Review of Highland Vixen (Highland Weddings #2) by Mary Wine
Highland Vixen is the second book in the series Highland Weddings.
Helen Grant was stolen from her father's home by Marcus MacPherson to keep her father from retaliating against his actions. She's lived as a kitchen servant for the last year, considered less than dirt under the shoes of the head of household. She finally escapes with Brenda Grant and has no intentions of going back.
Marcus can't get Helen off his mind and even kissed her before his men right before getting beamed with a pot. When she leaves, he's out of his mind with worry over the trouble they could find out on the Highlands without enough men to protect them.
Helen and Brenda go to court for help, and Marcus follows. He finds himself in an impossible situation of being forced to marry a young girl. He's imprisoned for the night to think on what he's going to do. Helen and Brenda catch wind of the situation and plan to get him out of it and break out the poor English girl that had been kidnapped from her home.
Now finding herself married to Marcus, Helen is on her way back to the place she wanted nothing more than to escape. She has no intentions of staying his wife and refuses to be bedded so they can get an annulment. Like his brother before him, Marcus must woo his bride.
But more clans have their eye on Helen for various reasons, and Marcus must save her in order to woo her.
There was more tension in this novel, and many perspectives, including the regent who is shaping up to be the grand villain of the series.
People who wished to use her against Marcus carted poor Helen all across Scotland, and all she wanted was to go back to her father. But she was a strong, resourceful woman with fire and spirit, so none of those people came close to suppressing her. I liked her a lot, and that started in the previous book when Helen temporarily acted as a maid for Ailis. Having her thoughts from her POV strengthened that.
I also liked Marcus in the previous book, even though he acted like an ass when Ailis first arrived. It was clear in that book that he favored Helen, and in this book his depth of feelings came out. He was crazy about her and obsessed with keeping her close. His reaction to her escape was almost comical, and his bravery in finding her all the different times she was taken drove my opinion of him ever higher.
The tension drove up and down like a roller coaster. Helen was in danger, whew she's safe, oh wait she's not, oh good, she's home. But wait! Interspersed with that was Marcus wooing her, so we had sweetness and comedy between the tense sequences. It made for addictive reading.
Again, the descriptions, terminology, and vivid visuals made the story come to life. Mary Wine must have researched meticulously to get all the details down to how different ranks in the retainers were signified and the unique way they saluted their superiors. It made for fascinating reading along with being entertained. I had a clear picture of all the locations and that fed into how strongly the story pulled me in.
Dialog was great. Funny and realistic, and at times sweet and tender. It was smooth and the accent and slang added more realism. It was hard to determine differences between the way the characters spoke because of the accent, but what they said made it pretty clear.
I liked everything about this novel, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by this series.
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