⚔️📚⚔️📚BOOK🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿REVIEW📚⚔️📚⚔️📚

Book: Betting the Scot
By: Jennifer Trethewey aka Jennifer Rupp

Series: The Highlanders of Balforss, Book #2

Release Date: 4/23/2018

Reviewed by: Barb Massabrook (of)
Tartan Book Reviews
Purple Tulip Book Reviews
Celtic Barb’s Tartan Book Review Blog

Heat Rating: Sweet

Overall Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Autumn, 1816
County Caithness, Scotland

Declan Sinclair has the site where he can see the future in his dreams. His dream predictions have never failed him. Plus at Samhain, Declain’s favorite time of year, as it is when the veil between the living and dead become translucent. As his dreams and future predictions were most clearly she has yellow hair.

Spring, The Highlands 1817
Wick Harbour, Scotland

Declan finally sees his future wife in Scotland at a tavern she and her brother are lodging Jack
also feels he being an English gentlemen can take advantage of these uneducated barbaric savage scots! He will get some extra coin he is certain of it! Not realizing Declan and his cousin are card sharks! When they see how carless and uncaring Jack is they are shocked! To actually throw his own sister away as payment for a gambling debt is the meanest and lowest thing a man can do. They mean to teach Jack a lesson he will never forget as they know he has no honor, compassion or love for his own blood kin!

The problem is Declan’s Laird, whom is also his Uncle John, hears only how Declan won a bride by gambling! Yikes! He also knows how intelligent Declan is at card games. Yet not so much at wooing women-unfortunately. His Uncle threatens Declan with bodily harm if he tries to corner Caya alone. As it could ruin her reputation and won’t believe in Declans dreams. Even though everyone knows his dreams always seem to ring true. Plus in this game of chance another man in his clan seems to be charmed by the lovey Caya. Declan’s Uncle forbids a handfasting since Caya is a Cornish, English-Lass. If she was a Scot he would of allowed it, but an English lass would expect a church wedding. Plus Declan’s main competition for Caya’s hand is the Vicar of their (Kirk) church. It all should of been so simple but is getting very complicated by the minute!

Caya feels her wastrel brother has ruined them with his gambling and addiction to spirits! They had to sell everything they owned for coin, their home, farm, livestock to just survive! All because of Jack’s weakness to gamble and drink!The only thing she has left is a very special ring that was her mother’s. Now her brother has brought her to Scotland to use her as a pawn to pay off his gambling debt. She is a bride price to an Irish merchant she has never even met. Though she spots the handsome Scot,Declan right away. He keeps looking at her and she has her own wicked fantasies about this Scottish stranger.

In this second book of the highlander of Balforss series, Jennifer Trethewey, pens another fast-paced,romantic, adventure with non-stop-action. It has all the elements historical-romance-readers love! This includes a swoon worthy hero you can’t help but love! Declan’s is shy, innocent, unsure of himself, smart, and gorgeous with beautiful big brown eyes. Plus he has a very special gift where he can predict the future. He just has had very little experience with women and does not know how to woo or the right words to say to a woman. Caya like most women just wants to be loved and cared for. Yet there are many bumps in the road for these two. Will these two opposites find a common denominator in the road to love? Sometimes perhaps dreams do come true with the right tools.

The setting is beautiful, dialogue is amazing, plotting is brilliant and the characters are absolutely phenomenal. I love Declan’s family Uncle John, Aunt Flora, his sister Margaret and her husband Hamish. In addition his cousins Magnus, Ian and young Peter. Plus I love being revisited by Alex and Lucy, the heroes of “Tying the Scot,” book 1 of this exhilarating series.

This tale is filled with romantic adventure, mystery, premonition, self esteem issues, insecurities, suspense, betrayal, devastation, treachery, sorrow, heartbreak, human trafficking, faith, joy, trust, love, and so much more. A book readers can easily read as a stand alone novel or in series order. I love so many characters - from the first book and thrilled are in this book too. It is like a Sinclair family reunion! I have read both spectacular books where the author Jennifer Trethewey just blew me out of the drink! Bravo!

This is the second phenomenal book in The Highlanders of Balforss series by Jennifer Trethewey. Yet in many ways handsome Declan Sinclair frightens Caya Pendarvis. She also has self esteem issues, feeling she has no real worth to offer any real value as a brideprice. Will these two star crossed strangers ever find a way to each other’s heart? I highly recommend you read this magnificent novel and find out!

The Highlanders of Balforss Series
By Jennifer Trethewey
1)Tying the Scot
2)Betting the Scot

Amazon Buy Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Betting-Highlanders-Balforss-Jennifer-
Trethewey-ebook/dp/B07C9Y4JNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523253093&sr=8-1&keywords=Betting+the+scot

I received a complimentary ARC copy from the author and also from Entangled publishers through netgalley. I voluntarily agreed to read, review and blog an advanced copy of this book. All ideas, words and thoughts are my own.

Go to this blog to win both copies of these magnificent books. Jennifer the author will be picking the winner. The first book Tying the Scot will be chosen on Wednesday, April 18th.

Good Luck!

http://celticbarb.blogspot.com/2018/04/jennifer-trethewey-free-book-giveaway.html?m=1

Very interesting story. Older H/h and sure of themselves. Made for a terrific love story with entertaining family and friends as well as some pretty significant road blocks. I enjoyed it.

Julia London is one my favorites writers of the highlands. In Tempting the Laird, we once again visit with the Mackenzie’s to get Catriona’s story. Ms. London captures the time period and gives a story relevant to the politics of the time and a strong, independent heroine and a self-sacrificing worth hero in Hamlin Graham, Duke of Montrose. A great read for an afternoon!
Catriona Mackenzie’s wish is to keep the abbey going per Aunt Zelda’s wishes. But when the King determines the abbey is forfeit due to traitorous actions on her Aunt’s behalf, Cat is at a loss. She must fight! But that’s means leaving her remote Highland home and seeking her uncle’s aid in Edinburgh. Her life will never be the same again.
The Duke of Montrose is used to his quiet life. Having disposed of his wife, what should he expect. But the arrival of a new neighbor will change his life forever. Will his sin be exposed? Can he open his heart again?
Enjoy!

The Duke of Montrose is an outcast. His lovely wife has disappeared, and while there is no apparent foul play, it is felt in the countryside that surely, he killed her, and has gotten away with it, too, because he is a Duke, after all. Miss Catriona Mackenzie, a brash Highlands lass (but, you know, in her thirties), is on a visit to her indulgent uncle when she hears this outlandish tale, and at once decides to investigate. Surely a man so handsome, so intriguing, couldn’t be guilty of such a crime? There follows much merriment, as the forthright Catriona inveigles her way into Montrose’s life, befriending his young ward and dazzling him with her indomitable spirit. But what did happen to his wife? And can a spinster from the Highlands, whose lands are currently forfeit to the Crown, ever fit into his ducal world?

The “spinster from the Highlands” part is perhaps the most enchanting aspect of this book. For those following along with the Highland Grooms series of which Tempting the Laird is the latest, you’ll remember that we’ve met Catriona before. Stubborn, compassionate, independent, utterly without artifice, here she sails into the taciturn Hamlin’s life – yes, his name is Hamlin; yes, it is hard not to chuckle when she uses it in the throes of passion – with no design and no hope, sure that she is in for heartbreak but clearly a subscriber to the theory that it is better to have loved and lost. Brutally honest, with herself and with others, she is an eminently relatable character, and a very distinctive, pleasing blend of modern sensibility and era-appropriate feminine diffidence. Hamlin’s peculiarities are similarly fully-realized, but it is his Cat, in all her imperfect wonder, who raises this book far above the typical Highland Romance fare.

4 1/2 stars

Hamlin is just a sexy, broody man, "his gaze darkened, and moved down her body. “And like you, I am passionate about many things,”he said low." Hamlin isn't one for being told no, “for God’s sake, I am a bloody duke, I can do as I please.” I liked this book, I loved Hamlin and I loved how free-spirited Cat was.