Flashback Friday – Ransom (Highlands’ Lairds #2) by Julie Garwood

While in parts it is serious and in parts romantic, it is also downright campy… it made me laugh, made me sigh and made me fall in love with Julie Garwood and this particular Scotsman all over again. ~ Leigh, Guilty Pleasures 

Description:
In the dark days after the death of Richard the Lionhearted, lives and lands would fall into upheaval at the hands of a power-hungry British ruler and his violent minions. One victim of the scourge is innocent Gillian, who is a mere child when the cruel and ambitious Baron Alford slaughters her father and tears her family apart. Alford, determined to recover a jeweled box for the despotic King John, is furious when the precious treasure slips through his fingers—only to be lost for more than a decade.

Now a beautiful young woman, Gillian finds the key to resolving her past in handsome Scottish chieftains Ramsey Sinclair and Brodick Buchanan. With the cunning and courage of the daring Scotsmen, and with the friendship of a new ally, Bridgid KirkConnell, Gillian at last fights the unscrupulous Baron Alford, laying claim to her home, her family, and her father’s reputation. But in the presence of the mighty warrors, Gillian and Bridgid discover that desire can be a weapon of conquest, betrayal can slay trust in a heartbeat, and the greatest risk of all is to surrender to unexpected love.

This one is a blast from the past for me and always has been a favorite of mine. Back during theperiod when I only read historical romances (and back when that was all she wrote), Julie Garwood was my go-to author for swoon-worthy, funny stories with extreme alpha-heroes and innocent heroines. Her stories have a sweetness in them that I crave, and which are a far cry from the dark erotica I enjoy now. But they just made me giggle and sigh and devour the stories in one sitting.

Brodick Buchanan is, without a doubt, my favorite of Julie Garwood’s heroes. He’s alpha and Scottish and huge and just plain yummy. Something about him made me adore him from the moment we met him in The Secret (the predecessor to this book), and I couldn’t wait to hear his story. And it did not disappoint. He’s a brute of a laird who is used to bending men to his will, and he finds his match in Gillian, a girl who refuses to be cowed by him.

Gillian is the quintessential heroine of Ms. Garwood. She’s naïve, pure at heart, and frankly, a little bit ditzy. But her innocence makes it impossible to dislike her or lump her in the “too stupid to live” category. It would be like hating a kitten. Gillian is funny and plays the comedic role to Brodick’s stoic straight-man.

To top off the love story, and story-line of battling against an evil nobleman intent on claiming Gillian’s family home, we also get a bonus romance of Ramsey Sinclair and Bridgid KirkConnell. My only disappointment in this additional couple is that I would have preferred to see them have a book of their own, rather than getting squished in what I perceived to be someone else’s story.

For as much as I love this book, readers need to be warned: Ransom needs to be taken with a grain of salt. While in parts it is serious and in parts romantic, it is also downright campy at times. But for years it has always been the re-read that has made me laugh, made me sigh and made me fall in love with Julie Garwood and this particular Scotsman all over again.

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