Reviews with content warning for Murder - Highland Treasure

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Highland Treasure by Lynsay Sands

5 reviews

allingoodtime's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Sometimes when a series contains a large family, I find the story I’m most looking forward to is the one that disappoints me. Maybe because I come to love a particular character so much I have high expectations. Rory is such a wonderful character. Not only is he a healer, learning the trade after the Buchanans lost their mom to a mysterious illness, but he’s often the voice of reason. This is an enjoyable story, but it was missing the oomph I’ve come to expect with these highlanders.

Elysande is a great match for Rory. She is brave, strong, smart, and caring. I loved the way her soldiers loved her and how Rory’s men came to love and respect her so quickly. Therein may lie the trouble I had with this story. While some of the other stories have the MMC and MFC in their own bubble for a while, their family and friends always come back around to help at some point. This story does involve Rory’s youngest brother, but that is the only family seen until the last chapter.

I know some people have issues with how this humongous group of people always end up in each other’s business. Yet here, it’s all up to Rory, Alick, and a few of their men. They are traveling to Sinclair where their close family friend Joan lives so I was looking forward to that reunion. Not to be spoiler-ish, but they never got there. I missed the smart tongues on all the ladies and the ribbing amongst all the lords. There weren’t even any arrows shot or fires to be had!

Rory and Elysande are great together. I enjoyed the way they are thrown together and the easy way in which they admit their love to each other. I still missed the bonkers happenings that are the hallmark of this series.

Content Warnings

yuna's review

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dark lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Was not expecting this to open so dark. That said, it's overall light and sweet (not in the tradpub 'sweet & clean' way which ugh I hate how those descriptors are used) with a nice feminist lean. Really liked how 'soft' skills like cleverness and networking and loyalty were key to survival rather than combat/fighting ability.

I liked Elysande/Rory and how their relationship developed, though it did feel like once they acknowledged their mutual attraction it went right into 'btw I love you'. The plot was a bit uneven, where it started strong but once they were on the road the plot decision for the new antagonist felt more contrived than anything. I did appreciate that Elysande was so cool-headed and logical during the big confrontation.

For being the 9th book in a series, it was a perfect standalone and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. Am definitely interested in digging into Sands' backlist though.

Content Warnings