The Taming of Malcolm Grant by Paula Quinn

AN ALLURING LASS

 

Emmaline Grey spends her days with her beloved dog, dreaming of the sea-until a brawling Highlander shatters her quiet life to pieces. Though her blindness prevents her from seeing his face, his voice is a warm blend of velvet and silk, and his rakehell ways unmistakable. Risking the wrath of a rival clan as she nurses him back to health, Emma soon realizes the real danger is the magnetic pull she feels to this half-naked Scot recovering in her bed.

 

A RECKLESS ROGUE

 

With his rugged handsomeness and wicked charm, Malcolm Grant wants nothing more out of life than whisky, women, and the occasional war. The only lass he's ever trusted left him with more scars than a battlefield. Yet now at the mercy of this sweet stranger, Malcolm can barely resist the gentle hands that make him feverish with desire-until Emma, the one he will never have, is the only woman he wants . . .

 

Title: The Taming of Malcolm Grant | Series: The MacGregors: Highland Heirs #5 | Author: Paula Quinn | Publisher: Forever | Release Date: 9/2 | Genre: | Source: | Rating: 3.4 for the suspense aspect 4 for the characters/romance

I’m always giddy when a new Paula Quinn book arrives. It always promises to deliver handsome Highlanders and strong heroines and The Taming of Malcolm Grant was no exception.

 

When Malcolm Grant and his brother are injured in a fight at her brother’s brothel, Emma Grey, a skilled healer, is willingly to risk war with a rival clan to save them. Although she’s blind, Emma can see right through the façade the rugged Highlander is putting on and soon she finds herself falling for Malcolm.

 

Malcolm Grant never intended to get into a fight at the brothel he and his brother were visiting. Now he’s brought danger to his friends door but he’s not about to leave the charming healer who nursed him and his brother back to health without protection. Malcolm has promised Emma’s brother he would leave her alone, yet he can’t seem to get her out of his mind. He knows it’s not love, because love has eluded him, although there is no denying that something is happening between them. When danger threatens Emma, he will stop at nothing to bring her back to him.

 

Malcolm was definitely a rugged, warring Highlander who earned his reputation as a rogue. But he’s changed. He’s no longer bouncing from one lass’s bed to another but he’s also become resigned to the fact love’s not going to happen for him. So when he meets Emma, he feels something’s different about her but he’s not sure what it is.

 

Emma may be blind, but she’s not letting her blindness make her weak and I loved that she was ready and willing to stand up against the threats around her. She definitely has moxie. She’s also in an interesting situation. She’s just reconnected with her brother who abandoned her as a child and she’s now living in the brothel that he owns. Until the Grants arrived, her brother was content to keep her hidden away.

 

Emma and Malcolm was such an interesting pair and I loved them together. And I loved their witty banter. I also loved that Malcolm never saw Emma’s blindness as a limitation and, on more than one occasion, he stood up to her brother about the way he was hiding her away because of her blindness. While they had instant chemistry right from the start, they didn’t have instant love. They had to work through a few issues first.

 

I’m really glad that they didn’t fall into bed as soon as they realized there was an attraction between them. They waited until they were comfortable around each other.  I also liked that Emma, even though she was a virgin, wasn’t naïve about sex. In fact, she was the one who initiated it.

 

I was moving along in the story, enjoying it’s yummy goodness, then things went a little pear-shaped when the suspense aspect of the book started coming in and I had to question a few things.

 

It kind of bugged me that Malcolm, a Highlander who is accused of murdering a member of a rival clan and now using a new last name and dressing like an Englishman to protect himself and his brother, would be so open and willing to trust some random man who just arrived at the brothel. Emma, who was worried about being accused of being a witch throughout the first half of the book, also seemed to lose her fear and trust this newcomer. I know it was tantamount to the plot, but still a little suspicion or distrust should have been thrown in to give it a true-to-life feel.

 

There were also a few details that were brought up then glossed over, like who drugged Malcolm. Seriously, if someone drugged me, I would be a little suspicious of everybody. Rather than using his drugging as something to spur on the suspense, it was used as a catalyst for conflict between Malcolm and Emma then sort of swept under the rung.

 

While I had a feeling who one of the villains was going to be, I was a little surprised at why the baddie wanted Emma. The outcome was a little surprising as well.

 

With Paula Quinn’s books, you know you’re going to get to see characters from the previous books come to life in the next, so I was over the moon when I learned that the next book was going to be Cailean’s story because I loved him in this book.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It had amazing characters and while a few details of the suspense aspect of the plot could have been ironed out a bit more, the book made for an entertaining read and left me itching to read Cailean’s story.

The MacGregors: Highland Heirs Series

The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell #1

The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd #2

The Sweet Surrender of Janet Buchanan #3

The Scandalous Secret of Abigail MacGregor #4

The Taming of Malcolm Grant #5

A Highlander's Christmas Kiss #6

The Scot's Bride #7

Laird of the Black Isle #8

Highlander Ever After #9