Scarsdale Publishing, $0.99
Historical Romance, 2018

One thing I have to say: Passion by Tarah Scott and April Holthaus isn’t structured like a super familiar Highland romance like I half-expected when I first sat down to read it. 

It opens with the aftermath of a violent skirmish. Laird Caeleb MacLeod had been warned of the ambush by their nemeses Clan Donald. Alas, the anonymous warning came too late, and many men are now dead.

With a heavy heart, our hero returns home to be reunited with his beloved Gwendolyn, who isn’t very subtle about sneaking off in a timing best described as sus, but he has a blind spot where she is concerned.

It’s super easy to guess at the secret that Gwen is hiding to her heart, and that’s also the biggest flaw of this story. The authors are trying to cram a full-length novel plot into a much shorter length, and as a result, the conflicts that should weigh heavily on everyone’s conscience end up coming off as trivial and easily brushed aside with a big hug like this is a Saturday morning cartoon back in the old days.

That aside, this one isn’t a bad read at all. The characters are in many ways stock archetypes of Highland romances, but they never feel like stale retreads this time around. Caeleb seems like a nice guy to his people while a complete murder machine to his enemies, which is always a sexy combination for a hero, and Gwen… well, she’s alright and not too annoying for the kind of heroine she is created to be.

So yes, while I wish this story had been much longer to give the plot and the characters more room to develop more fully, in its current form it’s an okay read. Still, this also means that it’s not that memorable of a read and will always be something of a wasted potential.