His Captive (MacGruders) [Kindle Edition]

On the English/Scottish border, in the year 1296, Sir Alexander MacGruder, a Scot, is assigned a task by his brother. To kidnap an English Baron for ransom. The money is needed to pay for arms to help the rebels in the fight against English occupation. Upon gaining stealth entry into the castle, the Baron is nowhere to be found. Instead, in a split decision, Alexander decides to kidnap the nobleman's sister. Lady Nicola Westcourt is outraged and frightened by the dangerous and seductive Scot. As a mere pawn, Nicola is wary of Alexander's assurances of her safety. With revenge of his fathers death upper most in his mind, he cannot entangle himself with the enemy. But as everyday passes on their journey back into Scotland, a deep attraction for each other comes to light. Pushing their emerging feelings aside, they both must resist this deadly passion.

What a wonderful book! A really good *romance* centered romance. I say this because sometimes the love story is overshadowed in romance books (crazy I know!) and not given enough space (pages) to develop. Not here! The reader can actually *see* the deep love budding & building between the H/H. I ached for Alexander, torn for his love for Nicola and his duty to his homeland. And Nicola's frustration with her treacherous feelings. Each emotional scene between these two was tinged with sadness, knowing that this could be their last. A relationship that was doomed to failure from the beginning. I had no idea how Cosby (author) could resolve this problem, but this is a romance, so of course there is a happily-ever-after-ending. An ending which is quite clever, I might add, and completely believable.

Since most of the book focused on the romance, little was spent on the historical aspect. I would have liked have read a little bit more about the Scottish rebellion and Sir William Wallace. Those snippets were very interesting.

I found the secondary characters, mostly Alex's brothers, intriguing and hope to read about them in a sequel. The light-hearted rogue Duncan and the serious Earl would make great hero's.

So all-in-all good characterizations. Ample sexual tension. An old plot device made fresh. Mixed in with some action which makes this a captivating (ha ha -couldn't help myself!) Scottish romance debut.

This novel was a predictable captor captive romance. There was a little twist in the plot at the end, but it was still your basic romance formula of: female captive hates her captor yet is drawn to him and attempts to escape several times, usually to her own detriment. There is also the requisite villian too. What would have elevated this novel to more than just a captive/captor plotline would have been really likeable leads. They were a bit bland.

English Lady Nichola, the heroine, never really knows her own mind. After she is captured from her brother's castle by Scottish hero Alexander she fights her feelings for him as they traverse Scotland. However, her actions did not demonstrate tender emotions. She was at times terribly ungrateful for his kindness when she clearly deserved his wrath.

Alex spent most of the time regretting his decision to capture Nichola because he believed her to be so vulnerable. I never saw it in Nichola except her irrational fear of storms and locked rooms. It seemed Alex was constantly saying "I'm sorry" to Nichola for every mishap that had occurred in her life. It was a bit tiresome. He is also torn between duty to country and his feelings for Nichola; she recognized this faster than he did.

Also, I did not see Nichola do much to endear herself to others, especially the Scots. This would have made her character richer and kinder as it was she seemed aloof with everyone.

As stated earlier, the ending has an unexpected twist which did surprise me, but other than the "that's interesting" ending, the book fell flat.

I kept waiting for this story to be believable and/or get better. I am the type who will read even a bad story to the end, always hoping for the best. This one was poorly written from the very beginning. I wasted the time reading it, so you don't have to.