The MacKinnon's Bride

Highland Brides, Book 1

De: Tanya Anne Crosby

Narrado por: Braden Wright

Braden Wright’s stellar performance brings to life this historical romance rife with betrayal, kidnapping, and soul-shaking passion. The MacKinnon’s Bride is a captivating tale of love and loss, the first audio in the listener-favorite series The Highland Brides.

Descended from the legendary sons of MacAlpin, Iain MacKinnon refuses to bow to the English. When his young son is captured by a minion of the English king, the fierce Scottish chieftain will stop at nothing to ensure the boy’s return. In a retaliatory move, he captures the daughter of his enemy, FitzSimon, planning to bargain for his son’s return.

Page never imagined her father, FitzSimon, would betray her. Even as she blames her captor, Iain, for breaking an agreement with her father, Page suspects a painful truth about why she was cast out.

"Keep her, or kill her!" Page’s own father proclaims, when Iain forces his hand. Only the love of her reluctant champion can save the fiery MacKinnon's Bride.

©1996 Tanya Anne Crosby (P)2013 Tanya Anne Crosby

EXCELLENT NARRATOR; GOOD STORY

I really like Tanya Anne Crosby and when her new book was paired with the talent of Braden Wright as the narrator, I didn't think twice & bought this audiobook. Braden Wright is one of my favorite male narrators. He's the narrator with a "swoon-worthy" voice that brings a wonderful, deep masculine quality to the male leads. His voicing for the women is fine, I mean who really cares when his male voicing is soooo good?

There are so many things I loved about this book. Crosby gives readers two leads, Iain MacKinnon (Highland Laird), and Lady Page (daughter of an English nobleman) who are easy to become emotionally invested in. Ian MacKinnon will stop at nothing to get back his son who is in custody an English nobleman, FitzSimon. (Ian's son was kidnapped in the dead of night with no witnesses). Part of Iain's plan to get back his son entails retaliating in kind as he kidnapped FitzSimon's only daughter to barter for the return. However, what happens when the value of the love of one father does not equal that of the other?

Let me say that the beginning and the ending part of the book was fabulous! There is a lot of internal dialogue among the characters, especially the leads to where you feel and know how they are processing each moment. Yet, so much inner dialogue somewhat tapers the action or movement forward in the plot, as it did in this book. This book dragged most in the middle. It felt as though both the romance and the action was on a road leading to nowhere and very slowly, at that! There was also a part of dealing with a dead body and the mishaps related to that which I found untasteful. Aside from these distractions, I enjoyed the leads, their sweet romance and their relationship with Iain's son, Malcolm who was adorable.

This book explored the theme of a parent's love and how that love impacts the next generation. The villain in this book was spurred by that burn of rejection from a parent and made him/her the most dangerous kind of enemy because he was the kind who settled in the heart and covered his own treacherous ways with an outward obedience, but inward hate. Yet, the redeeming qualities that shine through is the enduring theme that love heals a multitude of wounds, especially past wounds of rejection.

By the way, I'm not happy that there was no epilogue, but because it's part of a series, I would hope that readers would get some details of Iain and Page's life in the future books.

Great story!

Loved the wwll developed characters, the plot, the humor, the romance the tragedy and the redemption!

I couldn't finish it...

Such lazy, terrible writing. The plot was rather thin with little action or activity. The main focus was on the ridiculous, repetitive arguments between the two main protagonists, which actually made the woman into a whining brat. The narrator's female voice didn't help either.

good story

The narrator's women voice is so ridiculous it's hard to get into the story like I would have liked to.

definitely going to be a favorite of mine

I love that the female characters goal and values and she never did stray from them. I hate it when characters change just because they met this guy etc

Too much!

I tried to put up with her, but good grief! Enough! Whiny heifer!! Can't take it!

It was cute, for $3.95 just get it!

This book told us about an honorable highlander, who is scared by his past, and a young lady who is funny and strong but still is waiting for her father's approval. It was heartbreaking to hear of the Laird's first wife, but even more heartbreaking to hear of a noble daughter relegated to servants work and a father who never wanted anything to do with her.

The antics these two get up to was very amusing and I would definitely listen to a story by this author and narrator again.

4 1/2 Great Stars!

This was a good historical romance. It was entertaining, especially the last half of the book. Little Malcolm was cute.

Terrible Reader

This book was very good, but the fact that the narrator was so horrible, I found the book tedious.

Sweet but longer than needed to be

Sweet story but much too long to get to the point. Will try one more by this author before I decide if it just this story or all of them.