Blame it on my ancestry, I guess, but I find Olympia author Margaret Mallory's new series, "The Return of the Highlanders," immensely - make that "verra" - appealing.
The first book, "The Guardian," has just been published - and this is a blood-stirring, heart-pounding, kilt-lifting read if ever there was one. It's also an absolute hoot - consider this irresistible opening line: "Tearlag MacDonald, the oldest living member of her clan and a seer of some repute, let her good eye travel slowly from boy to boy."
Set in Scotland in the 1500s, four strapping young lads have gone abroad to prove themselves in war. When Connor, Ian, Alex, and Duncan return to their families on the Isle of Skye five years later, they have grown into fearless warriors. But much has changed in their absence and they find themselves fighting for the honor, and lands, of their clan.
Only one of them, Ian, returns to a wife. It had been a hastily made match. Sileas had been a 13-year-old waif fleeing from her brutal stepfather and Ian had pitied her and helped her escape. But when they were discovered in circumstances that were misconstrued, Ian's father insisted that marriage was the only honorable option and Ian suddenly found himself saddled with a scrawny child bride. The marriage was never consummated before he and his friends departed for their adventures abroad.
In the half decade since then, Sileas has grown into a fine young woman, but one who has lived amid gossip that her marriage had been a sham, and that it was her fault the isle's favorite sons had stayed away so long. When Ian returns at long last, and discovers that his wife has blossomed into a fetching lass, he may find her irresistible, but the sentiment is not returned.
It is time to mend some fences, and in chapter after chapter, Mallory makes sure that the lusty side of life gets its due at long last, unleashing a full arsenal of flickering candles, kisses, groans, sighs and rumpled bedclothes.
At the same time, the young warriors have come back to find that their clan's leadership is in question, and by both birthright and natural attributes Ian's cousin Connor could lay a strong claim to it.
Thus "The Guardian" is also a testosterone fest full of slashing claymores, concealed dirks, uneasy alliances and abounding treachery.
And yet, there is a sort of rough and cheerful valor that enlivens all of this - the dank dungeons, the misty moors, the choppy seas. After one particularly harrowing battle, Ian looks out the castle window the next morning and sees yet another unfriendly contingent approaching. He lets loose with an oath and mutters "I don't have time to deal with a pack of murdering Macleans this morning." But of course he makes the time and manages to befuddle his adversaries with a combination of threats and cunning.
So have a fling with these Highlanders - it's great fun.
"The Guardian" by Margaret Mallory
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