Hey there bookworms! It’s been quite some time since the last time I shared a book review here. I’m still reading tho, but for the past months I’ve been quite a passive reader. It’s just recent when I regain my consciousness while reading and it’s during I reread a book I purchased years ago. I’m a mood reader, so rather than sticking to a specific genre or trope, I usually just jump from one to another depending on what book I felt like reading. So last month, during its last days, I felt the whim to reread this book because I somehow forgot what it’s all about. The cover is not my type, so perhaps I didn’t really read it deeply…but I already marked it read (?). Anyway, I reread it and surprisingly I find it interesting.
Just a short background of this book: it was written by Lynn Kurland and was published by the Penguin Group. Like I said, cover-wise, it’s not that appealing to me because it doesn’t really fit the setting I envisioned. They could have featured a little moss-covered cottage or its doorway because symbolically that would be much more meaningful. I don’t want to spoil why, but yeah…I think that would be much better than the castle. Anyway, when I overcame my prejudice against its cover, I soon realized how fascinating its story is.
So, it started with the usual intro of the main character, which in this book is Sunshine "Sunny" Phillips, who’s in love with Scotland. Ever since she was invited by her sister to come there, she apparently got attached to how everything in it made her comfortable and at peace. From its rain and lush mountains to her crooked yet comfy cottage, everything in it seemed like a dream come true to her. Her life there seemed pretty ideal, save for the herb shop and the employer she’s working for. Even though she loved her job there, she was soon fired because she refused to be entangled with her creep employer. Anyway, she already saw it coming since the time she clocked in and saw the ripening black eye she gave him.
She thought that would be the end of her misfortunes that day, yet suddenly a strange string of events happened that day. It wasn’t long when she finds her wish for a gorgeous Highlander come true…only that it’s a medieval one who gravely needs her help saving his dying brother. Since she’s the clan’s healer…infamously known as the MacLeod witch, she doesn’t have a choice but to aid him, and that’s where the story unfolds: how she got stuck in the century she doesn't belong, almost drowned in the loch for a witch trial, and loved a man who’s already betrothed to the wife of his dead brother. But that doesn't end there because there's much more that happened after those...and if there's a road for Sunny's happiness, it was surely a tough one.
The time travel part of the story was perhaps the period I was really hooked and, at the same time, on edge because of how tense it was for me. It’s not my first time reading a novel with time travel trope, but it’s definitely my first time reading one that had the main character tried for witchcraft. That era definitely sucks for women who knew a little bit more than men, especially for the main character who have an extensive knowledge in healing. The romance was definitely not a slow burn, which is a nice thing for me since it’s been quite some time since I read romance, and I totally wouldn’t want to start again with the usual tedious waiting of romance progress. There’s still that yearning part tho…like how? Well, I won’t spoil.
Moreover, what I like in this novel is that it didn’t leave me with what-ifs because the end was pretty much satisfying. I admit that I thought that once the time travel stuff was over, it would be the end, but nooo...there’s much more of it. Of course, in between those, I got kinda impatient and took a break from it. I don’t want to read unmotivated because I can’t comprehend well what I’m reading, and when that happened, I paused and read another book. It wasn’t long before curiosity about what happened next gnawed my mind, and so I came back to read it again.
By the time I finished reading it, I was relieved because with all that happened in those 350+ pages, they finally got the end they deserved. So, was it worth reading? Yes...because otherwise I would have dropped it, but will I recommend it to all readers? Only if you’re up for its time travel trope and patient enough for its quite long resolution.
My Rating: 3.5/5
And that would be all for now, bookworms~ Thanks for reading up until here, and hope to see you on my next book review!
All of the book pictures used are mine.
