Blair: A Highlander Romance Book Review

I was asked to read and review this book by the author.  I had never heard of her before, but her bio had me intrigued. 

The author is Barbara Bard.  The name alone fascinates me. Lots of B’s and A’s and R’s in consecutive order.  Her bio on Amazon reads as follows:

Barbara Bard was born in the Highlands of Scotland but moved to the United States and was raised in the sweltering heat of New Orleans. She studied at Emory University in Atlanta and has worked as a journalist for a small press.


Barbara’s partner is descended from Scottish ancestors and she has been fascinated with all things Scottish for many years. That interest has also helped to propel a blossoming writing career and she is now working on novels with a historical Scottish romance flavor.

I no longer have the initial email (why didn’t I save that?) but it also mentioned that Barbara has been studying the Baird Clan. Now, as a member of the Baird Clan, this caught my attention. I firmly suspect that Barbara pronounces her last name as Baird.  Believe it or not, I had never read a Highlander Romance before, and thought this would be a place to start.

So.. on to the book.

Lady Rosemary is betrothed to Lord Harold Flynn. She is having some doubts about their upcoming nuptials. Rosemary is traveling with her handmaid via coach to be married to Lord Flynn. They were in the woods, when the coach driver stopped for the night and told them it was not safe to continue traveling. They must spend the night in the woods before continuing on the next day.  During the night, they heard noises. Rosemary witnessed a man being killed, and learned that it was by order of Lord Flynn.

Blair is a bit of a wild card. His father is the head of Clan Laird, and is getting on in age. Blair would rather spend his time hunting in the woods.  It was on such a night of hunting that he came across this struggle taking place in the woods, and rescues Rosemary, who would have been killed had she been caught by Lord Flynn’s men - as they had no idea who she was.

So… boy meets girl. But both are from different worlds, yet very much alike as they both like to speak their minds.  Blair does not know what to do with Rosemary. If he leaves her in the woods, she will die, as she is ill-prepared for such a thing. If he returns her to her family, she will be killed for knowing too much. If he takes her to his family, a war would break out, as one of the men killed in the woods was from a nearby clan and the English would think that the scallywag of a Scotsman forced the Englishwoman to his home.  Ultimately, he ends up bringing Rosemary to his family’s castle.

This next part kind of creeps me out.  As I mentioned earlier, Blair is of the Laird clan. But somehow, I felt as though the author was thinking Baird but cleverly disguised the name, as authors have been known to do.

During the trip to the castle, Rosemary and Blair fall in love. When they arrived home, Rosemary met the family, and then Blair’s father passes away. Blair is now the clan leader.  It’s after this that the author goes into details of their first lovemaking, and thank goodness the book ends. Not that the story was told poorly, it’s just … well…

After I finished the book, I went to sleep (it was after all, nearly 3am) In the morning when I woke up, I was thinking about the book and what I would write about for this review. The more I thought about it, I could not shake the idea of the author substituting Laird for Baird. And I felt as though I had just read all the graphic details of my great grandparents having sex.

The story was good, up until that point. I loved that she used Gaelic words and phrases (which there was a lovely reference/dictionary at the of the book). But even so, after this experience, I am not so sure I want to read another Highlander Romance.  My mind likes to take on it’s own adventure, and as you can see -  it sometimes gets me into trouble.

However, your reading experience will be much different than mine.

The book is not yet available on Amazon, but you can get a copy from Book Funnel.

What are you reading this week? Anything good?