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bookish_kristina 's review for:
Highland Beast
by Heather McCollum
3 sad stars. This was good but I wanted it to be better.
I love a tortured, misunderstood hero. A sweet on the inside man who is forced by cruel outside forces to be a killer against his nature. Bás was this hero in spades and his story had the potential to be epic and heartbreaking but sadly, I spent much of it being bored and frustrated. This author just did not get there for me, she got close and had some good elements to make this work but the story was too bogged down in convoluted intrigue and various side characters that the romance was lacking and the redemption for the horseman of death was slightly underwhelming.
I’m disappointed.
I liked Shana, as a heroine, she was great and strong and the idea of her being a midwife helping bring forth life and who balanced out Bás was a great one, but the execution did not culminate in a satisfying way. The chemistry between these two could have been hotter and I really think the author made a huge error not making Bás a virgin. She almost made him a virgin, why didn’t she go the whole way and make him completely inexperienced? It fit with his story and his background and his whole entire personality to have avoided and waited so why didn’t the author do it? It’s like she was too afraid to make him seem less manly so had to throw in a previous, one time sex partner and it was terrible. Bás wouldn’t have slept with someone who had been given as a gift to him. That’s just distasteful. I wanted him to be too noble to accept such a gift. Gah!
Anyway other than that the beginning was really slow and the couple was hardly together in the book. I needed more from the romance and less from the intrigue. The whole plot with her sister and her husband and child had little to do with these two as a couple and I found it very uninteresting.
Ugh I’ll say it again, this was good but this could have been better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I love a tortured, misunderstood hero. A sweet on the inside man who is forced by cruel outside forces to be a killer against his nature. Bás was this hero in spades and his story had the potential to be epic and heartbreaking but sadly, I spent much of it being bored and frustrated. This author just did not get there for me, she got close and had some good elements to make this work but the story was too bogged down in convoluted intrigue and various side characters that the romance was lacking and the redemption for the horseman of death was slightly underwhelming.
I’m disappointed.
I liked Shana, as a heroine, she was great and strong and the idea of her being a midwife helping bring forth life and who balanced out Bás was a great one, but the execution did not culminate in a satisfying way. The chemistry between these two could have been hotter and I really think the author made a huge error not making Bás a virgin. She almost made him a virgin, why didn’t she go the whole way and make him completely inexperienced? It fit with his story and his background and his whole entire personality to have avoided and waited so why didn’t the author do it? It’s like she was too afraid to make him seem less manly so had to throw in a previous, one time sex partner and it was terrible. Bás wouldn’t have slept with someone who had been given as a gift to him. That’s just distasteful. I wanted him to be too noble to accept such a gift. Gah!
Anyway other than that the beginning was really slow and the couple was hardly together in the book. I needed more from the romance and less from the intrigue. The whole plot with her sister and her husband and child had little to do with these two as a couple and I found it very uninteresting.
Ugh I’ll say it again, this was good but this could have been better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.