To Covet A Highland Criminal By Lori Ann Bailey
To Covet a Highland Criminal by Lori Ann Bailey Series: Wicked Highland Misfits Series Book #2
on April 13, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Historical / General, Fiction / Romance / General
Pages: 308
Goodreads
A Wicked Highland Misfits novelBook Two: To Covet a Highland CriminalGrowing up as an orphan on the streets of Aberdeen, Scotland, Bran MacKay had a rough life. To save his adopted sister from paying for one of his past mistakes, he needs a large sum of money. Upon overhearing a plot to rob a business, he beats the thieves to the establishment. When he learns his actions could cost an innocent lass her business, he endeavors to make amends by secretly helping her earn back what he took. As he grows to care for her, he discovers a devious plot afoot to undermine her success, and it becomes harder for him to admit the truth of his part in her possible downfall.Grace Andersen clings to her lost parents' memory by throwing her heart into running the family business. After her store is robbed and her absent brother returns to demand the missing profits, she sees one man as her savior, Bran MacKay. She knows he's a member of a notorious criminal gang, but his generosity moves her, and she begins to hope there can be more between them than a working relationship. When her brother makes an unthinkable demand, she believes she can survive because she's found the one man she can trust.Will she be able to forgive him when she discovers that he took everything from her?
To Covet a Highland Criminal is book two in the Wicked Highland Misfit series. I would give this book 3 flowers. I struggled with this story. The pace was slow for me the first half of the book, and I skimmed conversations between the hero Bran and the heroine Grace.
We learn about Grace’s past from excerpts in her diary. I think that is a clever way to reveal a character, but one part confused me. Grace mentions Christmas but writes, “Mother and Father told me it was a secret. That although we were playing games and having a feast, it was not a recognized holiday for our people, and we must keep our tongues still around others.” So as I read the story, I didn’t realize that Scotland’s government outlawed Christmas in 1640. So I felt confused and wondered if Grace was Jewish until I researched the history of Scotland’s holiday. Small details like that tend to trip me up.
But midway through, the pace picked up as the villain that you love to hate entered. I can’t decide who is worse, the butcher Edward Wains or Grace’s brother Lennox. Both were masterfully crafted villains. I think Bailey does a thorough job of giving her characters depth, and they stay consistent in their motivations. There are several steamy scenes—overall a good book, but not my favorite in the series.
