Can’t they ever have large bellies to match? Every time a heroine worries about her weight it turns out that she just has a big bosom and wide hips. This leads me to point out that there are tons of “curvy in just the right places,” “voluptuous,” and “well-endowed” heroines in romance. All my efforts at achieving an attitude of feminist body positivity crash and burn as soon as I regard my tummy. I also have a roly-poly, saggy, big belly. Needless to say, Mena is terrified of The Demon Highlander, but she cannot resist his kilt-clad muscled thighs, and he cannot resist her large bosom.Ī digression: I have a large bosom as well as “generous hips” and a rather enormous ass. She will work for, I shit you not, Lieutenant Colonel Liam Mackenzie, The Demon Highlander, Laird of the Mackenzie Clan (imagine writing all that on a check). Many plot points were lost on me because I have not read The Hunter, a book in which apparently Philomena does something heroic and earns the loyalty of both Dorian and Christopher’s wives.Īfter the rescue, said wives decide to have Philomena go by the name “Mena” and assume a new identity as a governess. Philomena is saved from rape in the asylum in the nick of time by Dorian Blackwell (from Byrne’s book The Highwayman ) and Christopher Argent (from The Hunter ). Philomena, our heroine, is in the mental institution because her evil abusive husband put her there, even though he knows perfectly well that she is not insane. Once the reader gets past the first chapter, things do lighten up considerably, thank goodness. Other trigger warnings go out for child and pet abuse (described when Liam – our improbably Irish-named hero - discusses his childhood). In the first chapter, the heroine, who is in a mental asylum, is tortured and nearly raped. The prologue involves a disposable sex worker being disposed of. The book has an extremely high squick factor, especially in the first two chapters. You can totally judge this book by its cover, which features a kilt, a partially unbuttoned shirt, a dress from the antebellum South, and the kind of sunset you only get after nuclear weapons have been discharged.

The Highlander is a wackadoodle crazysauce “historical” romance. Archetype: Highlander/Scot, Single Parent

The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne