Capturing Her Highland Keeper (Time to Love a Highlander #4)

Maeve Greyson

Blurb:

Lyla knows she needs something—she just doesn’t know what.

Lyla Smythe is restless with that same uncomfortable edginess that always hits before a major life shakeup. She just needs to stay busy and ignore the feeling. Maybe it’s because her annoying sister moved in. Opposites in every way, at least they share a love of the stars.

Armed with homemade wine, they watch a meteor shower. But the wine must be tainted. One minute, they’re retching in the night, the next, it’s morning. And Edinburgh has somehow become a tiny hamlet. Before Lyla can sort it out, riders approach. The leader, a fiercely handsome man, sets her sixth sense buzzing.

Grant knows what he needs—but he’s afraid to repeat the past.

After his uncle’s execution, Chieftain Grant Reddoch trusts very few. When he comes upon two strangely dressed women acting addled, he’s certain they are spies. Best take them prisoner. Keep allies close. Keep those you don’t trust closer. The one called Lyla unnerves him. She clouds his judgement with the endearing friendliness of an irresistible puppy.

With growing political unrest, the last thing he needs are distractions. But the more he’s around Lyla, the more he needs her. And so, they wed. Then she tells him of her past and forces him to realize his error. He needs a wife and mother to his bairns. Not a woman suffering from lunacy. He locks her away for her own safety. Like he should have done with his first wife before she hanged herself.

Lyla knows she can make Grant happy and be a good mother to his children—if only he will let her. One way or another, she will capture her Highland keeper and love him until he has no choice but to accept time travel and love her as fiercely as she loves him.

Themes: Historical, Time Travel

Rating: 4.25 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

The saga of time lost women that find themselves thrown back to 17^th century Scotland continues with a twist as Maeve sends back feisty twin sisters and shows us the differences two women can have on their lives. I have enjoyed this series from the very beginning and continue to look forward to each new installment as each of the unique heroines finds herself in strange situations with her hero and dealing with not only accepting her fate or finding her way home, but coming to lose her heart to the man that she meets in the past. Twin sisters Lyla and Abby as enjoying a drunken night of stargazing, Lyla just trying to come to terms with the restlessness she has been feeling, when suddenly the sun has risen and the new dawn presents them with a new reality. The Edinburgh they expect to see spread below the hill before them is no more, instead they find themselves overlooking a quaint hamlet and faced with approaching riders dressed in medieval clothes. Chieftain Grant Reddoch stumbles upon the two women, one slightly inebriated and one hysterical, and takes it upon himself to rescue them by bringing them to his home, by he knows he can’t trust them as their explanations of their presence is too unbelievable. But soon Grant and Lyla find themselves calling in love, but when she tells him the truth, he fears she’s lost her mind and he is determined help her by locking her away for her safety. Faced with captivity, Lyla is determined to prove to Grant that she is not only safe and sane, but that she will be a great wife and mother to his twins, if only he allows her to be with him, but can she prove to her strong highland captor the truth of her past and her love? I really enjoyed this story despite all the pain and drama that Lyla went through at the hands of Grant and watching her deal with it was heartbreaking. Lyla was much stronger and braver than Abby, sassy, and witty, but her sweetness both with Grant and with his twins are what made her such a great character. I really enjoyed seeing her as she worked through falling in love with Grant and making him face his own love and making him accept her truth to trust in her and her love. Grant was a brave and alpha warrior, but his fears of the past repeating made him make some seriously stupid and shortsighted mistakes and I wanted to slap him upside the head several times. I understood his fears, but damn the man for almost breaking Lyla by doing what he did. I will say that when he finally accepted the truth and proved him faith in her, there was no better mate for Lyla. The passion between Grant and Lyla as apparent from the beginning and that stirred their love even when they were separated by pain and bad decisions. The side romance between Abby and Malcolm was cute, but I did not appreciate Abby’s weakness and lack of spine through most of the story as she allowed Lyla to take the brunt of all the pain and discord they faced. I am glad she finally stepped up. In the end it was only with faith and extreme patience, along with one woman who finally quit be fearful, that allow Lyla and Grant to reach their HEA and I loved the weaving of this story. Maeve is a master storyteller, weaving her plots and characters into a beautiful tapestry every time.