Promises of midsummer snowballs lie high on heathered hills
while castles and Culloden echo with the roar of clan battle cries.
An aromatic breeze carries a hint of malted whisky from the stills
and a rolling brogue to rumble from the lowlands to the hills.
Highland coos graze peacefully, ‘neath the blades of scattered windmills,
mists swirl in from somber seas to sweep a shroud – the shore’s disguise.
Crows disturb the farmers’ fields while buzzards guard the hills,
and Scotland’s heart beats fiercely to the bagpipe’s droning cries.
Tag: Scotland
Books read in February
Tall, Tatted and Tempted by Tammy Falkner 
Don’t Make Me Beautiful by Elle Casey 
Crazy From The Heat by Mercy Celeste
Beauty and the Highland Beast by Lecia Cornwall
The World As He Sees It by A M Arthur
The Harder He Falls by Lynda Aicher
Be True by Stella Starling
The Harder He Falls by Lynda Aicher
Grady is a white water rafting guide, and his cousin invites him to join up with his company. On his first trip in the new job, Grady’s raft hits a submerged log, killing a man and putting his cousin in a coma. Grady is overwhelmed with guilt, and currently waiting to hear if his name is cleared or if he is going to jail. In the meantime, he is visiting his cousin in hospital and trying desperately just to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Micah has experience with comas, and enjoys reading to coma patients. When he meets Grady, he offers to help him by answering some questions, talking things through and generally being a friend. But Micah works at a leather bar frequented by most of the guys that work at Grady’s job. The last thing Grady needs is for any of those dominant men to find out he has a submissive streak. No way can he work with them once they know that, they’ll never respect him.
This book was emotionally intense, and I got sucked in by both the main characters. They both have secrets and issues, which makes for a really well balanced book. Both characters grew and evolved over the course of the book, and both had to learn to accept themselves as they were and fight through their obstacles. Neither one was magically ‘healed’ of their issues, rather they had to learn to embrace themselves and figure out how to make their relationship work with those issues.
I’m not into the BDSM scene, but these characters are not heavily into it either. They’re more on the fringe of it. There are some scenes, but the actual relationship between the two men is very equal (which I liked). I think the next book will be heavier on that side of things, as the main character in the next book has already admitted to being a sadist. Whether the book is accurate about such things, I can’t say, you’ll have to form your own opinion.
Be True by Stella Starling
I found this book hard to put down. There were no life and death scenarios, but it was still very much a page turner. I loved seeing Logan evolve, and Trevor was a really fun character. Supporting characters were done well enough that the whole world felt real and I was able to dive in and believe. I loved the resolution at the end and both Logan’s chosen way of proving his love (very in character) and the scene in the epilogue. Fantastic story. Definitely worth the read.
