Book Review-The Scotsman Who Saved Me by Hannah Howell

I received this book for free from Zebra in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Scotsman Who Saved Me by Hannah Howell
Series: Seven Brides for Seven Scotsmen #1
Published by Zebra on September 26 2017
Genres: Historical Romance, American West, Scottish Highlands, Regency Era
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Zebra

From New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell comes a brand new series featuring the MacEnroys, a family of seven strong, seductive Scottish brothers who have come to America with nerves of steel—and who will take no prisoners when it comes to love…

A brutal attack on Emily Stanton’s family has left her for dead . . . until she is found in the woods by a handsome stranger with a thick brogue who vows to protect her. There’s only one problem: As a woman with a noble English background, she has no business keeping company with such a man.

For Scotsman Iain MacEnroy, Emily’s high-tone accent is a bitter reminder of the oppressive regime he left behind. The last thing he needs is to be burdened by the needs of a beautiful, blue-eyed Englishwoman. But taking care of elegant, educated Emily begins to transform Iain in ways he never imagined. Could it be that the deep divisions from the old world no longer apply in the new—and that Iain and Emily can share a passion as lush and wild as the Scottish highlands themselves?

The Scotsman Who Saved Me is a story I was a bit nervous about, and I have no clue why because it was really great!! Hannah Howell has always written highlander themed romances so I must not have read the blurb enough before reading this book because I shocked to discover that a highlander romance with a passel of western fun was thrown into the mix. Now this series I can tell will be really fun. Its based on seven brothers, who are all Scots and had to leave Scotland when their parents were killed. They settle in Arkansas and man that was really different. The story, however, starts off pretty intense and dramatic and man I was bawling in the first chapter. So basically what happens is that the brothers with our lead hero Iain, discover a cabin that has been attacked. With a man and a woman being tortured and killed, but signs that there was a child that is missing. So they go in search of the child, and find him with an injured young woman who has been shot and very protective of her three-year-old nephew. They take her to their place to protect her and the child. Emily is in a dangerous situation. Her parents were murdered by a cousin and she and her sister with her sister’s husband went to America to find refuge and safety knowing that they would be next.  Now it’s up to her to protect the living heir to a Dukedom, and she refuses to let her three-year-old nephew be murdered because of the greed of one man especially when his parents sacrificed their lives for them.

This was a wonderful and thrilling story and I just couldn’t get enough of this book. Now it’s not one of those books that will keep you up all night, but I was always going back to this book because I was enthralled by the developments of the plot. We also see the differences in views from a Scots perspective and an English perspective. Both Emily and Iain are on opposite sides of the fence. But we also see how much they have in common. How devoted they are to the ones they love and how hard they are willing to work. For being raised an English Lady, Emily adapts to life in America very well actually. And the relationship between the brothers was simply awesome!! I mean they were a riot and so entertaining. They love to tease each other horrible especially when the lead brother is trying to court his woman…yeah they are pretty horrible in their teasing of him, but I just had a blast seeing their closeness and brotherhood.

“So how do you mean to woo her?” Asked Nigel

“Why do ye need to ken the how of it? ” Iain asked.

“One of us could, weel, lend a hand now and then.”

“Tell tales of your great bravery or extraordinary resourcefulness,” drawled Matthew

Robbie choked on a laugh then struggled to look innocent when Iain looked at him. “I think we could come up with a few things.”

“Please, and I mean this most sincerely, dinnae try to help me.”

How they don’t even think twice about protecting a lone woman a child from danger even at the cost of their own lives. (no worries….no one but villains are killed in this book). The romance that develops between Emily and Iain was very charming. Its a slow built up of course. They do have some powerful chemistry from the beginning. But the emotional side to their relationship builds more slowly which I really liked how Howell handled it and seeing the way Iain goes about courting Emily, and Emily doesn’t even realize it most of the time LOL. Which in some ways I didn’t fully understand how she couldn’t see the depth of feeling Iain had for her especially with how they shared their nights together. But we see how distracted she really is, especially in trying to keep calm when her enemies are trying to kill her. Now the villain of the story is really CRAZY. I mean he is really mentally insane, which makes him pretty dangerous.

Overall The Scotsman Who Saved Me was an exciting beginning to a new series that just gets me so excited and book two comes out in December!! 🙂 A thrilling and sensual tale to curl your toes and crave more love in the hills of Arkansas!! BREATHTAKING

Books N Tunes Reading Challenge Pick:

I had this song just humming in my head while reading this book because I just loved the brothers and Emily’s relationship with them. Gotta love this movie though.

About Hannah Howell

After five years and many rejections, I finally got my first book on the stands in 1988 – Amber Flame – from Leisure Books (reissued a while back under the title His Bonnie Bride). Also the western – A Taste of Fire published by Kensington in 1988. (and reissued by them several times since then) After about 10 years of writing English, Scottish and western historicals for several publishers (even venturing into the occasional pen-name) I settled in at Kensington writing Scottish historicals. Thus was born the great Murray clan (and a very prolific clan as well.) In June 2009 I started a series set in late-Georgian England concerning two connected families – the Wherlockes and the Vaughns. The first – If he’s Wicked – was that June, the latest – If He’s Tempted – was released April 2013. My cunning plan is to then do one of the Wherlockes and one of the Murrays each year. We’ll see how that works.

I grew up in New England and my family (on the maternal side) has been here since the 1630s. The paternal side is half Nova Scotian and half English. Met the hubby in England on a trip to meet and greet the English side of the family, bought him a drink in a pub, and the rest is history. Been married for 42+ years now. I have two sons, one a graphic artist (Sam) and one a mechanical engineer (Keir), a daughter-in-law who is a teacher (Beth), and three stunningly attractive, highly intelligent grandchildren (boast much?) – Benjamin, Jennifer, and Evelyn Rose. And they all live within driving distance – hooray. Being mildly insane I also have five cats – Matilda (high strung), Shadow (who is a little ferally and lives under a chair in my living-room because she does not like the ‘kittens’ I brought home years ago.), the demonic duo – Jackson and Perkins, and the latest addition, Mungo.

When I am not writing – which isn’t often – I play games on the computer, play the piano (took 13 years of lessons when growing up), crochet (very addicting), read, and garden (some day I will conquer the demon weed).

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