Delighting Her Highland Devil (Time to Love a Highlander #7)

Maeve Greyson

Blurb:

She tumbles back three centuries into the arms of a gruff Highlander and wins his heart—until she endangers everyone he’s ever protected.

Jovianna Jacobs, a history professor specializing in Scottish culture, is brilliant and students flock to sign up for her classes. Not because of her brilliance—but because of her foibles during her lectures. No matter how hard she tries not to be so clumsy, when she gets excited about a topic, her fumbling nearly destroys the room. Literally. After wrecking her third laptop in six months and completely embarrassing herself, a relaxing trek through Finnich Glen with her high-spirited mother is just the ticket to put things in perspective. There’s nothing like descending into the mystical gorge and visiting the infamous Devil’s Pulpit. But a rainstorm triggers a flash flood and while trying to retreat and manage the hazardous waters, dizzying nausea overpowers her and the raging current washes her away.

Tobias Risk, the ruthlessly fierce highwayman known as the Devil of the Highlands, has been fighting to keep his greedy brother, the Earl of Grampian, from replacing their people with sheep to make more money off their lands. Farming is all the crofters know, but they’re being evicted and burned out in the name of profit and progress. All that stands between them, and homelessness is the money that Tobias and his men steal from wealthy travelers to cover the ever-increasing rents. After one such robbery, while washing his face in the waters beside the Devil’s Pulpit, a beautiful and helpless Englishwoman washes up at his feet. Not only that, but her irritating mother is with her. And after saving the young beauty from drowning, he becomes hopelessly entranced with her. So much so that he claims her for his wife.

But treachery abounds and enemies both old and new threaten their newfound love. The two remain steadfast until Jovianna makes a grave error in judgment and endangers everyone Tobias has ever protected.

Tobias never learned the art of forgiveness. But Jovianna loves him with a fury and refuses to walk away. Somehow, she will reverse her mistake and win back her Devil of the Highlands.

Themes: Time Travel, historical, Scotland

Rating: 4.25 stars

Heat Rating: 4

Review:

This series seems to have come to a conclusion and while I am sad to see that happen (if it’s a fact), I can say that this being the final novel in the series ends it with a real kick and I loved the finale. Maeve Greyson has taken readers on amazing journeys through different times in the past and generations of the present as she has pulled women through time to have them land in new lives in the past so that they could make real differences in the world. To that end, book seven sends back not just one, but two women so that they can find love and a second chance at an HEA, but I can honestly say that there were moments I didn’t think these characters were going to find their way to happiness right up until the ending. Jovianna Jacobs and her mother Amaranth are on a trek through the lowlands of Scotland, just enjoying scenery when they are suddenly washed away by rains and a flood, but they survive only to wake up on the feet of a band of men that change their lives forever. Both historians Amaranth and Jovianna realize immediately that something odd has happened and the men are not 21^st century hikers like them, instead they have been flung back into the 18^th century highlands and they have to adapt quickly to their surroundings if they want to survive. Tobias Risk and his band of merry men are surprised to have two women wash up at their feet, but he unable to deny is attraction to her. Tobias and Jovianna quickly form an attachment (as does Amarantha and one of his men) and when hearts are lost so quickly sometimes trust is slower to develop. When Jovianna makes a mistake Tobias questions if he has fallen in love with a spy or traitor and pushes her away, but if he doesn’t come to terms with his heart and find a way to trust he might lose the woman he loves forever with no way to ever get her back… because his enemy will have killed her. I loved this story truly, despite a few little issues, but the characters and plot were so wonderful that I was able to look past all of that easily. Jovianna was a hoot, and I loved her interactions with her mother, she was witty, sassy, and sweet, even when she was being adorably klutzy, but she was also clever and loving when she gave her heart and protective of those, she called her own. Tobias was a bit of a jerk more often than not, refusing to look at both sides of a situation, and rigidi in his thinking, but he cares deeply about his people, loves with his whole heart, and is very protective. I enjoyed the chemistry between these two from the first moment they clapped eyes on the other. I am sad to see the series ending, but it was a good run, and I loved each installment and hope to see something similar from Maeve again in the future someday.