Hard-Hearted Highlander (review)

*I received an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. This post also contains affiliate links that I may make commissions from; however, all thoughts are my own*

I've got quite a few book reviews for you this week but I'm also going to have some fun posts including Penelope's second birthday, Lucy on the move, mama dilemmas, and (what I hope) is a thoughtful piece on my current head space. Which, coincidentally, I keep editing because I don't know if I'm really getting across what I really want to. Anyways. It should be a busy week around these parts, but let's get started with a book review!

Hard-Hearted Highlander by Julia London

An indomitable governess...a brooding Highlander...a forbidden affair... 

An ill-fated elopement cost English-born governess Bernadette Holly her reputation, her unsuitable lover and any chance of a future match. She has nothing left to fear--not even the bitter, dangerously handsome Scot due to marry her young charge. Naive wallflower Avaline is terrified to wed Rabbie Mackenzie, but if he sends her home, she will be ruined. Bernadette's solution: convince Rabbie to get Avaline to cry off...while ignoring her own traitorous attraction to him. 

A forced engagement to an Englishwoman is a hard pill for any Scot to swallow. It's even worse when the fiancee in question is a delicate, foolish young miss--unlike her spirited, quick-witted governess. Sparring with Bernadette brings passion and light back to Rabbie's life after the failed Jacobite uprising. His clan's future depends upon his match to another, but how can any Highlander forsake a love that stirs his heart and soul?

The third in the Highland Grooms series, this is a stand alone and it's OK as a stand alone because I haven't read the two before this and I didn't feel lost at all. The flip side to this is that I read this awhile ago and normally I type my reviews right away and then come back and skim them to add anything after I had a few days to brew about the book. Yeah, I didn't brew about the book at all, I literally just moved on. The book itself was fairly forgettable and that kind of stinks because I think that if I had started with the first book I would have been invested in this as a series. Harlequin Romance authors are usually pretty dependable and there's almost this Harlequin standard and this one kind of fell short for me. 

We have Rabbie, who has a not so great past with the ladies, considering his first fiancee is dead. He's now in a forced engagement to Avaline, who is clearly not interested in marrying him, either. Avaline, for her part, is naive and clueless as can be. Bernadette, her governess, is tasked with making sure Avaline makes it to the altar. Which, easier said than done because she is attracted to Rabbie and he is just as attracted to her. Nothing about that situation is good so it become precarious at best. Just when you think things might work out, Bernadette has some secrets of her own because of her sketch past, women end up shamed and it's just kind of strange. Rabbie's solution for Bernadette's "problem" at the end was ODD (at best) and I kind of felt like the author was literally just tying up loose ends, like the story got away from her and she's like, "Man alive, the wheels are falling completely off this wagon, let's just walk!" and that's what we did. It was just a very lackluster story. Another blogger I follow said book two was amazing and had a really tremendous love story so that makes me want to bite the bullet and read it because you know I'm a sucker for it. But this one was just kind of blah for me. It's not one I'm going to remember, that's for sure. 

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