Review: Highlander Redeemed by Laurin Wittig

Highlander Redeemed
(Guardians of the Targe, #3)
By: Laurin Wittig
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Published: May 12, 2015
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating:

Scotia MacAlpin may be only eighteen years old, but she’s no stranger to trouble. Her latest incident—which resulted in a death and forced her clan into battle—has made her an outcast among her exiled people. Scotia is tired of being ignored and overshadowed by her sister, a gifted Guardian of the Targe, and she’s become hell-bent on destroying the army out to capture the ancient Highland relic for their English king.

Duncan of Dunlairig has looked out for Scotia since she started to walk. She was as restless and reckless then as she is now—only the stakes have become higher and more perilous. While the rest of Clan MacAlpin ostracizes her, Duncan secretly helps Scotia become the warrior she yearns to be. But the real test of her skills may come when he needs her help—and her long-forgotten heart—in this thrilling and romantic Guardians of the Targe tale.

Scotia is one of those teens who is always finding herself in trouble, mainly because she doesn’t listen to instructions. Her actions of not listening has already caused one person to be killed on her account. At this point, her clan has pretty much turned their back on her and treat her like a child. Duncan is tasked with keeping an eye on her but soon he finds a better way to keep Scotia close. He agrees to train her to be a warrior in exchange that when the time comes to fight the English, she will fight with the other warriors if she’s ready.

Highland Redeemed is the third and final book in the Guardians of the Targe but it can also be read as a stand-alone. I have not read the previous two books but I had no problem catching up to the story. Now I’m sure that this book would have been more enjoyable had I read the previous two because it seems like we’d get more information about the Guardians of the Targe, and what the targe actually is, as well as reading about how unmanageable Scotia is. However, the author catches us up to what’s been going on and I didn’t really feel like I was missing too much.

I really liked that this series seems to focus on the strength and power of women. The guardians are all women. They are the most powerful of the clan. They are protected before others and are the clan’s biggest weapon against enemies because they can control the targe and use it’s power. Usually it’s the men who are revered and all powerful warriors but that is not the case with this series.

Scotia was a hard character to relate to though. The author didn’t make her appear to be a troublesome 18 year old, she actually sounded more like a troublesome toddler. Not only did she disobey orders but she was unruly, scheming, and couldn’t take responsibility for her actions. She could not see that her insubordinate ways were causing others to be put in unnecessary harms way. Which ultimately lead to a young man’s death when he followed her into a enemy territory to keep her safe. However, she refuses to see that as her fault. She figures that he didn’t have to follow her and his following was of his own doing, it had nothing to do with her. She didn’t ask him to follow her and she didn’t pull the knife and kill him, that was the English man’s doing. Yeah, Scotia was a hard character to feel sympathetic to. I understand this is a coming of age, self-growth story for Scotia but I felt like there was no gradual change with her. She just went from being obnoxious and set in her ways to being all zen-like and mature.

This seems like a great storyline between the three books. One of the previous main characters was apparently a spy for the English who decided to switch sides and become the clan’s chief. Even though I know how the whole story ends, I think I will go back and read the first two books.

“I ken she is your wayward lassie, Kenneth, but she has always been his. It just took far longer than it should have for the two of them to realize their fate. A wedding is the only way to make sure she remains his trouble for as long as they live.”