fight guild. Not even the clan leader that betrayed him in the first place Frankly the book felt like the author was just churning out another book and going through the motions.
This book missed on every single level. The plot: The author constantly undermined her own build up by telling me plot points and then literally in the next chapter said plot point would happen, making it lose all impact. Nothing landed because i already knew these things because the author told me in the precious chapters. This made it boring, which made it hard to get through. The villain: The author decided to include the villain’s point of view alongside that of the protagonists. This was a massive mistake, as she would also tell us the villain’s plans right before they would be executed. The villains plan to kidnap women from clan Keith and then, would you look at that, Isabail is alone with a group of Keith women in Vale. I wonder what’s gonna happen next??? I as the reader should not know more than the protagonist. I should be shocked alongside the protagonist, instead I am left apathetic to the situation the heroine finds herself in because i already knew it would happen. Just like i knew the grandfather was still alive because instead of keeping us thinking that clan Keith had killed the grandfather, the author tells us he was kidnapped by clan Lindsay 20 chapters ago. The final fight should have been a fight between Lor and the leader of clan Lindsay, instead it’s between Lor and the Beast, who Lor had already fought and defeated before. There are no stakes to this fight, he’s already won against him once and since he’s such a “prodigy” warrior, he’ll do so again. The main villain dies in a blink and you missed it passage, which made for a severely underwhelming conclusion to the plot. The characters: The characters were wooden and flat. I did not care about a single one of them and that’s bad. I should care about the Hero and heroine, I should want them to get together. The romance: The romance was bland and boring. It was insta-love which already has many problems on it’s own but this one was just bizarre. They had met maybe 4 times before they had concluded that they were in love with each other and had already kissed. By the time they had sex for the first time they had known each other for maybe a month give or take but had only spoken one on one a handful of times. It was devoid of any romance. This was underwhelming. It was disappointing. This book had such good reviews which is why i had picked it up in the first place, it almost feels like we read entirely different books tbh.
Content Warnings
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, Death, and Kidnapping
Highland Gladiator by Kathryn Le Veque Scots and Swords #1
Lor is no warrior. A blacksmith that cares deeply for his father and village, but is also ready to find love. His village is attacked, burned and he is filled with rage. He has heard of a place that will make warriors of men, and he goes to hone his skills. There, he reunites with the lass Isabail, that has caught his heart.
Give this a try if you're in the mood for: -Scottish romance – both the hero and heroine are from different highland clans -Rival families – Lor is warned about the Keiths, who are Isabail's family -Revenge plot – Lor seeks revenge due to the attack on his village -Mixture of romance and action -Medium steam – a few kisses and a few scenes. They are explicit but more poetry filled scenes than a detailed account of actions (amount and locations attached at the end of review under spoiler warning)
This was my first Kathryn Le Veque. I have wanted to try her for so long. But I wasn't in love with this story. I wasn't really in love with either character, though they were okay. There were quite a few separations of the main characters. I guess I could see them falling in love with each other, but at the same time I felt zero sexual tension in their relationship. That is one of the most important features for me in a romance I love so that knocked stars for me.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC. All of these thoughts regarding this story are my own opinions.
Specific locations in book of kisses/scenes Spoiler First kiss 16% Second kiss 35% Full scene 50% Kiss (very brief) 63% Full scene 68%
This book was a pleasant surprise for me, as I wasn't sure what to expect and went into it thinking it might feel like a story I had read before. However, although the story started off slow, I loved how it picked up in the second half, and I was thoroughly invested in the characters. There is a lot of drama, but there's not so much that the story is overwhelmed by it. It has a bit of a Romeo and Juliet feel to it, without the tragic ending (because romances have HEAs, of course). The cover is insanely attractive, and I was expecting a bit more "hunky gladiator" in the hero, but as the story progressed, I realized that there was a lot more to this hero than his ability to wield a sword and fight in gladiatorial combat.
Lor Careston and Isabail Keith are not supposed to know each other, let alone be meeting in secret. After meeting as children and then reconnecting years later, their passion sparks quickly, and soon they are beginning to plan a future together. However, Isabail hasn't told Lor who she really is. When tragedy strikes while Lor is away from the village, Isabail fears he is dead. Lor returns to his village devastated, realizing that his grandfather has most likely been killed, and is told that the perpetrators are the rebel Keiths, who live outside the village. He tries to go to Isabail, not realizing that she is a Keith herself, and unable to find her, travels to the Ludus Caledonia, a fighting guild that will allow him to build the skills necessary to destroy his grandfather's murderers. Soon the two lovers reunite, but as secrets are revealed and true love is tested, their futures may not be as bright as they once hoped for.
This story was insta-love, which isn't usually my cup of tea. However, the way the author wrote it still drew me in, and although initially it felt like a teenage romance doomed to fail, I soon realized that there was much more to this story than meets the eye. The secret that lay between Lor and Isabail was devastating, and as the reader, you know about it long before either of them realize it. So the reading is a big agonizing while you're waiting for the shoe to drop and wondering how they're going to take it. Once Lor finds out the truth about Isabail's identity, things begin to speed up considerably. His internal struggle was painful, but it was good to see how he reacted and then how Isabail reacted once she caught up to speed.
Kathryn Le Veque is an engaging writer, who clearly has done her homework on the historical components of the story. I look forward to reading more by her.
**I received a free copy via NetGalley and this is my honest review.**
I had to give up on this one. I realized I was becoming less and less excited to pick it up. This is my first experience with Kathryn Le Veque and I was enjoying her writing, I just wasn't in love with this story. The book is called Highland Gladiator. There is a beefy warrior-looking man on the cover. Unfortunately, what you see is not what you get. Lor, the hero, is quite soft. He's overshadowed by the strong heroine from the first few pages of this novel. Yes, I like an alpha male, but I have no problem with fierce female characters at all. I was just repetitively distracted from the world and the story, by how antithetical Lor is to what I would perceive to be a Scottish Highlander overcome with grief that turns into a thirst for vengeance. I was just very confused. Kudos to the author for not playing into the character tropes of the subgenre, but I was really looking for something familiar in this one and it just wasn't there.
