Review – Heather McCollum

I have fallen into a hole filled with Scottish Romance novels.

I’ve never been a big romance reader, but my audiobook app popped up with one of Heather McCollum’s Romance books as a suggestions, and I gave it a try.

My first book, taken completely out of order, was The Rogue of Islay Isle, and it’s the perfect mix of fun, steamy and entertainment. That book sucked me into a deep hole, and I’m now on my fourth (okay so it was four when I started writing this blog post, but it might be like ninth by now and I’m soon running out of them, cry) audiobook. I didn’t realize at first that there were several series, but you can easily read them / listen to them out of order and not be confused, though to get the most out of them I do recommend listening to them in order as a lot of the characters pop up in the different books.

I do have to be careful though, about where I listen to them, because I sometime break out in that surprised snorting laugh, that comes with real humour. She really got a way with describing things, and the narrator Timothy Campbell (who is bloody brilliant, and if I ever had to have an audiobook made, I’d wish for him to do it) only makes it better. Since the first book, where one of the warriors got a bit of trouble with wearing a kilt and being highly aroused, I can’t think about kilt wearing men, without imagining it tented in the front.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a completely love/love relationship I got going. There is definitely a bit of hate too, but most of it comes down to personal preferences and isn’t much about the books or the skills of the writing.

There are times were the bonnie lasses are a bit too docile for my taste (despite a lot of them being very feisty) and a few times it’s made me feel like throwing my phone away (something that would be highly stupid). And at few of the sex scenes were more silly than hot, but to be honest, real sex is sometimes silly.

But, despite me laughing too much, and sometimes wanting to throw my phone away, the author seems to have a wide knowledge of all things old Scottish, and manage to paint a world that’s both beautiful and harsh.

She has a whole slew of series going, and as far as I can figure out only a few of them are finished, but a lot of them tie into each other.

So far she got these series going:

• Highland Isles (4 books so far)
• The Campbells Series (4 books so far)
• Brothers of Wolf Isle (2 books so far)
• Sons of Sinclair (3 books so far)
• Highland Hearts (5 books so far)

Highland hearts is different from the other series, as they feature actual magic and supernatural elements.

My favourite series is the Sons of Sinclair, and I can’t wait for book three to be made into an audiobook, and even less for book four to come out. I really want to hear Bás’ story – I mean being name death gotta impact your world view.

So, if you like strong Scottish warriors and feisty lasses, I can only recommend you give these books a read/listen.

You can read more about Heather McCollum and her books HERE

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