When the Laird Returns: Book Two of The Highland Lords (The Highland Lords, 2)

Karen Ranney is a wonderful writer! She takes you into her world of magic and wonder! My favorite line from the book, "Happiness is a greater comostic than any paint." Wow! How true and I love that she can tell a great story and motivate at the same time. I love her books and I would definitely recommend this book and her others. Thanks!

I've read a couple of books by this author now and NONE can be called boring. Plots are a little lame but the romance is certainly there and the love the characters are supposed to feel for each other is believable.

What can I say about this book? It is absolutely wonderful! I just LOVED Alisdair and Isabeal. I really like Karen Ranney's style of writing. The heros arent too harsh, the females are strong and the love scenes arent nauseatingly explicit. All in all, that makes for an excellent book! Alisdair is so wonderful and I loved how Isabeal loved him so much! I also like how Patricia was factored in. A nice way to add to the story. This book was wonderful, this whole series is! To anyone browsing, pick up this book, no, the whole series, and dig in!

Book 2 of the Highland Lords takes us to the next generation of MacRae's and you will find it to be just as compelling as the first. Sailing from his home in Nova Scotia, Alisdair MacRae, captain of the Fortitude and descendant of proud Scottish lairds, has sailed into the Loch below the ruins of Gilmuir once the stately home of clan MacRae. Alisdair's objective was to reclaim his birthright but the very odious Magnus Drummond has claimed the Gilmuir lands and will sell them back to the MacRae. Not only was he asking for a small fortune but he would also have the MacRae wed his daughter Iseabal. Not wanting a wife, but knowing this to be the only way to reclaim the land - Alisdair agrees thinking to annul the marriage as soon as possible. Iseabal had lived a life in fear of the very cruel man she called father, being dutiful was her only way to avoid pain. Earlier, that day, Alisdair, not knowing who she was, had rescued her after she had fallen into a pit at the ruins of Gilmuir, therefore she was surprised to find that she would be married to this very tall and handsome stranger, Alisdair MacRae.. In the beginning Alisdair is portrayed as honorable - in that he cares for Iseabal's injuries, and her comfort - yet he doesn't - in the beginning - try to discover much about the very stoic and complex person that is his wife. He is quite kind to her, treating her injuries and she came to trust him and actually looked forward to performing her wifely duties only to discover, accidentally, that Alisdair would be and annulling their marriage. Iseabal, had grown up never able to voice her feelings in a household devoid of warmth, love and human kindness, but she had come to care for him so realizing that he would be repudiating her she hid her hurt behind the wall of silence she was so adept at keeping.I loved the intense way this amazing love story comes together for these two people as once again, the author gives us interesting multi-dimensional characters, with strengths and flaws that made them all too human. Iseabal raised in fear and abuse with so much anger, so much pride and not enough trust. Alisdair was raised with love and honor - not seeking to change his life with a woman he had not sought but then finding that she was the woman he had always expected. This was a very moving story with fabulous sensual imagery, good historic background, very fast paced and with enough edge of your seat excitement to keep you interested. You can always expect superb prose from this author who has yet to disappoint me.

Karen improves upon her first book in this series with When the Laird Returns. Her books are more intense than most authors in this genre, but very satisfying. I could not put the book down and stayed up half the night reading it. She is one of the better authors out there. I also loved After the Kiss (not in this series) but just as satisying to read.